Consonants

Allophones of the sounds /b, ʃ, j, k, kʷ, w/ are realized as [β, tʃ, ᵈj~ɲ, ɡ, ɡʷ, ᵑw̃].

Notes:

• [g] is the allophone of /k/ and occurs after a long vowel
• /b/ becomes [β] in between vowels
• The [tʃ] allophone only exists for some speakers, those typically being younger speakers and speakers of non-Colón dialects. It occurs before a vowel, in place of /ʃ/. It is possible that this allophone exists solely because of extensive contact with the Spanish language.
• /j/ and /w/ are nasalized whenever next to a nasal vowel; at the beginning of words these consonants become [ᵈj] and [ɡʷ], respectively. The allophones [ɲ] and [ᵑw̃] occur because of the nasalization of [ᵈj] and [ɡʷ], respectively.

Vowels/Nasals

Notes

• Long vowels retain their full length in stressed, open syllables; they are shortened in closed or unstressed syllables. Short vowels are open and lax in closed or unstressed syllables, unlike long vowels, which are close and tense.
• Nasal vowels are usually more open than oral vowels
• Vowels may be voiceless between voiceless consonants in unstressed syllables

Alphabet and pronunciation

In Pech, the high tone is shown with an accent over the vowel, and unmarked vowels are of the low tone.^[6]

Tone

• As a tone-language, Pech has two to three distinctive pitch-levels: high tone (á, é, í, ó, ú) low tone (à, è, ì, ò, ù), and sometimes, extra low tone. This lower than normal tone is rare, though it occurs particularly with the suffix -rih.
• Tones distinguish between lexical items and inflectional types

Stress

Pech has primary and secondary levels of stress, which are not distinctive. They rely on the underlying marked tone and stem syllables. Primary stress tends to occur in the last syllable of the stem. Primary and secondary stress are also related to inflectional suffixes.

Distribution of consonant phonemes

Syllable clusters

• Initial consonant clusters begin with a true stop followed by /r/. These would include pr, tr, kr, and br.
• Medial consonant clusters may contain two consonants, three consonants if either the initial or ending consonant is /r/, or four consonants if both the initial and ending consonants are /r/.
• Geminate consonant clusters only occur with /k/, /s/, and /s̆/
  • túkkawá I placed it
  • peessàwa their hands
  • warès̆s̆e:bàrs̆i we chopped them all down
• Vowel clusters are usually diphthongal. Non-diphthongal vowel clusters have an associated glottal structure V?V
  • Diphthongs that occur are mostly ay and aw, though there are a few cases of ey.

Phonological processes

Internal sandhi: this includes vocalic contraction and assimilation, vocalic and consonantal syncope, nasal assimilation, metathesis, and epenthesis

• Vocalic contractions:
  • a + a = a; i.e. a-ra-hà? becomes [-rá?];
  • a + w or w + a = o and a + wa = ɑ; i.e. apè:s̆wàkwa-térskà becomes [pè:s̆wàkotɛ́rská]
  • a + i (or y) = e; i.e. ã̀-i-wá becomes [nḕw̃ã̀]
• Vocalic assimilation: when i precedes w, it becomes u (s̆i-wa becomes s̆uwa). This may possible include non-high vowels, as in the case with sàwa which is sometimes pronounced [sùwa]
• Consonantal assimilation is actually quite rare as it seems to only really occur in the word pes̆hará becoming [pes̆s̆rá] (when following /s̆/, /h/ is realized as /s̆/).
• Nasal assimilation of vowels and semivowels occurs in segments in which vowels, glides, a glottal stop, and /h/ occur

Nouns

Prefixes and suffixes inflect nouns for possession.

• The 2nd-person plural involves discontinuous morphemes
• ʔ appears between any prefixes and a noun beginning with a vowel, i.e. pè:-sòrwa vs ta?-ìraka

Inalienably Possessed Nouns: These generally occur with possessive pronominal prefixes. These prefixes are only dropped when these noun-stems are part of compound nouns.

