| Language name: | AMUZGO |
| UPSID number: | 6770 |
| Alternate name(s): | |
| Classification: | North American, Oto-Manguean |
| This language has | 37 segments |
| Its Frequency index is | 0.349074130 (average percentage of segments; 0.1: many very rare segments; 0.39: average; 0.7: many common segments) |
| The language has these sounds: | p t t_ k kJ kW ? mb nd_ Ng ts tS h B s S m n n_ r[ r l j w i "e aa a a_) "o u "e~ aa~ a~ a_)~ "o~ nd |
| Comment: | Amuzgo contrasts ballistic and controlled syllables. Ballistic syllables have sharply falling pitch and amplitude contours. It also has three level tones and high-low, mid-high and low-mid contour tones. The prenasalized stops are described as occluded (post-stopped) nasals with a "lenis" homorganic stop. They contrast with nasal + stop sequences. A possible analysis (not among those suggested by Bauernschmidt) is to treat these as allophones of the plain nasals before oral vowels since the oral/nasalized vowel contrast is neutralized after a nasal. This would mean that a velar nasal would only occur before an oral vowel, so it is not accepted here. Bilabials and t,n are described as velarized. |
| Source(s): | Bauernschmidt, A. 1965. Amuzgo syllable dynamics. Language 41: 471-483. Longacre, R.E. 1966. On linguistic affinities of Amuzgo. International Journal of American Linguistics 32: 46-49. |