It is spoken by the descendants of Burmese immigrants, who mixed with a wide variety of other people. The script still very strongly resembles Burmese, though with some modifications (e.g. the set of consonants that corresponded to Pali retroflexes has been lost, as have stacked consonants. Also a few more letters that correspond to foreign sounds have been added). The phonology is also reminiscent of Burmese, with a voicing contrast in nasals and an aspiration contrast in stops. Though there is some influence from other languages (e.g. the rules on monophthong and diphthong distribution in open and closed syllables have been lost, and syllable codas can hae /p/, /t/ and /k/ instead of just the glottal stop /ʔ/). There have also been some innovations (e.g. in the tone system, and the emergence of a labiodental flap / approximant /ⱱ/~/ʋ/).
Anyway, here is the phonology:
Consonants:
Stops /pʰ p b tʰ t d kʰ k g/ (/b/, /d/ and /g/ are often pronounced as slightly implosive.)
Nasals /m̥ m n̥ n ŋ/ (The voiceless velar nasal /ŋ̊/ also occurs in writing, but it is almost always pronounced as a voiced velar nasal [ŋ], the only exception being in religious contexts)
Fricatives /θ ð sʰ s z ɬ h/ (/ɬ/ corresponds to Burmese */l̥/, and */sl/ in English loanwords)
Semivowels /w j/
Other Sonorants /ⱱ~ʋ ɾ l/ ([ⱱ] and [ʋ] are in free variation)
Vowels
Monophthongs /a i u e o/
Diphthongs /ai au ei ou/
Phonotactics
In the standard dialect, only syllables of the form (COnset) (j / w) V (CCoda) are permitted.
COnset can be any other consonant other than /w/ or /j/.
CCoda can be any consonant other than an approximant or a fricative (with the exception that, in stressed syllables, /h/ is allowed in coda position).
Coda /h/ can only ever occur after monophthongs, not diphthongs.
/ʋ/ and /ɾ/ are rare except immediately after a stressed monophthong.
/ŋj/ syllable onsets are forbidden.
In writing and formal speech, syllables can also begin with /pʰl/, /pl/, /bl/, /kʰl/, /kl/ and /gl/. But outside formal speech, the /l/ is usually replaced with /j/.
Consonant Neutralisations
Voicing and aspiration distinctions are neutralised in syllable codas, though they are still present underlyingly e.g. /sjuðâd/ - "city" is pronounced [sjuˈðâːt], but when combined with the genitive clitic /i/ to form /sjuðâdi/ - "of the city", it is pronounced [sjuˈðâːdi].
If a nasal coda occurs before /h/, an approximant, or at the end of a word, it is simply pronounced as nasalisation of the preceding vowel e.g. /atâuŋ/ - "feather" is pronounced [aˈtâːun]. But likewise it is still present underlyingly, as can be seen when combined with the genitive clitic /i/ to form /atâuŋi/ - "of the feather", which is pronounced [aˈtâːuŋi].
Stress and Phonation
One syllable in each word bears stress. Vowel phonation is phonemic on stressed syllables but not elsewhere. The phonations are harsh <â> (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harsh_voice), breathy <ä> (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breathy_voice), and glottalised <á>. Harsh and breathy vowels are pronounced long, glottalised vowels are pronounced short, and with glottalisation of the following consonant (or with a glottal stop [ʔ] in the case of word final syllables).
There are many minimal pairs of words that only contrast stress and phonation e.g. /sitâ/ - "wing" vs. /síta/ - "guardian" vs. /sïta/ - "sister", or /alôun/ - "alone" vs. /alöun/ - "all".
Allophones of /h/
Between two vowels, /h/ is voiced to [ɦ] e.g. /mahakáp/ - "eternity" is pronounced /maɦaˈkaʔp/
/h/ can occur in the coda of stressed syllables. It's realisation depends on the phonation of the previous vowel, but is always pharyngeal.
If the stressed vowel has breathy phonation, the /h/ manifests itself as a pharyngeal fricative [ħ] e.g. /äh/ - "question" is pronounced [a̤ːħ]. Compare /ŋä/ - "fish" which is pronounced [ŋäː]
If the stressed vowel has glottalised phonation, the /h/ manifests itself as a pharyngeal stop [ʡ] e.g. /dáh/ - "dark" is pronounced [daʡ]. Compare /tá/ - "wish" (in a nostalgic context) which is pronounced with a glottal stop [taʔ].
/h/ never occurs after vowels with harsh phonation.
Of course, if a process such a cliticisation (e.g. with the genitive clitic /i/) means that the /h/ is no longer in coda position, then these process do not occur e.g.
/äh i/ - "of the question" is pronounced [ˈäɦi].
/dáh i/ - "of the dark one" is pronounced [ˈdaʔhi].
Also, if a coda [ʡ] (i.e. /h/ after a glottalised stressed vowel) is followed by a consonant that can be aspirated (i.e. /p/, /t/, /k/, or /s/), there is a tendency to manifest this as aspiration on the consonant instead e.g.
/bóhsout/ - "bauxite", can be pronounced either [ˈboʡsout] or [ˈbosʰout].
Pitch of Stressed Syllables
The part of speech that a word belongs to affects how the vowel in the stressed syllable is pronounced:
Class 1) Most Nouns and Verbs
- Harsh <â> - Falling Pitch + Harsh Voice
Breathy <ä> - Low Pitch + Breathy Voice
Glottalised <á> - High Pitch + Glottal Stop
- Harsh <â> - Low Pitch + Harsh Voice
Breathy <ä> - Low Pitch + Breathy Voice
Glottalised <á> - Low Pitch + Glottal Stop
- Harsh <â> - High Pitch + Tense Voice
Breathy <ä> - Rising Pitch + Faucalised Voice
Glottalised <á> - High Pitch + Glottal Stop
Pitch of Unstressed Syllables
This also depends on the part of speech that the word belongs to, and also the syllable's position in the word (in relation to the stressed syllable).
1. Most Nouns and Verbs -> High Pitch (if before the stressed syllable), or Low Pitch (if after the stressed syllable).
2. Restrictive adjectives, Inalienable possessors, Nouns used attributively, Verbs used in compounds -> High Pitch
3. Non-restrictive adjectives -> Low Pitch
Examples
Below is a list of some words, and how their pronunciation of each syllable changes depending on what word class it is (stressed syllables are in bold):
/kämpja/ - "Kämpya"
- Class 1- Breathy Low - Low
Class 2- Breathy Low - High
Class 3- Faucalised Rising - Low
- Class 1- High - Harsh Falling
Class 2- High - Harsh Low
Class 3- Low - Tense High
- Class 1 - Glottal High - Low
Class 2- Glottal Low - High
Class 3- Glottal High - Low
- Class 1- Breathy Low - Low
Class 2- Breathy Low - High
Class 3- Faucalised Rising - Low
- Class 1- High - Harsh Falling
Class 2- High - Harsh Low
Class 3- Low - Tense High
- Class 1- High - Harsh Falling - Low
Class 2- High - Harsh Low - High
Class 3- Low - Tense Rising - Low
- Class 1- High - Breathy Low
Class 2- High - Breathy Low
Class 3- Low - Faucalised Rising
- Class 1- High - Breathy Low - Low
Class 2- High - Breathy Low - High
Class 3- Low - Faucalised Rising - Low
