West Carpathian: Difference between revisions

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==Phonology==
==Phonology==
===Vowels===
There are six vowels, five of which contrast in length. They are pronounced more or less the same in every dialect of West Carpathian (except for Prešov dialects, which lack /æ/. The quality of long vowels mostly overlaps with the quality of short vowels, except long ones are pronounced as more tense, while short vowels are slightly centralized. The only exception is ā which is fronted noticeably comparing to its short counterpart. This feature of the standard language is not widespread among all the dialects, but only in Šilli. Vowel length itself is hard to notice for a non-native speaker, mostly due to abundance of long vowels.
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|-
!rowspan="2"|
!colspan="2"| Front
!colspan="2"| Back
|-
!Short
!Long
!Short
!Long
|-
! Close
| i [i]
| ī [iː]
| u [u]
| ū [uː]
|-
! Mid
| e [e]
| ē [eː]
| o [o]
| ō [oː]
|-
! Open
| ä [æ]
|
| a [ɑ]
| ā [aː]
|}
*The mid vowels are phonetically mid [e̞, ø̞, o̞].
*The unrounded open vowel transcribed in IPA with /ɑ/ has been described as open central [ɑ̈].
West Carpathian still preserves a complete vowel harmony for ä/a, which means these sounds can not be in the same native word. As for other vowels, only residual harmony is present, which is completely different from Proto-Carpathian, in which every vowel had a contrasting counterpart.
West Carpathian has a rich system of diphthongs. There are seven phonemic and eleven non-phonemic diphthongs (eighteen in total); like simple vowels, diphthongs do not have significant allophony, but they have a great variety in pronunciation in different dialects. They are treated as long vowels.
{|
|
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|-
!rowspan="7"| Phonemic diphthongs
|-
!
! i
! u
! e
! o
! ä
! a
|-
! i
|
|
| ie
|
| iä
|
|-
! u
| ui
|
|
| uo
|
| ua
|-
! e
|
|
|
|
| eä
|
|-
! o
|
|
|
|
|
| oa
|}
|
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|-
!rowspan="7"| Non-phonemic diphthongs
|-
!
! i
! u
! e
! o
|-
! i
|
| (iu)*
|
|
|-
! e
| ei
| eu
|
| eo
|-
! o
| oi
| ou
| oe
|
|-
! ä
| äi
|
| äe
|
|-
! a
| ai
| au
|
| ao
|-
|}
|}
* iu appears only in words from Prešov dialects.
Phonemic diphthongs contrast with long vowels while inflecting nouns, pronouns, adjectives and verbs. Non-phonemic diphthongs historically are sequences of two vowels and with an exeption of äi and ai do not contrast with anything.
===Consonants===
The consonant system is different from such neighbouring languages, as West Carpathian lacks voiced/voiceless contrast, typical for Slavic languages and Hungarian. Instead it has an opposition of plain vs geminated consonants, which take part in a [[w:Consonant gradation|consonant gradation]] similar to some Uralic languages, for instance: ''koatta''-''kōtak'' ("branch"-"branches"). Almost all consonants (except for ť, h, v, j and r) have phonemic geminated forms. These are independent phonemes, but can occur only medially.
{| class="wikitable" style=text-align:center
!
! Labial
! Dental
! Alveolar
! Postalveolar/Palatal
! Velar
! Glottal
|-
! Nasal
| m
| n
|
| ň [ɲ]
| n (ŋ)<ref group=note>The short velar nasal is an allophone of /n/ before /k/, and the long velar nasal /ŋː/, sometimes written ''ng'', is the equivalent of /nk/ under weakening consonant gradation. It is not a part of the standard language and can be found oly in Ränci Carpathian.</ref>
|
|-
! Plosive
| p
| t [t̪]
|
| ť [c]
| k
|
|-
! Affricate
|
|
| c [t͡s]
| č [t͡ʃ~t͡ɕ]
|
|
|-
! Fricative
| f<ref group=note>Can be found only in loanwords and proper names. In Orava dialects both plain and geminated [f] can occure in native words.</ref>
|
| s
| š [ʃ~ɕ]
|
| h [h~ɦ] <ref group=note>Voiceless [h] appears before plosives, affricates and fricatives, while voiced [ɦ] appears elsewhere.</ref>
|-
! Approximant
| v [w]
| d [ð̞]<ref group=note>Most scholars claim this sound to be a voiced dental approximant [ð̞] but it is sometimes denoted as dental lateral approximant [l̪] distinct from alveolar [l] written "l".</ref>
|
| j
|
|
|-
! Trill
|
|
| r<ref group=note>Can be tapped [ɾ] in a fast speech, but trilled [r] is prefered.</ref>
|
|
|
|-
! Lateral Approximant
|
|
| l
| ľ [ʎ]
|
|
|}
{{reflist|group=note}}
Consonant clusters are not allowed word-intially in native words, and only two consonants are allowed together medially and finally, except for a very small ammount of words, like in ''tarste'' "a big bag". However, this rule is omitted in recent loanwords, like ''transporta'' "transport vehicle" or ''elektronika'' "electronics".
[[w:Palatalization|Palatalization]] is a Carpathian feature shared by its neighbouring languages. All palatal consonants, except for ť,w hich contrasts with j, can be either plain or geminated, for example ''vaľľa''-''vaľā'' ("freedom" in nominative and accusative cases respectively). Unlike other palatal consonants '''ť''' is a strong grade (and thus is often released as [cː] instead of plain [c]) Its weak grade is '''j''' ''kēťi''-''kēja'' "ball of thread" in nominative and accusative cases.
==Morphology==
==Morphology==
==Dialects==
==Dialects==
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