The

phonology Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...

of the

Zuni language Zuni (also formerly Zuñi, endonym ''Shiwiʼma'') is a language of the Zuni people, indigenous to western New Mexico and eastern Arizona in the United States. It is spoken by around 9,500 people, especially in the vicinity of Zuni Pueblo, New M ...

as spoken in the southwestern United States is described here. Phonology is a branch of

linguistics Linguistics is the science, scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure ...

that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds (or constituent parts of signs, in sign languages).

Consonants

The 16 consonants of Zuni: * is dental; are alveolar; is

apical Apical means "pertaining to an apex". It may refer to: *Apical ancestor, refers to the last common ancestor of an entire group, such as a species (biology) or a clan (anthropology) *Apical (anatomy), an anatomical term of location for features loc ...

. * are phonetically aspirated, , while are unaspirated. * A sequence of a stop or affricate and a glottal stop is phonetically realized as an

ejective In phonetics, ejective consonants are usually voiceless consonants that are pronounced with a glottalic egressive airstream. In the phonology of a particular language, ejectives may contrast with aspirated, voiced and tenuis consonants. Some ...

. This pronunciation occurs within words and across word boundaries: ('they two put it in') as . Some analyses have proposed that the sequences be considered single ejective consonant phonemes based on their

phonotactic Phonotactics (from Ancient Greek "voice, sound" and "having to do with arranging") is a branch of phonology that deals with restrictions in a language on the permissible combinations of phonemes. Phonotactics defines permissible syllable struc ...

properties. * and contrast only before ; before the contrast is neutralized to . This neutralization of contrast also applies to the sequences . * are

palatal The palate () is the roof of the mouth in humans and other mammals. It separates the oral cavity from the nasal cavity. A similar structure is found in crocodilians, but in most other tetrapods, the oral and nasal cavities are not truly separ ...

before the vowels , but are velar elsewhere. Since is realized as an ejective before a glottal stop, the sequences are phonetically . * In a sequence of a stop or affricate plus another consonant (except ), the stop/affricate has

no audible release A stop with no audible release, also known as an unreleased stop or an applosive, is a stop consonant with no release burst: no audible indication of the end of its occlusion (hold). In the International Phonetic Alphabet, lack of an audible rele ...

. That is, ('elbow') is phonetically and not . * All Zuni consonants occur with contrastive

duration Duration may refer to: * The amount of time elapsed between two events * Duration (music) – an amount of time or a particular time interval, often cited as one of the fundamental aspects of music * Duration (philosophy) – a theory of time and ...

: short or long. In Stanley Newman's analysis, the phonetically long consonants are

geminate In phonetics and phonology, gemination (), or consonant lengthening (from Latin 'doubling', itself from '' gemini'' 'twins'), is an articulation of a consonant for a longer period of time than that of a singleton consonant. It is distinct from ...

s (that is, a sequence of two identical consonants) . analyze length as a separate

phoneme In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language. For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-wes ...

. Geminate affricates are realized with a long closure period and a fricative release, e.g. as , as . * is phonetically a voiceless vowel , except when following a consonant in which case it is a velar fricative : ('pick it up!') is phonetically . * The sonorants (as well as vowels, see below) are optionally

devoiced Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds (usually consonants). Speech sounds can be described as either voiceless (otherwise known as ''unvoiced'') or voiced. The term, however, is used to refer ...

when followed by . The devoicing occurs within words and across word boundaries. This is especially common when also preceded by a voiceless consonant (in addition to the following ): ('thus perhaps') pronounced . * is optionally realized as a phonetic velar before . * There is a marginal contrast between palatal and velar before the low vowel . The usual pronunciation of before is palatal . However, in some words — all of which are probably

loanword A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because t ...

s — a velar occurs before (notably in the very common word, ('non-Mormon Anglo-American'), which is phonetically and not ). This has led to an analysis of Zuni having two

dorsal Dorsal (from Latin ''dorsum'' ‘back’) may refer to: * Dorsal (anatomy), an anatomical term of location referring to the back or upper side of an organism or parts of an organism * Dorsal, positioned on top of an aircraft's fuselage * Dorsal c ...

phonemes, and , by some linguists. A discussion of the disagreement between analyses and range of social variation of certain forms are discussed in .

