Pangali: Difference between revisions

= Phonology and Orthography =

In spite of its status as a language isolate, the phonological system of Pangali isn't terribly special in comparison to its neighbors in the Philippines or Australia. A simple syllable structure, few (phonemic) vowels, a fair amount of consonants, and stable vowel quality make this language both interesting and soundly (''ha, pun!'') mundane all at the same time.

Pangali's consonant inventory weighs in at a respectable 21 phonemic consonants. Some unique features that may be noted are the presence of phonemic prenasalized stops and phonemic consonant length amongst the nasals, fricatives, and lateral approximant.

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The Pangalu have no writing system and due to cultural reasons have declined offers to be taught the Romanization provided by academics. Despite this, field linguists who have begun the process of recording the language have developed a relatively Anglo-centric Romanization system, which is presented below in the following tables and shall be used throughout this article.

==== Consonants ====

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Nonprenasalized and nongeminated consonants that occur intervocalically are voiced if the preceding syllable is unstressed:

*''upaki'' /upaki/ = [u.baˈki]

** ''ngutassa'' /ŋutasːa/ = [ˈŋu.taˌsːa], not *[ˈŋu.taˌzːa]

Vowels preceding /ʔ/ are centralized. /a/ is both centralized and raised to [ɐ]:

*''piha'' /piʔa/ = [pɨˈʔa]

/i/ and /u/ are lowered to [ɛ] and [ɔ], respectively, when preceding nasals and prenasalized consonants:

*''hunga'' /ʔuŋa/ = [ˈʔɔ. ŋa]

/w/ fortifies to [g^w] in stressed onset positions preceding /u/ and to [v] intervocalically when the preceding syllable is unstressed:

**''hawi'' /ʔawi/ = [ˈʔa.wi], not *[ˈʔa.vi]

/a/ is reduced to /ə/ in word final syllables if the preceding syllable is unstressed:

**''ngkila'' /^ŋkila/ = [ˈ^ŋkila], not *[^ˈŋkilə]

Pangali's phonotactics are fairly simple, not unlike that of Tagalog, with a syllable structure of (C)V.  

Word initial syllables may occur with either a null onset or with any single consonant. Word internal syllables may only occur with single consonant onsets.

The nucleus of a syllable requires a vowel and is restricted to the single vowel.

Codas are forbidden, therefore all syllables are open.

=== Epenthesis ===

**/satu/ + /ŋa^mpinasa/ = [saˈtu ˈŋa^mpi.na.zə]

Due to the nature of this syllable structure non-conforming loanwords are often heavily altered; although it should be noted that calques are extremely more common in favor of familiarity.

Note the insertion of /u/ to break apart clusters and avoid final consonants in the following example.