User:Legward/sandbox

Consonants
The phoneme inventory of the Kiliwa language includes the consonants /p, β, m, w, t, d, s, n, r, l, t͡ʃ, ɲ, j, k, kʷ, x, xʷ, ɣ, ʔ, h, hʷ/.

Intervocalic allophones of /p, t, k, kʷ/ can occur as [β, ð, ɣ, ɣʷ]. An approximant sound such as a /j/ sound after a glottal /h/ can become devoiced as [j̊], as with a devoiced [w̥] sound being an allophone of /hʷ/.

The glottal /h/ will adopt a rounding feature when succeeded by a /u/, and palatalization when succeeded by /i/.

Vowels
There are three vowel qualities; /i, u, a/, that can also be distinguished with vowel length /iː, uː, aː/. Close vowel sounds /i, u/ can range to mid vowel sounds as [e, o], and with vowel length as [eː, oː]. Stressed /u/ becomes [i] in closed syllables, syllables with consonants on either side.

An epenthetic schwa sound [ə] can occur within root-initial consonant clusters, often taking articulatory features of the surrounding consonants.

Stress is usually placed on the second-to-last syllable.

Pitch Accents
Accents acute and grave over vowels /i, u, a/ denote pitch accents: high level, high-falling, and low level. Stressed long vowels, which are written with consecutive repetitions of these vowels, are written with accents to denote changes in tone and stress in the following ways: high level– ʔsaa [ʔǝsáá] ‘yucca cactus fruit’, high-falling– ʔsaa [ʔǝsáà] ‘juniper’, low level– ʔsee [ʔǝsèè] ‘vulture, buzzard’.