• Body-part terms
  • ta-sàwa 'my hand(s)'
  • a-màkú 'his/her navel'
  • a-súru 'its rib(s)'
• Terms of spatial relationship: spatial relationships are composed of possessed relational nouns + locative case-suffix -yã̀. Examples of these terms:
  • a-sùkk-yã̀ 'behind/back'
  • a-wákiʔ-yã̀ 'in front of'
  • a-brì-yã̀ 'beside, alongside'
  • a-ʔà-yã̀ 'on top of'
  • a-ràhni-yã̀ 'outside of'

Note: 'between' does not follow this pattern, as seen in asàʔ a-kèrahã̀ 'between the stones'

• Kinship Terms
  • ta-kà:ki 'my mother'
  • pí-tu:s 'your father'
  • a-ta-kàyʔká 'my nephew'
  • a-šuwá 'her husband's brother'
  • a-sáʔa 'his wife's sister'
  • ta-wã̀ʔã 'my mother-in-law'
• Words for natural emanations or effluvia: these are words possessed by natural substances, persons, or phenomena
  • e.g. asò a-wã̀ská means steam, though its literal translation is 'water its-smoke'
• Other special words: words expressing things that stand in special relationships to humans
  • e.g. pata-tí:štahá meaning 'God', with its literal translation being 'our sower'

Case Suffixes with complex noun-phrases:

• These are attached to the final word of the phrase
• When there are multiple adjectives present, each is marked with the same case-suffix
• In clauses, the case-marking suffix is usually associated with the verb

Emphatic Suffixes These occur with subjects, direct objects, and some oblique objects that are already marked with case-suffixes. These suffixes are -ma (with subject, direct object noun, or noun-phrase) and -hã̀ʔ (with objective and locative nouns)

• Subject pronouns are optional, and are generally accompanied by -yã̀ʔ or -ma, though some may occur without.

Verbs

Verb inflection is made with prefixes and suffixes, though vocalic ablaut is present in certain verb-stems and future-tense suffixes. Positions for the finite verb include:

• Object-pronominal prefix
• Object case-marking morphemes
• Verb-stem
• Frequentative/durational aspect-suffixes
• Completive suffix
• Aspect-suffixes
• Subject-suffixes
• Negative suffix
• Tense-suffixes
• Modal and aspectual suffixes
• 2nd-person-plural suffix

Adjectives

• Qualitative adjectives: uninflected, though case-suffixes may be present if phrase-finally in a noun phrase
• Demonstrative adjectives: no definite article exists, though these serve a similar purpose and precede the nouns they modify. They include ī 'this, these' (proximal), tuʔ (~toʔ) 'that, those' (distal 1), ã 'that, those' (distal 2).
• Numerals: appear independently after the nouns they modify

Adverbs

• Adverbs of manner: can be created with the case-suffix -kán.
• Adverbs of time: morphologically postpositional phrases involving the mediative case-suffix
• Adverbs of location

Word Order

Pech is an SOV (subject–object–verb) language (Holt 1999). There are exceptions to this, as oblique noun-phrases, adverbials, direct object noun-phrases, and subject noun-phrases all are capable of occurring after verbs. Overall, Pech is a synthetic language which uses mostly suffixes, but also prefixes, vocalic ablaut, and reduplication as well.

Sentences

In Pech, both simple and complex sentences exist. The first consists of a single independent clause while the latter consists of independent and dependent clauses. Independent nouns or pronoun subjects are not necessary within a sentence, and sentence may contain no more than a single verb form, within which the pronominal subject is marked.

The focus of a sentence is marked by the emphatic suffix -ma, which may follow nouns, pronouns, verbal nominals, time adverbials, and other word types. Object nouns and noun-phrases can be emphasized with the suffix -hã́?, which follows the objective or locative case-suffix. The suffixes -ma and -hã́? cannot both be within the same simple sentence.

Other parts of a sentence are marked as follows:

Conjunction:

• Notes
  • Because verbal compounds are possible in Pech, verbal words can be quite lengthy.
  • Disjunction: marked by the particle á:ã́srī́?

Subordination:

Interrogation:

• Notes:
  • 'How' also includes the verb kà?-/kì?- which means 'make/do'