Editing Wichita language (section)

===Vowels===

Wichita has either three or four vowels, depending on analysis:{{sfn|Taylor|1963}}<ref name="Rood, 1975, p. 315-337" /><ref name="Garvin, 1950, p. 179-184" />

{| class="wikitable" style=text-align:center
|-
!
! [[Front vowel|Front]]
! [[Back vowel|Back]]
|-
! [[Close vowel|High]]
| ɪ ~ i ~ e
|
|-
! [[Mid vowel|Mid]]
| ɛ ~ æ
| (o/u)
|-
! [[Open vowel|Low]]
|
| ɒ ~ a
|}

These are transcribed as {{angbr|i, e, a, o/u}}.

Word-final vowels are [[phonation|devoiced]].

Though Rood employs the letter {{angbr|o}} in his transcriptions,<ref name="Rood, 2008, p. 395-405" /> Garvin instead uses {{angbr|u}}, and asserts that {{IPA|/u/}} is a separate phoneme.<ref name="Garvin, 1950, p. 179-184" /> However, considering the imprecision in vowel sound articulation, what is likely important about these transcriptions is that they attest to a back vowel that is not low.

Taylor uses Garvin's transcription in his analysis, but theorizes a shift of *u to {{IPA|/i/}} medially in Wichita, but does not have enough examples to fully analyze all the possible environments. He also discusses a potential shift from *a to {{IPA|/i/}}, but again, does not have enough examples to develop a definitive hypothesis. Taylor finds {{IPA|/ɛ/}} only occurs with intervocalic glottal stops.{{sfn|Taylor|1963}}<ref name="Garvin, 1950, p. 179-184" />

Rood argues that {{IPA|[o]}} is not phonemic, as it is often equivalent to any vowel + {{IPA|/w/}} + any vowel. For example, {{IPA|/awa/}} is frequently contracted to {{IPA|[óː]}} (the high tone is an effect of the elided consonant). There are ''relatively'' few cases where speakers will not accept a substitution of vowel + {{IPA|/w/}} + vowel for {{IPA|[o]}}; one of them is {{IPA|[kóːs]}} 'eagle'.{{clarify|reason=Is this saying that [kóːs] would NOT be understood to mean "eagle"?|date=June 2021}}

Rood also proposes that, with three vowels that are arguably high, mid, and low, the front-back distinction is not phonemic, and that one may therefore speak of a '[[vertical vowel system|vertical]]' vowel inventory (see below). This also has been claimed for relatively few languages, such as the [[Northwest Caucasian languages]] and the [[Ndu languages]] of [[Papua New Guinea]].

There is clearly at least a two-way contrast in [[vowel length]]. Rood proposes that there is a three-way contrast, which is quite rare among the world's languages, although well attested for [[Mixe language|Mixe]], and probably present in [[Estonian language|Estonian]]. However, in Wichita, for each of the three to four vowels qualities, one of the three lengths is rare, and in addition the extra-long vowels frequently involve either an extra [[morpheme]], or suggest that [[prosody (linguistics)|prosody]] may be at work. For example,

::{{IPA|nɪːt͡s.híːːʔɪh}} 'the strong one'
::{{IPA|nɪːːt͡s.híːːʔɪh}} 'the strong one'''s''''

::{{IPA|hɛːhɪɾʔíːɾas}} 'let him find you'
::{{IPA|hɛːːhɪɾʔíːɾas}} 'let him find '''it''' for you'

::{{IPA|háɾah}} 'there'
::{{IPA|háːɾɪh}} 'here it is' (said when handing something over)
::{{IPA|háːːɾɪh}} 'that one'

(Note that it is common in many languages to use prosodic lengthening with demonstratives such as 'there' or 'that'.)<ref name="Rood, 1975, p. 315-337" />

This contrasts with Mixe, where it is easy to find a three-way length contrast without the addition of morphemes.<ref name="Rood, 1975, p. 315-337" />

Under Rood's analysis, then, Wichita has 9 phonemic vowels:<ref name="Rood, 1975, p. 315-337" />

{| class="wikitable" style=text-align:center
|-
!
! [[Vowel length|Short]]
! [[Vowel length|Long]]
! [[Vowel length|Overlong]]
|-
! [[Close vowel|High]]
| ɪ
| ɪˑ
| ɪː
|-
! [[Close-mid vowel|Mid]]
| ɛ
| ɛˑ
| ɛː
|-
! [[Open vowel|Low]]
| a
| aˑ
| aː
|}