Phonology

Vowels

Voiced		Voiceless
Romanized	IPA	Romanized	IPA
a	a	ä	ḁ
e	ɛ	ë	ɛ̥
o	o	ö	o̥
i	i

Consonants

Voiced		Voiceless
Romanized	IPA	Romanized	IPA
b	b	p	p
d	d	t	t
g	g	k	k
		ṕ	pʰ
		t́	tʰ
		ḱ	kʰ
z	z	s	s
ž	ʐ	š	ʂ
ǧ	ɣ	x	x
m	m
n	n
l	l
j	j
		h	h
		‘	ʔ

A Note about Allophony: The phonemes listed above are normative pronunciations, as documented originally by “Visitor #2” [see Five-Visitors]. She did mention that in rushed or urgent speech, there was free-form allophonic variation; for example, for consonants, between [k] and [kʰ], or between [ʐ], [ʒ], and [ʝ]; and for vowels, between [a], [ɑ] and [ɐ], or between [ɛ] and [e]. Most of the source material came from her transcriptions of the Storytellers during their narrations. As this is a formal mode of speech, during which the stories are narrated in a clear and non-hurried fashion, she selected the phonemes listed herein as the normative ones.

Contents

Syllable Structure

Syllabification

Phonotactic Constraints

Assimilation

Prefix Table

Suffix Table

“da” Table

Pronunciation

Stress

Proper Names

Syllable Structure

A syllable starts with one or two onset consonants, followed by a single vowel, and followed optionally by a single coda consonant. That is: C(C)V(C)

Any consonant, except “ǧ” or “x” or “h”, can be an onset. In addition, these clusters can form a syllable onset: zb, zd, zg, žb, žd, žg, bl, dl, gl.

The coda consonants are: m, n, l, z, s, ž, š, ǧ, x, h.

Beltös syllables may be “strong” or “weak,” which is important in the assignment of stress. A syllable with a voiced vowel is strong. A syllable with a voiceless vowel is strong if the coda is “h” or “s” or “š” or “x”, otherwise it is weak.

Syllabification

For two medial consonants, the syllable break is between the two consonants. For three medial consonants, the break is between the first and second consonant. This process is regular, so it is not represented in the lexicon.

Compare: zben-ṕe but: dez-ben-ṕe

Phonotactic Constraints

Every word contains at least one syllable with a voiced vowel.

Two syllables with voiceless vowels cannot be consecutive.

Within a syllable, a vowel preceded by “ ‘ ” is always voiced (a / e / o / i).

Within a syllable, a vowel followed by “h” or “x” is always voiceless (ä / ë / ö).

Within a syllable, a vowel preceded and followed by voiceless consonants is voiceless.

Within a syllable, a vowel preceded and followed by voiced consonants is voiced.

In other environments, the voiced/voiceless distinction of a vowel is contrastive (that is, it may make a difference in the meaning of the word), especially as vowel voicing affects the syllabic stress of the word.

Assimilation

(These rules have been derived from the study of the language by various linguists. It appears that they are not complete, as several exceptions have been noted, as indicated in the lexicon. Further analysis of the phonology of Beltös and its assimilative processes is warranted.)

If “s” or “š” or “z” or “ž” appears as a non-terminal coda, and is immediately followed by an onset whose first or only consonant is “s” or “š” or “z” or “ž”, then the coda vanishes, unless the coda and the following (non-cluster) onset are the same.

If “s” or “š” or “x” appears as a non-terminal coda, and is immediately followed by a voiced consonant, it becomes voiced (it converts to “z” or “ž” or “ǧ”).

In a non-initial syllable, the onset, if it is immediately preceded by a vowel, and if it is a valid coda, is geminated (that is, V₁-C₂V₃ becomes V₁C₂-C₂V₃). Both C₂ are pronounced. This does not apply if the onset is a cluster.

Medial “mn” becomes “mm”, and “nm” becomes “nn”.

This assimilation is already represented in the written form of the language, and in the words (or stems) which are presented in the lexicon.

Components of compound words are treated as separate words; assimilation does not occur between the components.

Prefix Table

The table below illustrates the sound changes when prefixing a prefix to a stem of a noun or verb. Since the alphabet is phonemic, this changes the spelling of the word.

IF		RESULT
Prefix ends with:	Stem starts with:
C1V1	‘V2	C1V2 (V1‘ deleted)
C1V^L1	C2[C3]V^L2C^* (C2 ≠ ‘ )	C1V^L1C2[C3]V^V2 (first stem vowel becomes voiced; C^* deleted)
C1V^L1	C2[C3]V^L2[C4] (C2 ≠ ‘ )	C1V^L1C2[C3]V^V2[C4] (first stem vowel becomes voiced)
Otherwise, no change

[V₁ = vowel at end of prefix. V₂ = vowel at start of stem. V^V = voiced vowel. V^L = voiceless vowel. C = consonant (except “h” or “ǧ” or “x”). C^* = “h” or “ǧ” or “x” (the “non-onset consonants”).]

