Chakali
phonology is typical of Gur languages, with
tone,
vowel harmony, and
labial–velar consonant. The majority of Chakali's syllables fall into one of three categories C(consonant)V(vowel), CVC and CVV. All the other syllable combinations found in Chakali are extremely rare and are not found in the middle syllable of a word.
Vowels Chakali contrasts long and short vowels, as well as
advanced and retracted tongue root vowels, which play a role in vowel harmony. While typically treated as a "neutral" vowel for tongue root harmony, might surface as following -ATR vowels, but this is not phonemic. Additionally, arises during
epenthesis or
vowel reduction. All phonemic vowels can also appear
nasalized, which is often due to the influence of a neighboring
nasal consonant or
glottal fricative. Nasal vowels do occur phonemically in certain words, as demonstrated by near-minimal or
minimal pairs: • 'enter', 'laziness' • 'ancient', 'do by force' • 'go down', 'honey'
Consonants • surfaces as in word-final or word-medial onset position. • and usually surface as between vowels. • All nasals are realized as in word-final position.
Tone and Intonation Chakali is considered a tone language; variations in pitch are used to change the lexical and grammatical meaning of words and phrases. Chakali has two major categories of tone: high and low; mid tones cause no lexical change and are considered to be derived from either high or low tones (such that a mid tone is considered to be either a lowered high tone or a raised low tone). Tones may also be considered as contour tones: either as falling or rising. == Grammar ==