proto-southwestern-tai revised: a new reconstruction - seals 22

Ende Phonology 209
2.1.2.4 The /o/
The mid back round vowel /o/ shows contrast with other basic vowels and the schwa.
/o/ ~ [�] pota /pota/ ‘to disappear’ peté /p�te/ ‘to tie’
/o/ ~ /a/ tembo /t�mbo/ ‘body’ temba /t�mba/ ‘to wash’
2.1.2.5 The /a/
The back vowel /a/ contrasts with all other basic vowels. Within the root, /a/ contrasts with
the schwa. However, in the numeral clitic sa and the prepositional clitic pa ‘at’, there is
allophonic variation between /a/ and /�/. That is, most commonly the vowel is realized as a
schwa in these proclitics, but in careful pronunciation the vowel can be realized as the back
vowel /a/.
/a/ ~ [�] mata /mata/ ‘eyes’ meta /m�ta/ ‘unripe’
2.1.2.7 Phonetic features of word initial vowels
As discussed in §2.1.1.1., the absence of the glottal onsets affects the phonetic quality of
the vowel. More specifically, vowels without a glottal onset begin with a steady increase in
intensity, while the vowels with a glottal onset show a much more abrupt beginning and
starts at a much higher intensity. Other phonetic qualities of vowels that lack a glottal onset
are a longer duration accompanied by lower pitch and breathiness on the vowel. The
contrast between these two sets occurs between all of the basic vowels /i, e, a, o, u/. The
only vowel that does not show such a contrast is the schwa. Vowel initial words,
represented without a glottal stop, contrast with vowels that have a glottal onset, which are
represented with a preceding glottal stop in the right-hand column below.
/i/ ~ /Ɂi/ iwa /iwa/ ‘year’ 'iwa /Ɂiwa/ ‘not’
/e/ ~ /Ɂe/ éra /eɾa/ ‘wide’ 'éra /Ɂeɾa/ ‘children’s tool’
/a/ ~ /Ɂa/ arhé /aɹe/ ‘to fly’ 'arhé /Ɂaɹe/ ‘to ask’
/o/ ~ /Ɂo/ orho /oɹo/ ‘sorghum’ 'orho /Ɂoɹo/ ‘old, used’
/u/ ~ /Ɂu/ uma /uma/ ‘k.o. tree’ 'uma /Ɂuma/ ‘dry field’
2.1.2.8 Vowel sequences
All logically possible vowel combinations occur in Ende except for /uo/. 6 Furthermore, the
schwa /�/ does not combine with any other vowel. The vowel sequences made up the lower
vowels /a/ or /o/ and a high vowel /i/ or /u/ are analyzed as diphthongs; that is, /ai/, /au/,
/oi/, and /ou/ are analyzed as diphthongs. These diphthongs predominately occur in single
syllable words. It is only in the case of the vowel sequence /ai/ that some examples emerge
in disyllabic roots, such as numai ‘yesterday’. All other vowel sequences occur as two
syllables. However, when the vowel sequence is made up of the mid front vowel /e/ and a
6 The closest example of the vowel sequence /uo/ is suwo ‘ear ornament’, but /w/ in this word is the
phonemic /w/ and not the epenthetic glide [w]. See §2.1.1.6 for more discussion of this distinction in
Ende.