Santa language

Dialects

Phonology

Consonants

• The aspirated stops, at varying degrees, tend to be affricated before close vowels as respectively:
• * : This has the most noticeable affrication, seen in ghudogvo .
• * : Still commonly affricated, e.g. pixie .
• * : Affrication is salient, but seems to be more apparent with than, as in tiigha .
• * : This consonant is the least affricated, but is still attested in kiqie .
• Likewise, before non-close vowels non-aspirated stops do not show affrication e.g. da, korolon, or khalun .
• Phonemes are only found in loanwords:
• * is only found in Chinese-derived words, as in cai . It is frequently deaffricated to the native.
• * is found within Chinese and Persian borrowings, with Persian زمین zamin rendered as zemin.
• * in the same way is seen in words of Chinese and Arabic origin, as in renshen .
• The nasals assimilate to before labials, as in unba and banban respectively. also has another allophone before uvulars, cf. zhangha .
• Nasals are commonly deleted in the coda, which is an areal feature around the border between Gansu and Qinghai. Although it is not restricted to word-final situations, it is rarer to find deletion there as the following consonantal onsets somehow reinforce the nasal. It should also be noted that vowels preceding nasal consonants are also nasalized themselves.
• The central approximants are fricativized when syllable-initial, mainly before close vowels. can further be found before front vowels and even low back vowels. An example of fricatization for each is yibai and weila . This phenomenon can also be found in neighboring languages, including Dungan and Monguor.
• , which is usually realized as a fricative, can be pronounced as an approximant in fast speech.
• is usually a trill, and length is dependent on the speed of speech; similarly in rapid speech it can become a tap.

Vowels

• , which is usually a close front vowel, has a backened allophone after retroflex consonants, and a slightly opened one after alveolar affricates and fricatives. Compare chi with misi .
• Close vowels are devoiced when in an unstressed initial syllable and between voiceless consonants, for example: chighin, sidara and khidun . This is not the case though before a voiced consonant, especially if it is of native Mongolic origin, as evidenced with chila and suma .
• * In Chinese loans, devoicing is optional, i.e. chugui can be pronounced either or.
• * The mid-central vowel has also been recorded voiceless in the aforementioned environment: pese .
• * Devoicing of can also occur regardless of the following sound and in non-initial syllables, under the condition it occurs after : basi or kewosila . Interestingly, it is not often the case, as in bositu .
• is always a syllabified as its own, as in ershi, with the exception of one Arabic loanword with glottal as the onset: ruhher .
• is often pronounced with a considerable degree of labialization, however this can be inconsistent, even in the same utterance; cf. olien vs. onghono .
• When stressed, is typically realized as mid-front : enzhegve . Before, is used instead: amen . Otherwise in unstressed syllables it is mid-central.
• is typically an open back vowel, e.g. apa, but before alveolar nasals it is fronted to ; an example is dan . Before velar nasals, as in dan, the back form is used.

Glides

• :
• * Before, the vowel is raised to, e.g. khighei, falling somewhere in between and.
• ** If also after, the vowel is optionally dropped, as in ghuilu .
• * After, it is pronounced like stressed ; for instance nie or bierei .
• * Before, backness is often applied so that it varies between : hotou .
• :
• * Before, it may be raised, varying from, see bai, kuaisun .
• * Before, the vowel is often raised and backed, ranging from in nao, oqiao .

Phonotactics

• The obstruents in words of Monogolic origin can only be found at the beginning of words.
• Also, can occur at any position syllable-initially, but not after nasals of glides.
• on the other hand can only occur after vowels. It is also possible for to occur after nasals, but not due to the sonorant rule.
• can occur word-initially but between syllables only after vowels.
• It is impossible for non-compounded words of Mongolic origin for a sonorant to follow a nasal after a syllable boundary. However, three exceptions exist: manlou, danlei and chanlie .
• * Words borrowed from Mandarin Chinese do not follow this rule, seen with rinmin .

Stress

• Certain suffix clitics prevent the stress from shifting to the final syllable, as seen in 2=yawu=ne, 2=tomo=ghala . However, not every clitic follows this rule.
• The suffixes +jiwo and +senu receive penultimate stress: jawu+jiwo and ire+senu .
• Similarly, basi and bosi are stressed on the initial syllable. There is a minimal pair with bosi where the stress on the final syllable means 'to wake up'.
• Loanwords may also violate the final stress rule; this is discussed below.

In loanwords

Grammar

Morphology

Plural marking

• -la
• -sla/-sila
• -pi

Cases

Verb suffix

Active verb

Stative verb

Existential verbs bi and wi

Syntax

Writing system

Numerals

The Tangwang language