Kirikiri (Kirira), or Faia (after its two dialects), is a Lakes Plain language of Irian Jaya, Indonesia. It is spoken in Dofu Wahuka and Paniai villages.
Phonology Kirikiri does not have many consonant phonemes, but there are many consonant allophones: +LabialCoronalVelarStop/Fricativevoicelesst [t ~ d]k [k ~ g ~ x ~ ɣ]voicedb [b ~ m ~ ᵐb ~ β]d [d ~ n ~ ⁿd ~ l ~ ɾ]Obstruentɸ [ɸ ~ p ~ β ~ h]
<f>s [s ~ ʃ ~ z ~ ʒ] Kirikiri, like Doutai, has the fricativized high vowels iʼ and uʼ. There are 7 vowels:
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;" ! !Front !Back |- !Fricated | iʼ <i> | uʼ <y> |- !Close | i <ɨ> | u |- !Mid | e || o |- !Open | a || |} Other sources analyse the vowel phonemes differently. One analysis published by SIL Global describes the fricativized high vowels as /i/ and /u/, analyze the close vowels as /e/ and /o/, and transcribes the mid vowels as /ɛ/ and /ɔ/.
A set of two vowels at the same tone will diphthonize, but a set of two vowels with different tones will not. Instances of /u/ between vowels or between /k/ and a vowel are realized as [w].
Kirikiri has four tones: low, high, falling, and rising. The low tone is marked V̀, the high tone is marked V́, the falling tone is marked V́V̀, and the rising tone is marked V̀V́. The syllable structure is (C)(C)V, but some speakers pronounce CCV syllables as CəCV.
Orthography Kirikiri does not have a universally accepted orthography, but SIL Global has created one.
Letter-to-sound correspondances (consonants) +LetterContextIPAfword initially and word medially between vowels freely fluctuates between [ɸ], [h], and [f]intervocalically fluctuates between [β] and [ħ]tword initially[t]before a phonetic flap and intervocalically [d]kword initially and word medially between vowels[k]between voiced segmentsfluctuates between [g] and [ɣ]between vowels[x]bword initially before other phonemes and word medially between vowels[b]intervocalicallyfluctuates between [β] and [w]before [a]fluctuates between [m] and [ᵐb]dword initiallyfluctuates between [d], [n], and [ⁿd]word mediallyfluctuates between [l] and [ɾ]sword initially and word medially between vowels[s]intervocalically before other vowelsfluctuates between [s] and [z]intervocalically before [iʼ] fluctuates between [ʃ] and [ʒ]
References