Phonology of Mangue (Chorotega)

Abstract

This paper carries out an analysis of the phonological system of the extinct language Mangue, also known as Chorotega, the southernmost member of the Otomanguean family. It is asserted, just like in Quirós (1988, 2002), that the language possessed three vowel phonemes: /i, u, a/. In comparison to the consonantal system presented by Quirós (2002), three prenasalized stops, /mb, nd, ŋg/, are added to the phoneme inventory, and it is claimed that the language had only one liquid phoneme, represented as /ɾ/, which gives a total of 12 consonant phonemes. On the other hand, the phonemic status of the glides is uncertain. Next, the study looks into the distinctive features of the consonants. Regarding the phonotactics, some complex syllable onsets and some syllables with coda are identified. Finally, it is stated that Mangue had contrastive tones.