The Vowel System of Korebaju

Korebaju [kòrèβáhᵼ̀] (ISO 639-3: coe) is a Western Tukanoan language from the South-Western part of Colombia. A study conducted in 2017 and 2018 with six native speakers (3 female and 3 male) shows that Korebaju has an inventory of 17 consonants /p, t, k, ph, th, kh, β, ɸ, s, h, tʃ͡, m, n, ɲ, hm, hŋ, r/ and 6 oral vowels /i, e, a, o, u, ɨ/, 6 nasal vowels /ĩ, ẽ, ã, õ, ũ, ᵼ̃/ and 3 glottal vowels /aˀ, eˀ, oˀ/. Contrary to previous studies, this paper shows that Korebaju does not include the vowel [ɯ] in its phonemic inventory. The vowel [ɯ] is an allophone of the high back vowel /u/ when it follows a palatal consonant. In the same context, the high central vowel /ɨ/ also has an allophone [ɪ]. This paper focuses on an acoustic and articulatory description. Data come from a set of words recorded with synchronized audio and EGG signals.