A Phonemic Analysis of the Apurinã Language

[kiV] does occur, both oral and nasal, but only with one word, [o'kiε] / [oki'εkyε]'scissors', has the second vowel been /ε/, and in this case the articulation of both vowelsis distinct and separate. Such a word as [ιrι'k y ɛ̃ɛ̃ro] 'woman's name' adds the pressureof the non-suspect CV patterns. I analyze [k y ] as a submember of /k/ and thus it must beinterpreted as a unit. [g y ] is a variant of [k y ], fluctuating with it but rarely heard.[t y ] sustains the same relationship to /t/ as [k y ] does to /k/. However, whereas [k] rarelyoccurs before /ε/, [t] occurs much more frequently than [t y ] before /ε/. Actually, [t y ]occurs only between a high front vowel and /ε/, but within this environment fluctuateswith [t]. As a submember of /t/ and by analogy with [k y ], [t y ] is interpreted as a unit.[č y ] occurs only in non-stressed syllables and even then only before /a/. It cannot beinterpreted in analogy with [k y ], for if taken as a unit, it contrasts with /č/: [ιč y ʌ'bʌtʌ]'he cries' vs [ιčʌ'bʌtʌ] 'crotch of tree'. Where stress occurs on either vowel, [i'čĩʌ̃]'smoke', [kači'ambι'tιrι] 'it surely is smokey!', the pattern is clearly CVV. There isno contrast between [č y a] and [čia]. Economy in company with the other considerationsleads to the interpretation of [č y ] as a CV sequence.[-k h ] patterns as CV. The aspiration is a variant of the voiceless vowels. Actually, the point ofarticulation of the voiceless vowel is almost always discernable when one listenscarefully, so that a true aspirated velar stop rarely occurs. There is no non-suspect CVCsyllable pattern.[o'nak h ] / [o'nakΙ ] / [o'nagι] 'her egg'[an'tik h ] / [an'tikɅ] / [an'tikʌ]'one (m.)'[ιwʌ'nυk h ] / [ιwʌ'nυkɅ] / [ιwʌ'nυkʌ]'only one, all alone'A seeming diphthong followed by another vowel has already been interpreted to be VyVor VwV, as the case might be, but there remains the case of seeming diphthongs followed by aconsonant or silence (word final). In either case there is no contrast between V i/o and Vi/o. Thenon-suspect CV patterns (no CVC or VC) rule out the interpretation of V i/o as Vy/w. Economyrules out the interpretation of V i/o as a complex unit. VV is the best interpretation. No instancehas been observed where this interpretation would give a VVV sequence.[-V ʔ ] has already been introduced in the discussion of [ʔ] under section b. [-V ʔ ] patterns as acomplex unit. It is a variant of [-V] which is not contrastive on the phoneme level. Thisvariant will find a place farther up the hierarchy.[w̃] and [ỹ] pattern as units and consonants. They are submembers of their oral counterparts,occurring only between nasalized vowels or word initial before a nasalized vowel.[kι'pãỹʌ̃] 'woman's name' [ka'rι̃w̃ʌ̃] 'man's name'; [ỹõ'rιkι] 'star'8