Taos is a Tanoan language spoken by several hundred people in New Mexico, in the United States.
The main description of its phonology was contributed by George L. Trager in a (pre-generative) structuralist framework.
Other examples include In the words /ˈhɑ̄dæ̃, ˈhīʔæ̃nɡæ̃/, the voiced stops become phonetically voiceless, unreleased, and have long durations when word-final in addition to the loss of the final vowel.
Trager (1944) states that the deletion of final /æ̃/ after a sonorant and the retention of /æ̃/ is in free variation but may be related to speaking speed and syntax although the details are still unknown.
Trager (1946) states that the primary and secondary stress levels are in complementary distribution in low-toned and high-toned syllables.
Trager (1946) initially found the stress level to be predictable in syllables with high and low tones; however, Trager (1948) finds this to be in error with the addition of newly collected data and a different theoretical outlook.
In his final historical notes, Trager (1946) suggests that in proto-Taos (or in proto-Tiwa) there may originally have been only a stress system and a contrast of vowel length which later developed into the present tonal-stress system and lost the vowel length contrasts.
Complex onsets consisting of a two-consonant cluster (CC) are found only in loanwords borrowed from New Mexican Spanish.
In other words, the following are possible syllable types in Taos: CV, CVV, CVC, CVVC, CVCC (and in loanwords also: CCV, CCVV, CCVC, CCVVC, CCVCC, CCVVCC).
This can be succinctly represented in the following (where optional segments are enclosed in parentheses): Additionally, every syllable has a tone associated with it.
A single onset C1 can be filled by any Taos consonant (except the borrowed /f/) — that is, /p, pʼ, pʰ, b, m, w, t, tʼ, tʰ, d, n, l, ɬ, tʃ, tʃʼ, s, ɾ, j, k, kʼ, kʷ, kʷʼ, ɡ, x, xʷ, ʔ, h/ are possible onsets.
In a loanword two-consonant C1C<2 cluster, C can be filled only by voiceless stops /p, t, k, f/ while C2 can be filled only by /ɾ, l/ in the following combinations:[29] Of the onsets, /p, pʼ, pʰ, t, tʼ, tʰ, tʃ, tʃʼ, k, kʼ, kʷ, kʷʼ, ʔ, ɬ, x, xʷ, h, pɾ, pl, tɾ, kɾ, kl, fɾ/ can only occur as onsets (and not as codas).
Within the syllable rime, any single Taos vowel — /i, ĩ, e, ẽ, æ, æ̃, ɑ, ɑ̃, ɤ, u, ũ/ — may occur in the nucleus.
[30] A subset of Taos consonants consisting of voiced stops and sonorants — /b, d, ɡ, m, n, l, ɾ, w, j/ — can occur in coda C4 position.
Trager (1944) indicates the type of phonetic/phonological changes that New Mexican Spanish loanwords undergo when being adapted to the Taos language.
Thus, NM Spanish compadre is borrowed as /kumˌpǣjli‑ˈʔī‑næ/ ('one's child's godfather' absolute) (with /adɾ/ [ɑðɾ] > /æjl/).
Later borrowing, which has been subject to less alteration, has led to the development of /ɾ/, word‑initial voiced stops /b, d, ɡ/, syllable‑final /s/, and consonants clusters /pl, pɾ, tɾ, kɾ, kl, fɾ/.