A sketch of Mapudungun phonology

Fernando Ziga
University of Zurich
fernando.zuniga@spw.uzh.ch

1. Vocalic phonemes The vowels of Mapudungun are the following: front i e central a back u o

high mid low

Only u and o are rounded; the other four vowels (including ) are unrounded. The allophones of are [] and []; the fomer tends to occur in stressed syllables and the latter in unstressed ones. All six vowels can function as nuclei of syllables irrespective of stress. The segment is also typically found as (short) epenthetic vowel in order to avoid consonant clusters. The vowel o is sometimes pronounced [u] at the end of some polysyllabic words, e.g. wentro ~ wentru man (but never in e.g. ko water). In principle, sequences of vowels can be pronounced as though the latter belonged to different syllables in particularly careful speech, but in practice some of these sequences typically occur as diphthongs, e.g. ao > aw, eo > ew, ai > ay, ei > ey.

2. Semivowels Mapudungun has the following three glides or semivowels: labiovelar w palatal y velar g

The labiovelar w [w] and the palatal y [j] can occur in onset or coda position. The velar glide g [] does not occur in the onset as a contrastive phoneme. The semivowels regularly occur as briefly articulated onsets word-initially before the homorganic vowels u, i and : wule tomorrow, yiwi fat, gm bird. They irregularly occur as briefly articulated codas word-finally after the homorganic vowels.

3. Consonantal phonemes Mapudungun has relatively few consonantal phonemes: labial obstruent fricative nasal liquid p f m interdental t d n l dentoalveolar t s n l palatoalveolar ch (sh) ll retroflex tr velar k ng r

Obstruents come in only one series, voiceless and unaspirated. Most are simple plosives, but ch [] and tr [t] can be analyzed as affricates. Fricatives are voiceless, although in some regional varieties (northern and eastern Mapudungun) f and d have voiced realizations: [v] and []. The phonemic status of sh [] seems to be somewhat different from the status of the other fricatives, and in some analyses sh is merely a variant of s. There is an opposition in connotation with some words where an opposition between palato-alveolar dentoalveolar phonemes (and sometimes even interdental ones) is possible, but this seems to be a rather restricted phenomenon: kude old hag vs. kuse old woman vs. kushe little old lady. With other lexemes, there is no such opposition: mansun ~ manshun ox. The liquids are either lateral (l, l and ll) or a retroflex approximant (r []). The phonemic opposition between interdental sounds and dento-alveolar ones is disappearing from the speech of most young Mapuche, especially urban ones. The exception is d [], whose opposition to s is complex anyway.

4. Syllable structure Mapudungun syllable structure is fairly simple: (X1) V (X2) As already said, any vowel can be nucleus of a syllable. No consonant or glide can. Any consonant or glide can be found in the onset (X1) except g. Any non-obstruent or glide can be found in the coda (X2).

5. Prosody There is no phonemic tone in Mapudungun, even though a higher pitch normally correlates with stress. The latter is largely predictable (in isolated words) depending on syllable structure: Main stress is always on the ultima or penult. Closed syllables tend to attract stress in disyllabic words when one syllable is closed and the other open: kurm egg, mke condor.

The ultima tends to attract stress in disyllabic words when both syllables are open or both are closed: kach grass, ich we (plural). With longer words, the penult attracts stress when both the penult and the ultima are open: femngchi so. Long words normally have a secondary stress, usually on whatever closed syllable that comes first or second: kmapuly it is far away, weylkly s/he is swimming. On verb forms that have the morpheme -fi, this syllable attracts primary stress: llifmu you (dual) looked at him/her.