Ekoka !Kung - Phonology

Phonology

Ekoka !Kung has a similar sound system to Juǀʼhoansi. However, instead of a series of palatal clicks, etc, Ekoka !Kung has a series of fricated alveolar clicks which have an s-like release and historically derive from them. These are provisionally transcribed, etc., and behave similarly to palatal (rather than alveolar) clicks in terms of not following the back-vowel constraint.

In addition to the twelve 'accompaniments' of clicks in Juǀʼhoansi, Ekoka has preglottalized nasal clicks, such as /ʔᵑǃ/. These are not common cross-linguistically, but are also found in Taa and ǂHoan.

König & Heine (2001) report the following inventory, with the clicks as analyzed by Miller (2011). One of the click series, called 'fortis' in König & Heine, is only attested at two places of articulation; it is not clear which this corresponds to in the table below. There are also prenasalized /mb, nd, ŋɡ/ in Bantu loans.

	Labial	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Palatal	Velar	Corresponding Click	Glottal
Nasal	m	n		ɲ	ŋ	ᵑǃ
	mʱ	nʱ				ᵑǃʱ
						ᵑ̊ǃʰ
Plosive	b	d	dʒ		ɡ	ᶢǃ
	p	t	tʃ		k	ǃ	ʔ
	pʰ		tʰ	tʃʰ	kʰ	ǃʰ
	bʱ	dʱ			ɡʱ	ᶢǃʱ
						ᵑǃˀ
						ˀᵑǃ
		tᵡ		tʃᵡ		ǃᵡ
		dᵡ				ᶢǃʶ
			tʃ ʼ		kχʼ	ǃ͡kxʼ
			dʒʼ	dʃχʼ		ᶢǃ͡kxʼ
Fricative			ʃ		χ		ɦ
Approximant		l		j	w		ɦ

/tʰ/ is shown as post-alveolar; cf. the epiglottalized /tʜ/ found in Juǀʼhoansi, though this could be an alignment error. Similarly, /tʃʰ/ is shown as palatal, along with /tʃᵡ, dʃᵡʼ/ and in contrast to post-alveolar /tʃ/.

Ekoka has a full set of modal and murmured (breathy) vowels, as well as pharyngealized back vowels, and a reduced set of modal, murmured, and pharyngealized nasal vowels:

i e a o u – ih eh ah oh uh – aq oq uq – in an un – ahn ohn – aqn oqn uqn

Phonemic contrasts in Ekoka include:

Pulmonic - click - twa to finish vs ǂwa to imitate
- Pulmonic consonants
  - Voiced - voiceless unaspirated - voiceless aspirated stop: da skin, ta wild orange, tʰa bee sting
  - Voiced - voiceless unaspirated - voiceless aspirated - ejective affricate: djau expression of surprise, tca to fetch, t͡sʰe week, tcʼa to pour
  - Voiced - voiceless fricative: za to sexually insult, se to see
- Click consonants
  - Voiced unaspirated - voiced aspirated: ɡǃaĩ puff adder, ɡǃʰeĩ tree
  - Voiceless unaspirated - voiceless aspirated: ǃẽ noise, ǃʰã to know
  - Unaffricated - affricated release: ǃo behind, ǃxo elephant
  - Plain - glottalised release: ǃábí to roll up a blanket, ǃˀàbú rifle
  - Plain - nasalised: ǀi rhinoceros, nǀi to sit
Vowels
- Plain - nasalised: ɡǃa rain, ɡǃã red
- Plain - pharyngealised: nǀom springhare, nǀo̱m big talker
- Short - long: ǀu to throw, ǀuː to put in