Examples:
še- (m.sg) + ‘a‘a (laugh) = ša‘a
zetë- (f.pl) + pënjammi (lay eggs) = zetëpenjammi

Suffix Table

The table below illustrates the sound changes when suffixing a suffix to a stem of a noun or verb. Since the alphabet is phonemic, this changes the spelling of the word.

IF		RESULT
Stem ends with:	Suffix starts with:
V^V1	V^V2	V^V1ssV^V2 (geminate ‘s’s added)
V^V1	V^L2C^*	V^V1 (V^L2C^* deleted)
V^V1	V^L2[C]	V^V1[C] (V^L2 deleted)
V^L1	V^V2	V^V2 (V^L1 deleted)
V^L1	V^L2	V^V1ssV^L2 (stem vowel becomes voiced; geminate ‘s’s added)
V^V1C	V^V2	V^V1CV^V2
V^V1C	V^L2	V^V1CV^L2
V^L1C	V^V2	V^L1CV^V2
V^L1C	V^L2	V^V1CV^L2 (stem vowel becomes voiced)
V^L1C^*	V^V2	V^L1C^*‘V^V2 (‘ inserted)
V^L1C^*	V^L2	V^V1‘V^L2 (stem vowel becomes voiced; C^* deleted; ‘ inserted)
Otherwise, no change

[V₁ = vowel at end of stem. V₂ = vowel at start of suffix. V^V = voiced vowel. V^L = voiceless vowel. C = consonant (except “h” or “ǧ” or “x”). C^* = “h” or “ǧ” or “x” (the “non-onset consonants”).]

Examples:
báti (apple) + ‘i-|-äm (sg.gen) = ‘ibat́im
keṕä (hope) + ši-|-en (pl.acc) = šikaṕen
šäžža (rule) + sat́a-|-em (pl.gen) = sat́ašäžžassem
mammäh (mother) + ‘em-|-om (sg.gen) = ‘emmammäh‘om

“da” Table

The table below illustrates the vowel harmony that occurs with the derivational prefix “da-” (which forms a verb from a noun).

IF	The prefix becomes
If the stem starts with “ ‘ ”	d (and the ‘ is elided)
If the first vowel of the stem is a or ä	da
If the first vowel of the stem is e or ë	de
If the first vowel of the stem is o or ö	do
If the first vowel of the stem is i	di

Pronunciation

The following sound changes are not represented orthographically.

Strong voiceless vowels: A voiceless vowel followed by “h” or “s” or “š” or “x” is pronounced with twice the duration of a voiceless vowel not so marked:
(spice) ṕäs‘a = [pʰḁḁsʔa]

The letter “h” is not pronounced.
(tree) böhzan = [bo̥o̥zan]

Exception: If a syllable (or word) ends with “h” or “ǧ” or “x”, and the following syllable (or word) begins with “ ‘ ”, then the “ ‘ ” is not pronounced; it is elided. In this special case, the “h” is pronounced.
(peace) jäh‘em = [jḁḁhɛm]
When this elision occurs, the “h” or “ǧ” or “x” may, in fact, function as the onset of the following syllable.

Weak voiceless vowels may become reduced or lax, and in rapid speech may disappear altogether.

Stress

Beltös manifests a strict, fixed word stressing for each word. The stress pattern is dactylic. Starting from the end of the word, the strong syllables (those with a voiced vowel or a voiceless vowel followed by “h” or “s” or “š” or “x”) are counted in threes, with each third strong syllable receiving stress, as in:
ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka

žas-sam-‘em (journey-sg.voc)
žas-sam-‘e-ma (journey-pl.voc)
sa-t́a-žas-sam-‘e-men (journey-pl.acc)

For words of less than three strong syllables, the first strong syllable receives stress.

Note #1: Weak syllables, those marked as voiceless (ä, ë, ö), are not counted.
da-päz-des (field-sg.voc)
ḱi-da-päz-des (field-sg.nom)
si-ḱi-da-päz-de-säm (field-pl.gen)

Note #2: Strong syllables with voiceless vowels are counted, and can receive stress. If a strong syllable with a voiceless vowel is stressed, it becomes partially voiced.
töh-ṕo-ṕo (village-sg.voc) [ˈt₍o̥o̥₎pʰopʰo]

Note #3: Each component of a compound words receives stress separately.

Proper Names

Almost all proper names, that is, the names of people, contain only voiced vowels, although there are exceptions. The last syllable is always voiced. This restriction does not apply to honorific titles.