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| ===Vowels=== | | ===Vowels=== |
| Ancient Knench retained Proto-Canaanite vowel length and developed overlong vowels. It had the chain shift ''ā'' > ''ō'' > ''ů'', similar to our timeline's Punic, and developed a new ''ā'' from compensatory lengthening. | | Ancient Knench retained Proto-Canaanite vowel length and developed overlong vowels. It had the chain shift ''ā'' > ''ō'' > ''ů'', similar to our timeline's Punic, and developed a new ''ā'' from compensatory lengthening. |
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| '''a e i u ā ē ī ō ū ê î ô û''' /a ɛ~e ɪ~ɨ ʊ~o aː ɛː iː ɔː uː ɛːː iːː ɔːː uːː/
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| Minimal pairs and triples for overlong vowels in Ancient Knench:
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| * ''malkō'' 'a queen', ''malkô'' 'her king'
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| * ''sufrī'' 'count! (f.sg.)', ''sufrî'' 'literary, written'
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| * ''harbi!'' 'do something a lot! (m.sg.)' ''harbī!'' 'ibid., f.sg.' ''harbî'' 'numerous'
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| * ''dammim'' 'bleed!', ''dammīm'' 'bloodshed', ''dammîm'' 'bloody, of or like blood (masculine plural)'
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| * ''bētū'' 'his house', ''bētû'' 'his houses'
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| * ''rū3ē'' 'the evils of', ''rū3ê'' 'the friends of'
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| Many instances of long and overlong vowels resulted from dropped aleph and he and instances of lost gemination in grammatical affixes. For example: ''bû'' 'come! (m.sg.)' (from *būʔ < *buʔ, Tiberian Hebrew /bo:/)
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| ===Prosody=== | | ===Prosody=== |