Vowels

* High are typically , but lowered variants may be heard in unstressed syllables. * Mid are typically , but in unstressed syllables raised variants occur before glides with matching backness: before , before . * Low central , unlike the other vowels, is not reported to have

allophonic In phonology, an allophone (; from the Greek , , 'other' and , , 'voice, sound') is a set of multiple possible spoken soundsor '' phones''or signs used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language. For example, in English, (as in '' ...

variation by Newman. However , reports its realization as fronted when it follows (phonetically: ). * All vowels occur with contrastive

: short or long. In Newman's analysis, the phonetically long vowels are analyzed as distinct phonemes . analyzes length as a separate

. * Long are typically , but close variants can occur in fast speech. * The other long vowels do not have variants with differing vowel quality. * Short vowels are optionally voiceless when at the end of an

utterance In spoken language analysis, an utterance is a continuous piece of speech, often beginning and ending with a clear pause. In the case of oral languages, it is generally, but not always, bounded by silence. Utterances do not exist in written lang ...

, e.g. the word in ('after lying down then he slept') may be pronounced either or . Additionally, a short vowel or a sequence of a short vowel and glottal stop that occurs at the end of a word with more than one syllable is deleted when followed by a word that starts with (see also the devoicing of sonorant consonants above), e.g. ('they two are the same') as (cf. 'the two of them ran' where the final of is not deleted), and ('they two are the same') as (cf. 'the two of them ran' where the final of is not deleted).

Syllable and phonotactics

Zuni syllables have the following specification: : C₁(C₂)V(ː)(C₃)(C₄) That is, all syllables must start with a consonant in the syllable onset. The onset may optionally have two consonants. The syllable coda is optional and may consist of a single consonant or two consonants. There are restrictions on the combinations with long vowels, which are listed below. ''Onset''. When the onset is a single consonant (i.e., CV(ː), CV(ː)C, or CV(ː)CC), C₁ may be any consonant. When the onset is a two consonant cluster (i.e., CCV(ː), CCV(ː)C, or CCV(ː)CC), C₁ may only be , and C₂ may only be . These onset clusters can occur word-initially. ''Nucleus''. Any vowel of either length may be the syllable nucleus when open (i.e., has no coda: CV(ː) or CCV(ː)) or with a single consonant coda (i.e., CV(ː)C or CCV(ː)C). When the coda consists of two consonant cluster, the nucleus may be any short vowel; however, long vowels only occur with coda consisting of . ''Coda''. A single coda C₃ may be any consonant. When the coda is a two consonant cluster (i.e., CV(ː)CC or CCV(ː)CC), any combination of consonants may occur with the following exception: if C₃ is , then C₄ can only be either or an identical consonant (C₃ = C₄). ''Non-

tautosyllabic Two or more segments are tautosyllabic (with each other) if they occur in the same syllable. For instance, the English word "cat", , is monosyllabic and so its three phonemes , and are tautosyllabic. They can also be described as sharing a 't ...

combinations''. Inside words, a short vowel plus a two consonant coda (i.e., CVCC or CCVCC) may only be followed by a syllable with a onset. Likewise, a long vowel plus a single consonant coda (i.e., CVːC or CCVːC) may only be followed by a onset. An open syllable (i.e., CV(ː) or CCV(ː)) and a short vowel plus a single consonant coda (i.e., CVC or CCVC) may be followed by a syllable with any possible onset.

Prosody

At the word level, the first syllable of lexical words receive

stress Stress may refer to: Science and medicine * Stress (biology), an organism's response to a stressor such as an environmental condition * Stress (linguistics), relative emphasis or prominence given to a syllable in a word, or to a word in a phrase ...

. Although the acoustic correlates of stress are not fully described in Newman's grammar, at least vowel length is a significant correlate: short vowels are lengthened under syllable-initial stress. Stressed long vowels do not appear to have perceptible variation in duration. Stress at the phrase level was not fully studied by Newman, and, therefore, its details are not well known. Pronouns and certain particles consisting of a single syllable are unstressed when inside clauses, but are stressed at the beginning of phrases.

Notes

Bibliography