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case of the pronouns. If the pronoun = = = = ‘1PL.EXCL’ is the subject of a relative clause, the
glottal stop is not attested:
(8) =( =( = = = =
→ [=(U] 1 , not *[=(=]
REL 1PL.EXCL
‘that we (excl.)’
This implies that the lexical entry for the word ‘1PL.EXCL’ is = rather than = =. = = On the
other hand, the glottal stop is obligatory in most other cases; for example >=(= >=(= >=(= >=(= A A A A ‘I
greet you (pl.)’ must be pronounced [ >=(= A], not *[ >=(= A]. In addition, evidence
from verbal word patterns discussed in Section 6.2 also suggests that the initial glottal
stop is epenthetic. There, treating the glottal stop in inflected verbs as epenthetic fills in
gaps within the set of attested word patterns.
The status of h as a phoneme in Mono is debatable. It is rare in both discourse and
in the lexicon. It occurs in sixteen words in my corpus, most of which are ideophones, but
it does occur in other grammatical categories as well, as shown in (9). I consider it to be a
marginal phoneme.
(9) Words containing D
a. nouns
A(DA(H( A(DA(H( A(DA(H( A(DA(H( ‘wax’
DA(HA(=( DA(HA(=( DA(HA(=( DA(HA(=( ‘gourd rattle, lock’
D(=( D(=( D(=( D(=( ‘whisper’
b. verbs
DAH DAH DAH DAH FH FH FH FH ‘hatch’
c. adverbs (all ideophones)
D=(= D=(= D=(= D=(= ‘empty-handed’
D=C= D=C= D=C= ‘hard, wide’
D= D= D= D= ‘brightly’
D=( D=( D=( D=( ‘quickly, without reflecting’
D=H=( D=H=( ‘giant, high’
DA(HA( DA(HA( ‘sharp’
DHC DHC DHC DHC ‘hidden’
DM DM = = = = ‘hot’
F=D= F=D= F=D= F=D= ‘wide open’
CD(H( CD(H( CD(H( CD(H( ‘narrow, hollow’
1 The symbol [U] is the IPA tone letter for a high-falling tone.
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