A grammar of Pite Saami, 2014

3 Segmental phonology
Pite Saami has 43 consonant phonemes and 9 vowel phonemes. In the present
chapter, the first section (§3.1) deals with consonants phonemes, their allophonic
variation, and consonant clusters. The second section (§3.2) covers vowel phonemes,
their allophonic variation, and schwa-epenthesis.
3.1 Consonants
The consonant phoneme inventory of Pite Saami can be found in Figure 3.1. There
are plain and preaspirated phonemes for all plosive and affricate positions, and
geminate and singleton pairs for all categories. Preaspirated, geminate and preaspirated
geminate phonemes are restricted to the consonant center position.
bilabial labiodental alveolar post-alveolar palatal velar glottal
plosive p ʰp pː ʰpː t ʰt tː ʰtː k ʰk kː ʰkː
affricate ʦ ʰʦ ʦː ʰʦː ʧ ʰʧ ʧː ʰʧː
fricative f fː v vː s sː ʃ ʃː h
nasal m mː n nː ɲ ɲː ŋ ŋː
trill
r rː
approx. l lː j jː
Figure 3.1: Consonant phoneme inventory
A description of the consonant phonemes and the distribution of their relevant
allophones can be found in §3.1.1 for each mode of articulation. This is followed by
a discussion of consonant clusters. For the sake of clarity, the term postaspiration
will be used here to refer to what is commonly referred to simply as aspiration;
this decision also emphasizes the contrast to preaspiration, which is, in fact, more
relevant for Pite Saami than postaspiration.
3.1.1 Consonant phonemes and allophonic variations
After a brief note on preaspiration in the following section (§3.1.1.1) and a discussion
of gemination in §3.1.1.2, the consonant phonemes and their allophones are