Last updated: 2019-11-04
SLIGHTLY COMPROMISED: conflation between /ɡ/ and /ɣ/
Background
Language Family: Arawakan / Maipuran / Eastern Maipuran
- Palikúr is spoken in Brazil and French Guiana.
Phonology
Consonants
- /f/, /v/, /l/, /ʒ/ and /z/ appear in loanwords (Launey 2003, 37).
- Launey (2003) and Launey (2001) specify Palikúr as having a “light consonant,” although the phonemic representation seems somewhat unclear (p. 35; p. 10). They describe it in terms of its realization, which ranges from lenited [ɡ] to [ʁ], but they also explicitly classify it as a velar fricative. For this reason, I have chosen to use /ɣ/.
- Although /ɡ/ undergoes lenition to [ɣ] word-medially, /ɣ/ is recognized as a separate phoneme.
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Place of Articulation
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Manner of Articulation
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Labial
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Alveolar
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Postalveolar
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Palatal
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Velar
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Glottal
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Stops
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p b
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t d
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k ɡ
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Fricatives
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s
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ʃ
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ɣ
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h
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Nasals
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m
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n
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Approximants
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w
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j
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Note: For phonemes that share a cell, those on the left are voiceless and those on the right are voiced.
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Vowels
- Nasal vowels are phonemic in Palikúr (Launey 2001, 6). They appear in syllable-final positions and are indicated by a following ⟨h⟩ (i.e. ⟨h⟩ indicates vowel nasalization word-finally or preceding consonants) (Launey 2003, 35).
- There are also a several oral and nasal diphthongs present in the language (Launey 2001, 6–7). The oral diphthongs are composed of a vowel followed by a glide and the nasal diphthongs are composed of a vowel followed by a glide and ⟨h⟩. Like the nasal vowels, these diphthongs are said to be present only in syllable-final positions (Launey 2003, 30).
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Front
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Central
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Back
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High
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i ĩ
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u ũ
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Mid
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e ẽ
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o õ
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Low
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a ã
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Note: Vowels on the left of each cell are oral and vowels on the right of each cell are nasal.
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Diphthongs
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Oral
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Nasal
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/aj/, /ej/, /ij/, /uj/, /aw/, /ew/, /iw/, /ow/, /uw/
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/ãj/, /ãw/, /ĩw/
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Alphabet
- Depending on the documentation, older sources tend to represent /ɣ/ as ⟨g⟩, whereas newer sources tend to represent it as ⟨r⟩ (Launey 2001, 10). Therefore, there is some conflation between /ɣ/ and /ɡ/, compromising the language. In the rule set, I have chosen to transcribe ⟨g⟩ to /ɡ/ and ⟨r⟩ to /ɣ/.
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Grapheme
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Phoneme
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Comment
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a
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/a/
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b
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/b/
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d
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/d/
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e
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/e/
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g
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/ɡ/; /ɣ/
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/ɡ/: default in the rule set
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h
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/h/; ∅
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∅: following vowels in syllable-final positions (indicates nasalization)
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i
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/i/
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k
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/k/
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m
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/m/
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n
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/n/
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o
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/o/
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p
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/p/
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r
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/ɣ/
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s
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/s/
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t
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/t/
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u
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/u/
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w
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/w/
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x
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/ʃ/
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y
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/j/
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Multigraph
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ah
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/ã/
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eh
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/ẽ/
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ih
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/ĩ/
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oh
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/õ/
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uh
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/ũ/
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ay
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/aj/
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ey
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/ej/
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iy
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/ij/
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uy
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/uj/
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aw
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/aw/
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ew
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/ew/
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iw
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/iw/
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ow
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/ow/
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uw
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/uw/
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ayh
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/ãj/
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awh
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/ãw/
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iwh
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/ĩw/
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Lenition Rules
- /p/ often spirantizes and becomes voiced word-medially (Launey 2003, 39).
- /p/ may become voiced word-medially following a nasal vowel (Launey 2003, 41).
- /ɡ/ often spirantizes to [ɣ] word-medially (ibid.).
- /ɡ/ may also be realized as [ŋ] in this position, but it is far more rare.
Misc. Rules
- /t/ and /d/ often palatalize preceding /i/ and /ĩ/ (Launey 2003, 37–38).
- Duplicate consonants (occurring word-initially) are realized separately (Launey 2001, 9). This is noted only for nasal-consonant sequences /nn/ and /mm/.
- It is implied that other nasal-consonant sequences (/nd/, /nt/, /mp/, /mb/, /mt/, and /ms/) are also interpreted in this way (i.e. with syllabic nasals) rather than as complex phonemes.
References
Launey, Michel. 2001. Éléments de Grammaire Palikur. Cayenne: IRD.
———. 2003. Awna Parikwaki: Introduction à La Langue Palikur de Guyane et de L’Amapá. Didactiques. Paris: IRD.