Proto-Piti phonology

Main article: Proto-Piti

This page gives an extensive description of Proto-Piti phonological features.

Consonants

The consonant system distinguishes 22 phonemes, traditionally arranged in the following scheme:

		IPA			Transcription
plosive	ejective	[ṕ]	[ḱ]	[t́]	ṕ	ḱ	t́
	voiceless	[p]	[k]	[t]	p	k	t
	aspirated	[pʰ]	[kʰ]	[tʰ]	pʰ	kʰ	tʰ
retroflex		[ʈ]	[ʂ]	[ɳ]	ʈ	ʂ	ɳ
nasal		[m]	[n]	[ŋ]	m	n	ŋ
liquid		[r]	[l]	[ɬ]	r	l	ɬ
fricative	sibilant		[s]			s
	uvular		[χ]			χ
	glottal		[ʔ]			ʔ
	approximant		[j]			j

The group of the plosive consonants distinguishes three overall balanced sub-groups: ejective, voiceless, and aspirated, all of them sharing the same points of articulations. None of these phonemes displays any distinction between voiced and voiceless variants.

The presence of a developed group of retroflex consonants is noteworthy. The groups of the nasal and of the liquid consonants are slighty poorer, but anyway quite developed.

The group of the fricative consonants is poorer as well, with a limited amount of phonemes and points of articulation. The glottal consonant, [ʔ], while formally a plosive, is traditionally included in the fricative group. The phonemes [j] has a full consonantal value and it is never regarded as a semivowel.

Vowels

There are 6 vocalic phonemes, which display other forms of distinction.

5 vowels have a short form and a long form. The open-central phoneme, [æ], makes no distinction in length.

IPA						Transcription
[i]	[iː]			[u]	[uː]	i	iː			u	uː
[e]	[eː]			[o]	[oː]	e	eː			o	oː
		[æ]						æ
		[a]	[aː]					a	aː

The vocalic system is typologically simple and essentially balanced, except for the open-central phoneme, [æ].

All long vowels have an additional tonal feature, being every of them pronounced with an ascending tone. This feature, however, is not distinctive.