Hup /húp ʔɨ̌d/ [húp̚ ʔɨ̌dⁿ]
Consonants:
The
phonemic consonant inventory of Hup is as follows:
/p t c k ʔ/
/b d ɟ ɡ/
/bˀ (pˀ) dˀ ɟˀ ɡˀ/
/ç h/
/w j/
/wˀ jˀ/
However, Hup is one of those horrible languages with lots and lots of allophony, so the phonetic consonant inventory is much larger. This will be described below.
Vowels:
In oral syllables:
/i ɨ u/
/e ə o/
/æ a ɔ/
In nasal syllables:
/ĩ ɨ̃ ũ/
/æ̃ ã ɔ̃/
Syllable structure: (C)V(C), with an overwhelming preference for CV(C) syllables. Vowel-initial syllables are attested only when a -VC suffix follows another vowel; if such a suffix follows a consonant, the previous consonant is geminated to give a CVC syllable (e.g.
wób +
-óy ⇒
wób-bóy). Words must begin with a consonant and end with a heavy (=bimoraic) syllable.
Prosody: Syllables may be either oral or nasal (represented in the phonemic transcription by a preceding tilde). Most morphemes are monosyllabic; a rare few multisyllabic morphemes have one oral and one nasal syllable, but the rest are completely oral or nasal. There is very little nasal spreading, occurring only with vowel-copying suffixes. Each word has a stressed syllable, which is unpredictable; stress appears to be non-phonemic. The stressed syllable can take on either high tone /V́/ or rising tone /V̌/. The high tone has falling tone [V̂] as an allophone; falling tone appears with a voiced syllable coda, while rising tone can only appear with a voiceless syllable code.
Allophony: As I mentioned, there is a
lot of allophony. Curiously enough, much of it seems to be dependent on the position within the
morpheme (i.e. initial, medial, final) rather than within the syllable. Some sounds also have allophones when in nasal syllables, as well as when they undergo morphophonological gemination.
- /p/: [p] initially and medially, [p~p.p] geminated, [p̚] finally
- /t/: [t] initially, [ɾ] (Tat Deh dialect) or [t~t.t] (Central dialect) medially and geminated, [k̚] finally
- /c/: [tʃ~ʃ~ts~s~tʲ~tj] initially (from now on I will write this set of allophones as [č] in phonetic transcription), [č~t.tʲ] when medial or geminated, [ʲt̚] finally
- /k/: [k] initially and medially, [k̚] finally
- /ʔ/: [ʔ] always, though as usual for glottal stops it can also add some minor creaky voice to the surrounding vowels
- /b/: [ᵐb] initially, [bᵐ] finally, [pb~b~bᵐ.ᵐb] geminated, [m] when nasal
- /d/: [ⁿd] initially, [ɾ~d~td] medially, [ɾ~dⁿ.ⁿd] geminated, [dⁿ] finally, [n] when nasal
- /ɟ/: [ʲdⁿ] finally, [ʲdⁿ.ⁿdʲ] geminated, [ʲn] when nasal (/ɟ/ does not occur elsewhere)
- /ɡ/: [ɡᵑ] finally, [ɡᵑ.ᵑɡ] geminated, [ŋ] when nasal (/ɡ/ does not occur elsewhere)
- /ç/: [ʲh] finally, [ʲh.hʲ] geminated, [ʲ̃h̃] when nasal (/ç/ does not occur elsewhere)
- /h/: [h̃] when nasal, [h] elsewhere
- /w/: [β] before front vowels /æ e i/, [w] elsewhere, [β̃] or [w̃] when nasal
- /j/: [j] finally and between vowels, [j̃] when nasal in the same context, [ᵈj] (oral) or [ⁿj] (nasal) initially
The glottalised consonants are, for the most part, not realised as ejective or implosive (though /ɟˀ/ and /ɡˀ/ occasionally have a somewhat ejective character). Rather, the glottalisation is realised as creaky voice on the following vowel if there is one; glottalised stops in particular are indistinguishable from plain stops when word-final.
- /bˀ/: [ᵐbV̰] (oral) or [mV̰] (nasal) initially and medially, [b̚~p̚] (oral) or [mp̚] (nasal) finally, [p.ᵐb~b̚.ᵐb] (oral) or [mp.m] (nasal) geminated (note lack of creaky voice after geminated glottalised consonants)
- /pˀ/: [pV̰] in the single word /pˀǎj/ [pǎ̰j] ‘priest’ where it occurs
- /dˀ/: [ⁿdV̰] (oral) or [nV̰] (nasal) initially, [t.dV̰~ɾV̰] medially, [d̚~t̚] (oral) or [nt̚] (nasal) finally, [t.ⁿdV~d̚.ⁿdV] (oral) or [nt.n] (nasal) when geminated
- /ɟˀ/: [čV̰] initially and medially; [ʲd̚~ʲt̚] (oral) or [j̃n̚] (nasal) finally, [ʲt.ⁿdʲ~ʲd̚.ⁿdʲ] (oral) or [j̃n̚.ⁿj~j̃nt.ⁿj] (nasal) geminated
- /ɡˀ/: [kV̰] (oral) or [kṼ̰] (nasal) initially and medially, [ɡ̚~k̚] (oral) or [ŋ̚] (nasal) finally, [k.ᵑɡ~g̚.ᵑɡ] (oral) or [ŋk.ŋ] (nasal) geminated
- /wˀ/: [wV̰] initially and medially, [wˀ] finally, [wˀ.w] geminate; all of these are simply nasalised to [w̃] etc. in nasal contexts
- /jˀ/ [ᵈjV̰] (oral) or [ⁿj̃V̰] (nasal) initially, [jˀ] (oral) or [j̃ˀ] (nasal) medially and finally, [jˀ.ᵈj] (oral) or [j̃ˀ.ⁿj̃] (nasal) geminated
Sample text: From the phonology chapter of Epp’s
A Grammar of Hup (my source), here are some phonemic and phonetic transcriptions of some Hup words:
/~tɨhɨ́j baʔtɨ̌bˀ~ǎn tǔdút cúɡ ~jɔʔɔ́b ~bˀǎɟˀát/
[tɨ̃h̃ɨ̃̂j baʔtɨ̌p.mã̌n tǔdⁿ.ⁿdút̚~tǔɾút̚ čûɡᵑ ⁿj̃ɔ̃ʔɔ̃̂m mã̰̌ʲ̃nt.ⁿj̃ã́t̚]
(I’ve tried enlarging the text in the hope that it might help make the diacritics slightly clearer. This is clearly one of those languages which stretches the IPA to its limits.)
I am not going to give a proper sample text, simply because I don’t feel confident enough to figure out the phonetic transcription myself.
