A Phonemic Analysis of the Apurinã Language

the occurrence of [h̃] is both phonologically and morphologically conditioned. In mostcases it could be written non-ambiguously as nasalization of the following vowel:[ι'nikʌ] /ι'nika/ 'he eats' [h̃ι̃'nikʌ] /ι̃'nika/ 'you(pl) eat'["nι·'nikʌ] /"nιι'nika/ 'he doesn't eat' ["nιh̃ιñi'kʌbε] /''nιιñi'kapε/ 'don't you(pl)eat!'In this way the 2nd plural morpheme would have the same phonemic shape throughout,[ιn'tapυ] /ι̃'tapo/, [ι̃sι'bεŋka] /ι̃sι'pɛ̃ka/, except where the 3rd m. sg. isexpressed by its zero morph. Further, the negative prefix acts as though it were beingattached to a vowel rather than a consonant when affixed to [h̃]. The basic form of thenegative prefix is /na-/ which occurs next to consonants. When it is juxtaposed to avowel the /a/ drops:[ι·'mʌtʌ] 'he knows' ['nι·'mʌtʌ] 'he doesn't know'[oι'mʌtʌ] 'she knows' ['noι'mʌtʌ] 'she doesn't know'[nι'mʌtʌ] 'I know' ['nanι'mʌtʌ] 'I don't know'Even though one conceded phonemic rank to [h̃] (rather than postulate a morphologicallydefined allophone) it could be written unambiguously, as previously described, withoutthe introduction of a new symbol, were it not for the few cases where the 3rd m. sg. formis already nasalized:[ι̃ã'sυkʌ] /ι̃ã'soka/ 'he hits'[h̃ι̃ã'sυkʌ] /ι̃ã'soka/? 'you(pl) hit'[ιŋ'antʌ] /ι̃'ãta/ he drinks' [h̃ι̃ŋ'antʌ] /ι̃'ãta/? 'you(pl) drink!'There is a definite contrast in pronunciation and meaning. In spite of its drasticallylimited distribution, the simplest solution seems to be to interpret [h̃] as a unit, aconsonant and a phoneme, and to represent it in the orthography with its own symbol.The practical demands of a literacy program also incline one to this solution.IV. Contrastive Chart of Phonemes:a. Consonantslabial alveolar velarStops p t kNon-ContinuantsalveolaralveopalatalAffricates ȼ čFlaprContinuantsalveolaralveopalatal13