In this thread I am going to provide some lessons to study the basics of Miwonša. Although Miwonša is an a priori conlang, its structure and phonology looks very Indo-European. Therefore the underlying idea is that the basics of Miwonša can be learned relatively quickly in spite of the Morphological complexity, since there are almost no exceptions in the language.
Lesson 1:
Miwonša has a relatively simple vowel system – five oral and five nasal vowels. These vowels do not undergo any reduction processes. This means that the quality of a vowel never changes. However, in stressed syllables nasal vowels can be slightly lengthened so that they are easier to be distinguished from their oral counterparts. Please keep in mind that <an> is not pronounced like in French, since it is a nasal front vowel.
Vowels
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Letter – Pronunciation
a – [a]
e – [ɛ]
i – [i]
o – [ɔ]
u – [u]
an – [ã(:)]
en – [ɛ̃(:)]
in – [ĩ(:)]
on – [ɔ̃(:)]
un – [ũ(:)]
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Letter – Pronunciation
ai – [aɪ]
ei – [ɛɪ]
oi – [ɔɪ]
ui – [uɪ]
au – [aʊ] (very infrequently used)
iw – [iʊ] (very infrequently used)
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Letter – Pronunciation
p – [p]
t – [t]
č – [tʃ]
c – [c] before vowels, [tɕ] before consonants and [i, ĩ]
k – [k], possible allophone in the coda: [x] (free variation)
ph – [p ʼ]
th – [tʼ]
čh – [tʃʼ]
ch – [cʼ] before vowels, [tɕʼ] before consonants and [i, ĩ]
kh – [kʼ]
ts – [ts]
f – [f]
s – [s]
z – [z]
š – [ʃ]
ž – [ʒ]
hj – [ɕ]
h – [h]
m – [m]
n – [n]
nj – [ɲ]
m – [m]
n – [n]
nj – [ɲ]
l - [l]
lh - [ɬ]
lw - [ɬw]
lj - [ʎ]
r - [r]
w – [w]
hw – [ʍ]
j - [j]
ti - [tɕi]
thi - [tɕ’i]
hi - [ɕi]
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p p’ t t’ c c’ k k’
ts tʃ tʃ’ (tɕ tɕ’)
m n ɲ
f s z ʃ ʒ ɕ (x) h
l ɬ ʎ
r
w ʍ j
Foreign phonemes
[*] The letters <b, d, g, v> appear only in loanwords and are usually pronounced like [p, t, k, f]
Phonotactics
[*] Syllable structure: ((C)C(C))V(C/V)
[*] Possible Onsets with more than one consonant:
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pw pj spw spj špw špj pl pr spl spr špl špr
tw stw štw tr str štr
čw
cw
kw kj skw skj škw škj kl kr skl skr škl škr
tsj
mj
fj sj sw zj zw šw žw
lw (=ɬw)
Possible codas
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p t č k m s š l
I/J-Rule
In Miwonša there is a very frequent alternation in which some non-palatal consonants are palatalized, while some palatal consonants only change their spelling:
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Orthographical alternation
ti > ca ce co cu
hi > hja hje hjo hju
Morpho-phonological alternation [palatalisation]
pi > pja pje pjo pju
tsi > tsja tsje tsjo tsju
ki > kja kje kjo kju
fi > fja fje fjo fju
si > sja sje sjo sju
zi > sja zje zjo zju
mi > mja mje mjo mju
ni > nja nje njo nju
li > lja lje ljo lju