Möxale phonology

Exodus Xiri
In Exodus Xiri, the unstressed vowel allophones were phonemicised by the merger of unstressed [ɪ ʊ] and stressed [e o] into /e o/. The resulting inventory contrasts three vowel heights in the series /i e ɛ/ and /u o ɔ/, where /i u/ only occur in stressed syllables. /ɛ ɔ/ may occur in stressed syllables due to a shift in the long vowels: /eː øː ɒː/ → /ɛ ø ɔ/.

The inventory of front rounded vowels was also expanded through contact with Alöbi, introducing /y/ which was always stressed like /i/ and /u/. Unrounded vowels [a ɛ e i] were rounded to [ɔ œ ø y] by preceding /w/, which was additionally lost in unstressed syllables. For example, Middle Xiri kwíkwi [ˈkwi.kwɪ] "(a lot of) yams" becomes Exodus Xiri kwükö [ˈkwy.kø], through an intermediate stage [ˈkwi.kwe]. [ø] and [œ] form a complementary distribution in stressed and unstressed syllables respectively. It is possible that the distinction was marginally phonemic, since stressed [œ] could theoretically have formed via [ˈwei̯] → [ˈweː] → [ˈwɛ] → [ˈwœ], but no such examples are known.