Piratapuyo language

Piratapuyo (Wahicjana [waʔikhana]) is a Tucanoan language of Brazil and Colombia, spoken by the Piratapuyo.

/ʔ/, /ɾ/, /ɡ/ do not occur word-initially, and /h/ is rare in this position.

All consonants but /s/ and /ʔ/ have a nasal allophone before nasal vowels. For the voiced plosives /b d ɡ/, these are the nasal stops [m n ŋ]. The others include voiceless [h̃] and voiced [ɺ̃], [w̃] and [j̃]~[ɲ]. An example is /bã́daʔre/ 'there's none', pronounced [mã́ⁿdaɺɛ].

/ʔ/, /h/ are labialized [ʔʷ], [hʷ] after a back vowel. In the sequence CV₁hV₂, where C is voiceless /p t k s/, V₁ is devoiced in careful enunciation; at normal conversational speed it is elided entirely, resulting in a sequence CʰV₂, where C is aspirated [pʰ tʰ kʰ sʰ]. If the elided V₁ is a back vowel and V₂ is not, C may be labialized as well, though in almost all cases the two vowels are the same.

/w/ has a tendency to become [β] before front vowels ([β̃] or even [ṽ] when nasal); it may also be lightly fricated elsewhere. /j/ likewise may be fricated, or even an affricated [ᵈj] when not nasalized.

Non-nasal /r/ tends to [ɺ] when it occurs after a non-front vowel and before a front vowel, and to [ɾ] elsewhere: /ditárárí/ → [dìi̥táɺáɾí].

Instead of positing six oral vowels and six nasal, the language has been analyzed as having a suprasegmental feature of nasalization that applies to all vowels and to all susceptible consonants in the word.

/ɛ ɛ̃/ have a high-mid allophone [e ẽ] that occurs before other vowels in hiatus and before velar consonants.

All vowels may be glottalized when followed by /ʔ/.

Devoicing of vowels is common. In the sequence C₁V̀C̥V́, where C̥ is a non-glottal voiceless consonant (that is, {p t k s}), and the first syllable has low tone and the second high/accented, C̥ is preaspirated: that is, the voicing of V̀ ends before the consonant begins. If the first consonant is also {p t k s}, the entire vowel may be devoiced in normal and especially in rapid speech.

There are two phonemic tones: high (accented) and non-high (mid or low). Successive high tones are each higher than the preceding. (See also pitch accent, downdrift.)

Syllables may be up to CCVC, where the only initial consonant cluster is /st/ and the only final consonant is /ʔ/.

When syllable-final /ʔ/ is followed by [ɾ], [ɺ], [m] or [n], the two are sometimes separated by an epenthetic echo vowel.