Editing Keres language (section)

===Vowels===
Keresan vowels have a [[Phoneme|phonemic]] distinction in [[Vowel length|duration]]: all vowels can be long or short. Additionally, short vowels can also be voiceless. The vowel chart below contains the vowel phonemes and allophones from the information of the Keresan languages combined from ''The Language of Santa Ana Pueblo'' (1964),<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=The Language of Santa Ana Pueblo, Smithsonian Bulletin 191, Anthropological Papers, No. 69|last=Davis|first=Irvine|year=1964}}</ref> ''The Phonemes of Keresan'' (1946),<ref name=":1" /> and Kansas Working Papers in Linguistics (1987).<ref name=":2" />
{| class="wikitable"
!
! colspan="2" |Long
! colspan="3" |Short
|-
!
!''Phonemic''
!''Phonetic''
!''Phonemic''
!''Phonetic''
!''Voiceless''
|- style="text-align:center;"
![[Close vowel|Close]]
|'''/iː/'''
|{{IPA|[i]}}
|'''/i/''' 
|[i ɪ]
|[ɪ̥]
|- style="text-align:center;"
![[Mid vowel|Mid]]-[[Front vowel|front]]
| '''/eː/'''
|[eː]
|'''/e/'''
|[e ɛ æ]
|[e̥]
|- style="text-align:center;"
![[Mid vowel|Mid]]-[[Central vowel|central]]
|'''/ɨː/'''
|[əː ɨː]
|'''/ɨ/'''
|[ə ɨ ɤ]
|[ɨ̥]
|- style="text-align:center;"
![[Open vowel|Open]]
|'''/ɑː/'''
|[aː ɑː]
|'''/ɑ/'''
|[a ɑ]
|[ḁ] 
|- style="text-align:center;"
! rowspan="2" |[[Close vowel|Back-close]]
|'''/oː/'''
|[oː]
|'''/o/'''
|[o]
|[o̥]
|- style="text-align:center;"
|'''/uː/'''
|[uː]
|'''/u/'''
|[u ʊ o]
|[ʊ̥]
|}
Notes:
* Western Keres does not have phonemic /oː/ or /o/, though both vowels may occur phonetically.<ref name=":4" /> Eastern Keres words containing /o/ show /au/ in Western Keres.<ref name=":5">{{Cite book|title=A study for a lexicon of Laguna Keresan|last=Valiquette|first=Hilaire|year=1990}}</ref> For instance, the first vowel in the word-sentence ''Sraúka̠cha̠'' – “I see you”:
** Kotyit Keres: [ʂóːkʰɑ̥tʃʰɑ̥]
** Kʼawaika Keres: [ʂɑ̌ukʰɑ̥tʃʰɑ̥]

==== Voiceless vowels ====
All Keresan short vowels may be [[Voicelessness|devoiced]] in certain positions. The phonemic status of these vowels is controversial.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book|title=Grammar of Laguna Keres|last=Lachler|first=Jordan|publisher=University of New Mexico Dissertation|year=2005|location=Albuquerque}}</ref> Maring (1967) considers them to be phonemes of Áákʼu Keres, whereas other authors disagree. There are phonetic grounds for vowel devoicing based on the environment they occur, for instance word-finally, but there are also exceptions. Vowels in final position are nearly always voiceless and medial vowels occurring between voiced consonants, after nasals and ejectives are nearly always voiced.<ref name=":3" />
* Word-final devoicing: {{IPA|[pɑ̌ːkʊ̥]}} ''because''
* Word-medial devoicing: {{IPA|[ʔìpʰi̥ʃɑ́]}} ''white paint''