Introduction

Abbreviations and Symbols
Phonetic Transcription

There are quite a few technical linguistic terms in this description of the Tepa language. However, these terms are used simply because the description of the grammar is made easier by doing so and not because of any theoretical agenda which I might have. I have tried to define such terms when they appear in the course of the text.

Abbreviations and Symbols

Following is a list of abbreviations and symbols which will be used in the text:

" indicates obligatory gemination of a following consonant
! imperative
+ separates constituents of a compound or incorporated verb
- separates affixes from stems
-> becomes
. marks word-internal syllable boundaries
/ / encloses phonemes or root forms
1 first person
1>3 first person acting on third person
2 second person
2>1 second person acting on first person
2>3 second person acting on third person
3 third person
3>3' third person acting on (different) third person
< is derived from
< > encloses orthographic symbols
= seperates clitics from hosts
? interrogative
AGT agentive
B bound phase
BEC "become" predicate
C arbitrary consonant
CBA causative/benefactive/applicative
CL clitic or particle
COLL collective plural
DIST distributive plural
DS different subject
G geminate grade
HAVE "have" predicate
INST instrumental
IR irrealis
L l-grade
NESS abstract noun suffix
NMZ nominalization
OPT optative
P postposition
PAUC paucal
SS same subject
V arbitrary vowel
[ ] encloses phonetic symbols or transcriptions; also used to enclose the base of a morphological operation

Phonetic Transcription

Part of the transcription I will be using is also intended to be a practical orthography. The transcription in general may need some comment since I have not followed any of the IPA-to-ASCII schemes which I have seen. Below I give descriptions for symbols which are used to transcribe the sounds of Tepa. I have refrained from using "real language" examples to illustrate these sounds, preferring instead to give linguistic descriptions.

[p] voiceless bilabial stop (unaspirated)
[t] voiceless dental stop (unaspirated)
[c] voiceless alveo-palatal affricate (unaspirated)
[k] voiceless velar stop (unaspirated)
['] glottal stop
[b] voiced bilabial stop
[d] voiced dental stop
[j] voiced alveo-palatal affricate
[g] voiced velar stop
[f] voiceless bilabial fricative
[T] voiceless interdental fricative
[s] voiceless apical alveolar fricative
[S] voiceless alveo-palatal fricative
[x] voiceless velar fricative
[h] voiceless glottal fricative
[v] voiced bilabial fricative
[D] voiced interdental fricative
[Z] voiced alveo-palatal fricative
[3] voiced velar fricative
[m] bilabial nasal (voiced)
[n] dental nasal (voiced)
[N] alveo-palatal nasal (voiced)
[q] velar nasal (voiced)
[r] alveolar tap (voiced)
[l] alveolar lateral (voiced)
[w] labio-velar glide (voiced)
[y] palatal glide (voiced)
[i] high front unrounded
[e] high central unrounded
[u] high back rounded
[a] low central unrounded

In addition, the following transcription practices should be noted:

-Doubly written consonants indicate geminate (long) consonants.
-Doubly written vowels are long.
-Capitalized vowels are voiceless.
-A tilde following a vowel (v~, vv~) indicates a nasal vowel.

Return to the Index.

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