Ka'mpang

Ka'mpang /kaʔmkam/ [kəʔmpə̃ŋ] is a language with only four phonemes, but extensive allophony with a wide variety of phones.

Phonology

Inventory

Phonemic

The phonemic inventory is very simple, but due to the allophony, it becomes more useful to interpret the phonemes as phonological operations rather than phonetic ranges. The articulator category describes a basic articulation, clusters of which produce simple allophony. The phonator category describes a phoneme that, in cluster allophony, changes the pronunciation of the articulator rather than adding a new element in a series. The phonator /ʔ/ can modify /m/ and /k/, but not the vowel /a/.

The underlying form of the voiced articulator has been determined to be /m/ because it has only nasal and/or labial voiced allophones, as well as causing only nasalization or labialization in other phonemes. The underlying form of the voiceless articulator has been determined to be /k/ because it has only oral stop and/or velar voiceless allophones, with [k] being the most common, as well as causing only raising or velarization in other phonemes. The underlying form of the phonator has been determined to be /ʔ/ because that is its only phonetic realization outside of clusters, and it does not result in allophony outside of its modification of a consonant. The underlying form of the vowel has been determined to be /a/ because [a] is its realization in the absence of other phonemes and in the strict presence of the phonator.

		Articulator	Phonator
Consonant	Voiced	m	ʔ
	Voiceless	k
Vowel		a

Phonetic

The phonetic inventory is much more useful in understanding the pronunciation of the language.

Consonants

		Labial	(Pre-)alveolar		Palatal	Velar		Uvular	Glottal
			Plain	Labial		Plain	Labial
Nasal		m	n			ŋ
Plosive		p	t d	ⁿ͡ᵐt͡p		k ɡ	ᵑ͡ᵐk͡p		ʔ
Glottalic		ɓ		ɗ͡ɓ		kʼ	ɠ͡ɓ
Click	Labialized	k͡ʘʷ	k͡ǀʷ
	Glottalized	k͡ʘˀ	k͡ǀˀ
Fricative		v	s		ç	x		χ	h
Glide					j		w

Vowels

		Front		Central			Back
				Unround		Round
		Oral	Nasal	Oral	Nasal		Oral	Nasal
Close		i		ɨ		ʉ	u
Mid	Short	e	ẽ	ə	ə̃	ɵ	o	õ
	Long	eː	ẽː	əː	ə̃ː		oː	õː
Open	Short			a	ã
	Long			aː	ãː

Romanization

There is a romanization representing only the phonemes, but it is rarely used. /m k ʔ a/ is ⟨m k ' a⟩.

A phonetic romanization is more common for Ka'mpang. Nasalization is not written in the phonetic romanization since it can easily be predicted to occur before any nasal.

Allophone	Romanization	Allophone	Romanization
m	m	i	i
p	p	e	e
ɓ	b	ẽ
k͡ʘʷ	fw	eː	ē
k͡ʘˀ	f	ẽː
v	v	ɨ	î
n	n	ə	a
t	t	ə̃
d	d	əː	ā
k͡ǀʷ	cw	ə̃ː
k͡ǀˀ	c	a	â
s	s	ã
ⁿ͡ᵐt͡p	np	aː	á
ɗ͡ɓ	db	ãː
ç	ch	ʉ	û
j	y	ɵ	ô
ŋ	ng	u	u
k	k	o	o
ɡ	g	õ
kʼ	k'	oː	ō
x	x	õː
ᵑ͡ᵐk͡p	kp
ɠ͡ɓ	gb
w	w
χ	q
ʔ	'
h	h

Allophony

The allophony rules phonemes must go through to produce the phonetic pronunciation are as follows:

T: [n t tʼ d ⁿ͡ᵐt͡p ɗ͡ɓ k͡ǀ k͡ǀˀ]

K: [ŋ k kʼ ɡ ᵑ͡ᵐk͡p ɠ͡ɓ k͡ʘ k͡ʘˀ]

1. ka ma → kə mo
2. km ʔm → kw ɓ / %_
3. mk ʔk → mp ɡ / %_
4. kʔ mʔ → kʼ v / %_
5. a ə o → ã ə̃ õ / _m
6. a ə o → ɵ ʉ u / _{ɓ, v}
7. a ə o → ə ɨ u / _{k, ɡ, k’}
8. m → ŋ / ã_{V,#}
9. kw kʼ ɓ v → k͡ʘʷ k͡ʘˀ b w / m_
10. kmp kɓ → ᵑ͡ᵐk͡p ɠ͡ɓ
11. m → N[+POA1] / _C[+POA1 -glottal -palatal]
12. K → T / %_(C)V(V)K(C)V(V)(%)_
13. K → T / %_(C)V(V)K%
14. ɡ → j / C_
15. ɨ ə → i e / {T[-click], j}_[±any]
16. Va Vã → Vː Ṽː
17. t k → s x / _#
18. x → ç / {i, e}[±any]_
19. x → χ / {u, o}[±any]_
20. ʔː ʔːː > h ʔh

Phonotactics

The syllable structure of the phonemes is (C)(C)V(C).

All the possible phonemic syllables are:

a ma ka 'a mma mka m'a kma kka k'a 'ma 'ka ''a am mam kam 'am mmam mkam m'am kmam kkam k'am 'mam 'kam ''am ak mak kak 'ak mmak mkak m'ak kmak kkak k'ak 'mak 'kak ''ak a' ma' ka' 'a' mma' mka' m'a' kma' kka' k'a' 'ma' 'ka' ''a'

These corresponding phonetic syllables are:

â mo ka 'â mmo mpa vâ kwo kka k'â bo ga hâ âng mong kang 'âng mmong mpang m'âng kwom kkang k'âng bong gang hâng ax muq kîx 'ax mmuq mpîx m'ax kwuq kkîx k'ax buq gîx hax â' mo' ka' 'â' mmo' mpa' vâ' kwo' kka' k'â' bo' ga' hâ'