Editing Wichita language (section)

===Consonants===

Wichita has 10 [[consonant]]s. In the [[Americanist phonetic notation|Americanist]] orthography generally used when describing Wichita, {{IPA|/t͡s/}} is spelled {{angle bracket|c}}, and {{IPA|/j/}} is {{angle bracket|y}}.

{| class="wikitable" style=text-align:center
|-
! rowspan="2" |
! rowspan="2" |[[Alveolar consonant|Alveolar]]
! colspan="2" | [[Dorsal consonant|Dorsal]]
! rowspan="2" | [[Glottal consonant|Glottal]]
|-
! <small>plain</small>
! <small>[[Labialization|labial.]]</small>
|-
! [[Plosive]]
| {{IPA link|t}}
| {{IPA link|k}}
| {{IPA link|kʷ}}
| {{IPA link|ʔ}}
|-
! [[Affricate]]
| {{IPA link|t͡s}}
|
|
|
|-
! [[Fricative]]
| {{IPA link|s}}
|
|
| {{IPA link|h}}
|-
! [[Sonorant]]
| {{IPA link|ɾ}} ~ {{IPA link|n}}
|
|
|
|-
! [[Semivowel]]
|
| {{IPA link|j}}
| {{IPA link|w}}
| 
|}

Though neither Rood nor Garvin include nasals in their respective consonant charts for Wichita, Rood's later inclusion of nasals in phonetic transcription for his 2008 paper ("Some Wichita Recollections: Aspects of Culture Reflected in Language") support the appearance of at least {{IPA|/n/}}.<ref name="Rood, 2008, p. 395-405" />
* [[labial consonant|Labials]] are generally absent, occurring in only two roots: '''kammac''' ''to grind corn'' and '''camma:ci''' ''to hoe, to cultivate'' (⟨c⟩ = {{IPA|/t͡s/}}).
* Apart from the {{IPA|/m/}} in these two verbs, [[Nasal stop|nasals]] are allophonic. The allophones {{IPA|[ɾ]}} and {{IPA|[n]}} are in [[complementary distribution]]: It is {{IPA|[n]}} before alveolars ({{IPA|/t, ts, s/}} and in geminate {{IPA|[nn]}}) and initially before a vowel, and {{IPA|[ɾ]}} elsewhere. Thus its initial consonant clusters are {{IPA|[n]}} and {{IPA|[ɾ̥h]}}, and its medial & final clusters are {{IPA|[nts], [nt], [ns], [nn], [ɾʔ], [ɾh]}}.
* Final ''r'' and ''w'' are voiceless: {{IPA|[ɾ̥], [w̥]}}
* Glottalized final consonants: One aspect of Wichita phonetics is the occurrence of glottalized final consonants. Taylor asserts that when a long vowel precedes a glottal stop (ʔ), there is no change to the pronunciation. However, when the glottal stop is preceded by a short vowel, the vowel is eliminated. If the short vowel was preceded by a consonant, then the consonant is glottalized. Taylor hypothesizes that these glottalized final consonants show that the consonant was not originally a final consonant, that the proto form (an earlier language from which Wichita split off, that Taylor was aiming to reconstruct in his paper) ended in a glottal stop, and that a vowel has been lost between the consonant and glottal stop.{{sfn|Taylor|1963}}

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|-
! Original word ending
! Change
! Result
! Wichita example
|-
| {{IPA|[Vːʔ#]}}
| No change
| {{IPA|[Vːʔ#]}}
|
|-
| {{IPA|[VːVʔ#]}}
| -{{IPA|[V]}}
| {{IPA|[Vːʔ#]}}
| {{IPA|[hijaːʔ]}} (snow)
|-
| {{IPA|[CVʔ#]}}
| -{{IPA|[V]}}
| {{IPA|[Cʔ#]}}
| {{IPA|[kiːsʔ]}} (bone)
|}

: {{IPA|Vː}} - long vowel
: V - short vowel
: C - consonant
: # - preceding sound ends word
* Taylor also finds that previous phonetic transcriptions have recorded the phoneme {{IPA|/ts/}} (aka {{angbr|c}}), as occurring after {{IPA|/i/}}, while {{IPA|/s/}} is recorded when preceded by {{IPA|/a/}}.{{sfn|Taylor|1963}}
* The {{IPA|*kʷ, *w, *p}} merger; or Why Wichita Has No {{IPA|/p/}}:
** In Wichita the sounds {{IPA|/kʷ/}} and {{IPA|/w/}} are not differentiated when they begin a word, and word-initial *p has become {{IPA|/w/}}. This is unusual, in that the majority of Caddoan languages pronounce words that used to begin with *w with {{IPA|/p/}}. In Wichita, the three sounds were also merged when preceded by a consonant. Wichita shifted consonant initial *p to {{IPA|/kʷ/}} with other medial occurrences of *p. {{IPA|/kʷ/}} and {{IPA|/w/}} remain distinct following a vowel. For example, the word for 'man' is {{IPA|/wiːt͡s/}} in Wichita, but {{IPA|/piːta/}} in South Band Pawnee and {{IPA|/pita/}} in Skiri Pawnee.{{sfn|Taylor|1963}}