Yaneshaʼ has 26
consonants and 9
vowel phonemes. The consonants have a certain degree of
allophonic variation while that of the vowels is more considerable.
Consonants • The affricates and are phonetically aspirated • is an allophone of before Yaneshaʼ, similar to languages like
Russian,
Irish, and
Marshallese, makes contrasts between certain pairs of
palatalized and plain consonants: • vs. • vs. • vs. The remaining two palatalized consonants, and , do not offer a one-to-one contrast with plain consonants; the former because it is the only
lateral consonant and so contrasts with no other phoneme on the basis of just palatalization; , while contrasting with , also contrasts with , , and . The bilabial palatalized consonants have a more perceptible palatal offglide than the alveolar ones. Word-finally, this offglide is voiceless for and while being absent for . Another general feature of Yaneshaʼ is devoicing in certain contexts. In addition to the devoicing of palatal offglides above, the
retroflex fricative is voiceless when word final (
final devoicing) or before a voiceless consonant (
regressive assimilation): → . The
approximants and are voiceless before voiceless stops, as in and ; is also voiceless before affricates and word-finally: . Similarly, the stops , , and are
aspirated word-finally → ; preceding another stop or an
affricate, a stop may be aspirated or unreleased so that ('a fish') is realized as or . The
velar fricative is
debuccalized to before another consonant.
Vowels Yaneshaʼ has three basic vowel qualities, , , and . Each contrasts phonemically between short, long, and "laryngeal" or
glottalized forms as . Laryngealization generally consists of glottalization of the vowel in question, creating a kind of
creaky voice. In pre-final contexts, a variation occurs—especially before voiced consonants—ranging from creaky phonation throughout the vowel to a sequence of a vowel,
glottal stop, and a slightly rearticulated vowel: → . Before a word-final nasal, this rearticulated vowel may be realized as a syllabic quality of said nasal. Also, although not as long as a phonemically long vowel, laryngeal vowels are generally longer than short ones. When absolutely word-final, laryngealized vowels differ from short ones only by the presence of a following glottal stop. Each vowel varies in its phonetic qualities, having contextual allophones as well as
phones in
free variation with each other: is the
short phoneme consisting of phones that are
front and
close to
close-mid. Generally, it is realized as close when following
bilabial consonants. Otherwise, the phones and are in free variation with each other so that ('my brother') may be realized as either or . is the long counterpart to . It differs almost solely in its length, although when it follows it becomes a sort of
diphthong with the first element being identical in
vowel height while being more
retracted so that is realized as . Laryngeal consists of the same variation and allophony of the short phoneme with the minor exception that it is more likely to be realized as close following as in → . is the short phoneme consisting of phones that are
central. Its most frequent realization is that of an
open central unrounded vowel (represented hereafter without the
centralizing diacritic). Before , there is free variation between this and so that may be realized as or . While the laryngeal counterpart is qualitatively identical to the short, the long counterpart, , differs only in that is not a potential realization. is the short phoneme consisting of phones that are
back as well as
rounded. Generally, and are in free variation so that may be realized as or . The phone is another potential realization, although it most frequently occurs before stops so that may be realized as . is not a potential realization of long but both the long and laryngeal counterparts are otherwise qualitatively identical to short .
Phonotactics All consonants appear initially, medially, and finally with the exception that and do not occur word-finally. With two exceptions ( and ), initial clusters include at least one stop. The other possible initial clusters are: • , , , • , , , Word final clusters consist of either a nasal or followed by a plosive or affricate: • , , , , , Medial clusters may be of two or three consonants.
Stress Although apparently phonemic, stress tends to occur on the penultimate syllable but also in the ultimate. Less frequently, it is antepenultimate. Some words, like , have stress in free variation. ==Lexicography==