Sobung

Vowels
/ə/ has a limited distribution, occurring only in the first syllable of the ‘free form’ of a word, and never in the root ‘combining form’. It is sometimes elided, for example [səmúk̚] ~ [smúk̚] ‘buffalo’. In these cases an epenthetic word-initial glottal stop may become phonemic: [ʔəŋaá] ~ [ʔŋaá] ‘fish’.

[ʉ] is in complementary distribution with [u]. The former occurs before coronal codas /t n/ and the latter elsewhere. /ʉː/ fully contrasts with /uː/.

Short high and low vowels are somewhat centralized [ɪ ʊ ɐ]. Short mid vowels are approximately [ɛ ɔ] and long mid vowels are diphthongized [ej ow]. Thus, the vowel system could be alternatively analyzed as a quality-sensitive system /i ɪ ʉ u ʊ ej ɛ ow ɔ ə ɐ a/.

Consonants
A marginal phoneme /ʔ/ exists as an onset in otherwise vowel-initial words to fulfill the CV(C) syllable template.

Tones
There are three level tones, /˥ ˧ ˩/. The tone bearing unit is the mora. Tone doesn't have a high functional load. Maybe I'll puzzle it out properly one day.

Syllable structure
Syllables are strictly CV(C). Coda consonants are limited to unreleased stops /p t k/ and modally voiced nasals /m n ŋ/.

Notes on grammar

 * Rigidly head-final
 * Clause-chaining with one finite verb at the end of the sentence, preceded by subordinate clauses
 * Marked nominative alignment
 * Nominative case marker is syncretic with genitive marker
 * Nominative case marking is tied to volition (absent in non-volitional clauses)
 * Various other cases; accusative is unmarked
 * Goals are uniformly marked by a particular case
 * Recipient of a ditransitive
 * Destination of motion
 * Object of a telic event
 * Animate and inanimate noun classes
 * Determiners agree with noun class
 * The verb ‘to exist’ is suppletive for noun class (+ maybe some other verbs too)
 * Most verbs do not agree
 * Roots are pre-categorical, and syntactic category is assigned by position and case marking or subordination morphology
 * Semantics are fairly consistent: verb-like roots that get nouned mean "the act of X-ing" and noun-like roots that get verbed mean "to become X"
 * Idiosyncrasies do exist
 * Quite robust topic-comment structure and extensive use of null subjects
 * Topics are fronted regardless of grammatical relation
 * Topical possessors are dropped
 * Fairly extensive inventory of converbs, most of which also mark switch-reference
 * "Switch-reference" actually tracks something more like "subject (S/A) is the topic" versus "subject is not the topic"
 * Wh-in-situ
 * Numeral classifiers
 * Secundative, T is marked by instrumental case
 * Not quite secundative, since R gets the goal marking, but that's also used for objects of transitives in some cases
 * Most property concept words are obligatorily bound, but can be reduplicated for predicative adjective constructions
 * Words have ‘free’ and ‘combining’ forms; the free form is not predictable from the combining form and is derived from various processes including arbitrary prefixation, infixation, and reduplication
 * Combining form is used for compounds (including with property concept words)
 * Also maybe for certain verbal inflections like negation?
 * A sort of noun incorporation exists where non-specific arguments appear in their combining form following the verb
 * This is not limited to objects, but both subjects and objects can be "incorporated"
 * Kakari-musubi?
 * Maybe it's not that a focus particle governs the inflection of the verb so much as verbs take a non-finite inflection when presupposed, and the presence of a focus particle naturally presupposes the verb
 * Three-term evidential system: visual, reported, inferred (B1)
 * Inferred also encompasses non-visual (as in Qiang)