Kuki-Thaadow Segmental Phonology - Linguistics

falling’. Although vowel length on CVV vs. CV syllables is predictable in most cases, there are
contrasts such as the following on the surface:
with vowel shortening: ká mù hlón ! ê ‘we (excl, dual) see him/her/it’
wihtout vowel shortening: ká mùu hlón ! á hìi êe
Both of these sentences involve the verb mùu ‘see’ and are in most respects synonymous (see
§XX).
The preposed bimorphemic demonstratives consist of a CV proclitic followed by a derived
CV syllable tsíe → tsye, while the postposed monomorphemic demonstratives consist of one CV
syllable each:
preposed postposed
near speaker hítsye hí ‘this’
near hearer tsútsye tsú ‘that’
far from both khútsye khú ‘that’
While the latter may be considered clitics, they are optionally long (híi, tsúu, khúu) when
occurring medially in a sentence: sáa ! hí (~ ! híi) á phà pòo êe ‘this meat is not good’. The
postverbal morpheme ná, which is both a nominalizer and instrumental/locative marker, has been
found to occur only with a short vowel before pause: á èn ná ‘greenness’, á nùy ná ‘what he
laughs with, where he laughs’ (cf. §XX). This morpheme is involved in several nominalizations,
e.g. lùpná ‘bed’ (lit. place to lie down), thìl zúoq na&
‘market’ (lit. place to sell things), thìiná
‘death’ (lit. manner of dying), pà tsàn nâ ‘success’ (lit. honorable distinction).
2.1.2. Smooth syllables.
Syllables are termed “smooth” which either have a long vowel (CVV) or end in a sonorant
consonant (D) preceded by either a long or short vowel (CVD: hlàa ‘wing’, hlàm ‘untie’, hlààm
‘prune (branch)’. Vowels in lexical entries are redundantly long, as are the two diphthongs ie and
uo:
Cii tsìi ‘salt’ thi&i
‘die’
Cee bêe ‘bean’ nêe ‘eat’
Cuu mu&u
‘hawk’ gûu ‘steal’
Coo tôo ‘bottom, end’ tsôo ‘buy’
Caa ngâa ‘fish’ zâa ‘hear, smell’
Cie lìe ‘shadow’ tsìe ‘go, walk’
Cuo khùo ‘foot, lower leg’ bûo ‘spill’
Note, however, that when diphthongs undergo the rule of vowel shortening (§XX) they are
written ye and wo: hítsyé tsápáng ! hí ‘this child’, khwò hòo ‘feet’ (cf. khùo ‘foot’).
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