What about words that start with compound letters? For compound letters ending with "y", we only considering the first letter and match it with the corresponding letter group when performing PVIM. We also do this for consonant clusters (like "pl", "lw" and "kr", which are not in the compound letter list).
Let take "ty" as an example. We only consider the first letter "t". It is in the letter group "t, d, n", so we get "ty", "dy" and "ny" as the first, second and third person mutation respectively, spelled as "ty", "hty" and "nty" after applying the pronunciation alteration marker to the first letter.
Though, getting the pronunciation is a bit tricky. You need to refer to the form that is not spelled out with the pronunciation alteration marker (i.e. "dy", "ny" and "ty") to figure out the pronunciation. For this example, "dy", "ny" and "ty" is pronounced as /dʑ/, /ɲ/ and /tɕ/. You may or may not find the pronunciation of these intermediate compound letters from the dictionary (like "ny"). However, most of them are intuitive and straightforward. You just need to pronounce as the way they are spelled.
Below is a table showing the PVIM of compound letters ending with "y". Intermediate compound letters are also shown in the brackets.
| 1st person mutation | 2nd person mutation | 3rd person mutation |
|---|---|---|
| ty (ty) /tɕ/ | hty (dy) /dʑ/ | nty (ny) /ɲ/ |
| dy (dy) /dʑ/ | ndy (ny) /ɲ/ | dhy (ty) /tɕ/ |
| sy (sy) /ɕ/ | hsy (zy) /ʑ/ | nsy (ry) /rʲ/ |
| zy (zy) /ʑ/ | nzy (ry) /rʲ/ | zhy (sy) /ɕ/ |
| hy (hy) /ç/ | hhy (xy) /ʁʲ/ | nhy ('y) /ʔj/ |
There are 2 exception that you cannot figure out the pronunciation directly: the PVIM of "gy" and "ņy". They require rote memorization. Their PVIM is shown in the table below.
| 1st person mutation | 2nd person mutation | 3rd person mutation |
|---|---|---|
| gy (gy) /z/ | ngy (ņy) /ŋʲ/ | ghy (ky) /s/ |
| ņy (ņy) /ŋʲ/ | ņhy (ky) /s/ | hņy (gy) /z/ |
You can see "ky" and "gy" make a surprising /s/ and /z/ sound, respectively. This is due to a sound shift when Pwekish evolved from Middle Pwekish into Modern Pwekish. What's more, the letter "c" and compound letter "cy" are both used to represent "ky" in modern Pwekish.
There are 5 more compound letters with irregular PVIM which also requires rote memorization for their pronunciation.
| 1st person mutation | 2nd person mutation | 3rd person mutation |
|---|---|---|
| ts (ts) /ts/ | hts (dz) /dz/ | nts (nr) /nr/ |
| dz (dz) /dz/ | ndz (nr) /nr/ | dhz (ts) /ts/ |
| si (si) /si/ or /ɕ(ə)/ | hsi (zi) /zi/ or /ʑ(ə)/ | nsi (ri) /ri/ |
| yu (yu) /ju/ or /ɥ(u)/ | nyu (ñu) /ɲu/ or /ɲɥ(u)/ | yhu (lu) /lu/ or /lu̯/ |
| rl (rl) /ɬ/ | rhl (sl) /sl/ | hrl (zy) /ʑ/ |
For "yu", "nyu" and "yhu", the second pronunciation is used when they are followed by vowel. We will talk about the pronunciation of "si" in later chapter.
With all the difficult things we have learnt, we still miss a few compound letters. But don't worry, they are super easy to deal with.
The vowel letter group applies to all vowels, including the vowels spelled with compound letters. Like the PVIM for "ae" is just "ae", "hae" and "hhae".
The PVIM of "cy" is the same as "c". The PVIM of "ll" is almost the same as "l". The only difference is in the pronunciation of "ll" and "l"
| 1st person mutation | 2nd person mutation | 3rd person mutation |
|---|---|---|
| c /s/ | hc /z/ | nc /ŋʲ/ |
| cy /s/ | hcy /z/ | ncy /ŋʲ/ |
| l /l/ | hl /y/ | nl /ɲ/ |
| ll /ʎ/ | hll /y/ | nll /ɲ/ |
And that's all for PVIM. It's a difficult yet important concept of Pwekish. Hope you haven't lost interest in learning Pwekish. We will take a break in the next chapter and talk about the adjectives, adverbs, and gerunds of Pwekish, which are much easier to manage.
1. Write down the 2nd person and the 3rd person mutations of the following words.
i. bax ii. nugax iii. lipat iv. vubo v. ine
vi. aenimeye vii. cyoku viii. tyor ix. hyo x. syipu
xi. gyaxye xii. tsoyxu xiii. smor xiv. yuax xv. rlaye
i. nbax bhax
ii. nhugax hnugax
iii. hlipat nlipat
iv. nvubo vhubo
v. hine hhine
vi. haenimeye hhaenimeye
vii. hcyoku ncyoku
viii. htyor ntyor
ix. hhyo nhyo
x. hsyipu nsyipu
xi. ngyaxye ghyaxye
xii. htsoyxu ntsoyxu
xiii. hsmor nsmor
xiv. nyuax yhuax
xv. rhlaye hrlaye
2. For the words undergone PVIM in question 1 (i.e. the answers you made in question 1), write down the pronunciation of their first letter (or first 2 letters for compound letter words), excluding the pronunciation alteration marker. For example, if you have "nbay bhay" for question 1, your answer should be "m p". You don't need to answer in IPA. Using the Pwekish letters representing the sound is enough.
i. m p (/m/ /p/)
ii. t d (/t/ /d/)
iii. y ñ (/j/ /ɲ/)
iv. w f (/w/ /ɸ/)
v. h x (/h/ /ʁ/)
vi. h x (/h/ /ʁ/)
vii. z ņy (/z/ /ŋʲ/)
viii. dy ny(or ñ) (/dʑ/ /ɲ/)
ix. xy 'y (/ʁʲ/ /ʔj/)
x. zy ry (/ʑ/ /rʲ/)
xi. ņy ky(or s) (/ŋʲ/ /s/)
xii. dz nr (/dz/ /nr/)
xiii. z r (/z/ /r/)
xiv. ñu lu (/ɲɥ/ /lu̯/)
xv. sl zy (/sl/ /ʑ/)
IPAs are given for reference.