| Word-medial
position :- |
/p, t, k, q, b, d, g, c, m, n,  ,
f, s, z, x, F, h, l, w, y/. |
| apa |
`a
patch’ |
| ata |
`sticking
fluid’ |
| akala |
`ladder’ |
| aqąla |
`old
road’ |
| aba |
`excreta’ |
| ida |
`paste’ |
| khago |
`gate’ |
| aca |
`word’ |
| ama |
`son-in-law |
| ana |
`cooked
rice’ |
| aa |
`baby’ |
| afo |
`elder
sister’ |
| asį |
`cooked
meat’ |
| aza |
`mother’ |
| axa |
`crop
seeds’ |
| aFa |
`jungle’ |
| aha |
`despair’ |
| ala |
`gutter’ |
| awa |
`bear’ |
| ayč |
`relation’ |
|
|
|
Word-initial [p, ph, f] |
| [pś] |
/pś/ |
`bloom’ |
| [phś] |
/phś/ |
`expose’ |
| [fś] |
/fś/ |
`cook’ |
|
|
|
Word-medial
[p, ph, f]
|
| [apo] |
/apo/ |
`abdomen’ |
| [apho] |
/apho/ |
`a
heap’ |
| [afo] |
/afo/ |
`elder
sister’ |
|
|
| 2.1.3.1.
The distribution of the positional variants of the consonants. |
| Unvoiced
inspirited stops:The unvoiced unaspirated stops in Sema show a four-way
opposition at the place of articulation. These are bilabial, dental,
velar and post-velar. Each of these has an aspirated counterpart which
is phonemically considered as a sequence of the concerned stop segment
and /h/. Given below is a description of individual stops./p/. It
is an unvoiced unaspirated bilabial stop. It does not have any perceptible
positional variant. It does not occur at the word-final position.
Given below are a few words showing the occurrence of this stop. |
| [p] |
[pa] |
/pa/ |
`he’ |
| |
[pé] |
/pé/ |
`carry
on hand’ |
| |
[po] |
/po/ |
`ran’ |
| |
[pi] |
/pi/ |
`say’ |
| |
[^pipi] |
/apipi/ |
`debt’ |
| |
[^pu] |
/apu/ |
`father’ |
| |
[^pe] |
/ape/ |
`load’ |
| |
[^piti] |
/apiti/ |
`flesh’ |
|
|
| /t/.
It is an unvoiced unaspirated dental stop. It has two positional variants,
viz., dental and alveolar stops. The alveolar stop [t] occurs before
front vowels and the dental stop[t] occurs elsewhere. This phoneme
does not occur in the word-final position. Given below are a few words
to illustrate the occurrence o the phoneme. |
| [t] |
[ti] |
/ti/ |
`that’ |
| |
[ i] |
/thi/ |
`die’ |
| |
[te] |
/te/ |
`to
smear water’ |
| |
[tixe] |
/tixe/ |
`July’ |
| |
[^ti] |
/ati/ |
`kit’ |
| |
[^te] |
/ate/ |
`old’ |
| |
[^e] |
/ta/ |
`betray |
| [t]
|
[ta]
|
/ta/
|
`the
action of rolling down the boulders with the help of
lever’ |
| |
[ į] |
/thį/ |
`ignore’ |
| |
[tu] |
/tu/ |
`push’ |
| |
[^ta] |
/ata/ |
`sticking
fluid’ |
| |
[^į] |
/athą/ |
`fat’ |
| |
[kitw] |
/k t/ |
`repeating
the action |
| |
[ki ] |
/kith/ |
`three’ |
| |
[^to] |
/ato/ |
`hill’ |
| |
[^ņ] |
/athņ/ |
`fact’ |
|
|
|
