Caddo phonology

Consonants
Caddo has nineteen contrastive consonants, which is a normal-sized consonant inventory. It is somewhat unusual in that it lacks lateral consonants. The IPA symbols for the consonants of Caddo are given below:

Caddo also features contrastive gemination (lengthening) of consonants, which is generally indicated in orthography by a double letter; e.g. /nɑ́ttih/ ‘woman’.

Vowels
Caddo has three contrastive vowel qualities,, , and , and two contrastive vowel lengths, long and short, for a total of 6 vowel phonemes.

However, there is a great deal of phonetic variation amongst the short vowels. The high front vowel is generally (but not always) realized as its lower counterpart, and the high back vowel  is similarly often realized as its lower counterpart. The low central vowel has a wider range of variation, pronounced (most commonly) as  when followed by any consonant except a semivowel or a laryngeal consonant, as a low central vowel (for which IPA lacks a symbol) at the end of an open syllable or when followed by a laryngeal consonant, and as  before a semivowel.

In general, the long vowels do not feature this kind of variation, but are simply lengthened versions of the phonemes represented in the chart.

Caddo also has four diphthongs, which can be written a number of different ways; the transcription below shows the typical Caddo Nation orthography (a vowel paired with a glide) and the IPA version, represented with vowels and offglides.
 * ay   – Pronounced like English ‘eye’
 * aw   – Pronounced like ‘’ou’’ in English ‘out’
 * iw   – Pronounced like English ‘ew’
 * uy   – Pronounced like ‘’uoy’’ in English ‘buoy’

Tone
Caddo is a tone language. There are three tones in Caddo: low tone, which is unmarked '; high tone, which is marked by an acute accent over the vowel '; and falling tone, which is always long, and marked by a grave accent over the vowel .

Tone occurs both lexically (as a property of the word), non-lexically (as a result of tonological processes), and also as a marker of certain morphological features; for instance, the past tense marker is associated with high tone.

Tonological processes
There are three processes that can create non-lexical high tone within a syllable nucleus. (Note: see the section below for an explanation of other phonological changes which may occur in the following examples.)


 * 1. H-deletion
 * VhCC → VHighCC
 * An /h/ before two consonants is deleted and the preceding vowel gains high tone.
 * Ex: /kiʃwɑhn-t-ʔuh/ → [kiʃwɑ́nːt’uh] ‘parched corn’


 * 2. Low tone-deletion
 * VRVLowC → VHighRC
 * A low tone vowel following a resonant (sonorant consonant) is deleted and the preceding vowel gains high tone.
 * Ex: /sa-baka-nah-hah/ → [sawkɑ́nːhah] ‘does he mean it?’


 * 3. Backwards assimilation
 * VRVHigh → VHighRVHigh
 * A vowel preceding a resonant and a high tone vowel gains high tone.
 * Ex: /nanɑ́/ → [nɑ́nɑ́ː] ‘that, that one’

Vowel syncope
There are two vowel syncope processes in Caddo, which both involve the loss of a low-tone vowel in certain environments. The first syncope process is already described as Low tone-deletion (above). The second syncope process is described below:


 * Interconsonantal Syncope
 * VCVLowCV → VCCV
 * A low-tone vowel in between a vowel-consonant sequence and a consonant-vowel sequence is deleted.
 * Example (shown with intermediary form): /kak#(ʔi)t’us-jaʔah/ → kahʔit’uʃaʔah → [kahʔit’uʃʔah] ‘foam, suds’

Consonant cluster simplification
As a result of the syncope processes described above, several consonant clusters emerge which are then invariably simplified by way of phonological process. At the present stage of research, these processes seem to be unrelated, except that they represent a phonetic reduction in consonant clusters; therefore, they are listed below without much further explanation.


 * 1.	nw → mm
 * 2.	tw → pp
 * 3.	tk → kk
 * 4.	n → m / __ [+labial]
 * 5.	ʔʔ → ʔ
 * 6.	hh → h
 * 7.	ʔ+Resonant → Resonant+ʔ / syllable final

Syllable coda simplification
Similar to the consonant cluster simplification process, there are four processes by which a syllable-final consonant is altered.


 * 1.	b → w / syllable final
 * 2.	d → t / syllable final
 * 3.	k → h / syllable final (but not before k)
 * 4.	tʃ → ʃ / syllable final

Word boundary processes
There are three word-boundary processes in Caddo, all of which occur word-initially:


 * 1.	n → t / # __
 * 2.	w → p / # __
 * 3.	y → d / # __
 * Ex. /ni-huhn-id-ah/ → [tihúndah] ‘she returned it’

These processes are generally not applicable in the case of proclitics (morphemes which behave like an affix and are phonologically dependent on the morpheme they are attached to, e.g. an apple in English).

Glottalization
Caddo has a glottalization process by which any voiceless stop or affricate (except p) becomes an ejective when followed by a glottal stop.


 * Glottalization
 * [-sonorant, -continuant, -voice, -labial, -spread glottis] → [+constricted glottis] / ___ [+constricted glottis, -spread glottis]
 * A voiceless stop or affricate (except p) becomes an ejective when followed by a glottal stop.
 * Ex. /sik-ʔuh/ → [sik’uh] ‘rock’

Palatalization
Caddo has a palatalization process which affects certain consonants when followed by /j/, with simultaneous loss of the /j/.


 * Palatalization
 * a)	/kj/ → [tʃ]
 * b)	/sj/ → [ʃ]
 * '''Ex. /kak#ʔa-k’as-jaʔah/ → [kahʔak’a ʃʔah] ‘one’s leg’

(Melnar includes a third palatization process, /tj/ → [ts]. However, /ts/ is not a palatal affricate, so this process has not been included here. Nevertheless, it is probably the case that this third process does occur.)

Lengthening
Caddo has three processes by which a syllable nucleus (vowel) may be lengthened.
 * Syllable Lengthening Process One
 * VHigh(Resonant)CVC# → VHigh(Resonant)ːCVC#
 * When the second-to-last syllable in a word has a nucleus consisting of a high tone vowel (and, optionally, a resonant), and the last syllable has the form CVC, then the high tone nucleus is lengthened.
 * Ex. /bak-‘ʔawɑ́waʔ/ → [bahʔwɑ́ːwaʔ] ‘they said’


 * Syllable Lengthening Process Two
 * V(Resonant)ʔ → V(Resonant) ː / in any prepenultimate syllable
 * In any syllable before the penultimate, a glottal stop coda is deleted, and the remaining nucleus is lengthened.
 * Ex. /hɑ́k#ci-(ʔi)bíhn-saʔ/ → [hɑ́hciːbíːsaʔ] ‘I have it on my back’


 * Syllable Lengthening Process Three
 * a) ij → iː
 * b) uw →uː
 * Any syllable nucleus consisting of ij or uw must convert to a long vowel.