Bis Burunko

Bis Burunko (/bɨs bʉˈɾʉnkɔ/, literally 'the Burungian language'), also known as Burunko or Burungian, is a language isolate spoken on the island of Burung in the north Atlantic.

Phonology and Orthography

Bis Burunko has a relatively simple phonology with 21 consonants, 5 pure vowels and 6 true diphthongs. The orthography is almost entirely regular and predictable, based on a 1:1 spelling to pronunciation system.

Consonants

	Bilabial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m /m/	n /n/		ng /ŋ/
Plosive	p /p/ b /b/	t /t/ d /d/		k /k/ g /g/
Sibilant		s /s/	sh /ɕ/ z /ʑ/
Fricative	f /ɸ/		x /ç/		h /h/
Affricate			ch /t͡ɕ/ j /d͡ʑ/
Flap or tap		r /ɾ/
Approximant	w, u /w/		y /j/
Lateral app.		l /l/

Notes:

• n is realised as /ŋ/ before g, k, ng
• medial h is often simply hiatus between vowels
• /w/ is spelled u immediately after a consonant but w elsewhere
• all consonants except fricatives and glides (w, y) may be doubled word-internally; note the trigraphs ssh, cch, nng

For consonant clusters, see Phonotactics below.

Vowels

	Front	Back
Close	i /ɨ/	u /ʉ/
Open-mid	e /ɛ/	o /ɔ/
Open	a /a/

Vowels are considered to be short in all environments but may occur consecutively as in biitosh 'gender neutral person' /bɨ:'tɔɕ/.

Note: word-initial sequences of i + i and u + uu are written yi-, wu-.

Diphthongs

There are six diphthongs proper: ai /aɨ/, ei /ɛɨ/, oi /ɔɨ/, au /aʉ/, eu /ɛʉ/ and ou /ɔʉ/, which may be considered sequences of vowels in measuring syllables. In addition, any vowel is permitted to occur following the 'glides' /w/ or /j/.

Phonotactics

Bis Burunko has a relatively restrictive syllabic structure, with a maximal form CGVVC, in which C represents a consonant, G a glide and V a vowel or part of a diphthong. Of these, only the central vowel is essential but there are also restrictions on the other elements. The table below shows the rules governing each position in the syllable:

C1	G	V1	V2	C2
optional only b, g, d, z, f, j, h, x, l, n, ng or m word-initially any consonant word-medially	optional only y or w/u	mandatory any vowel	optional only i, u or the preceding vowel repeated	optional only s, sh, ng or z word-finally only n or m before a consonant, except in the case of geminates

The word-final consonants s, sh, ng and z are not permitted to occur before another consonant, so undergo changes in compounds or when consonant-initial endings are added:

• -s is lost, the preceding vowel is doubled and a following voiced plosive or j is devoiced:

gis 'man' + -do (collective) = giito 'group, band'

• -sh becomes -i-, forming a diphthong with the preceding vowel, and a following voiced plosive is devoiced:

sush 'empty' + bupung 'person' = suipupung 'vain person'

arash 'night' + -te (time) = araite 'night-time'

• -ng becomes -m before p, b, f and n before any other consonant:

gyong 'man' + -bu (collective) = gyombu 'warrior class'

yong 'foot' + -ko (adjectival) = yonko 'sock'

• -z is lost and causes a following consonant to double (except f, x, h):

az 'male' + -chi (adjectival) = acchi 'masculine'

haz 'old' + kora 'bitch' = hakkora 'hag'

In some cases a word ending in a vowel + -i will alter to vowel + -u when a suffix or the second element of a compound begins with a consonant:

Word-final vowels may also be altered or lost when they come into contact with initial vowels in compounds or endings.