Some phonological processes

Consonant devoicing

Words of English origin undergo certain changes when they are adopted into Kamtok. One of these changes is the devoicing of final consonants such as /d, g, v, z to produce [t, k, f, s]. When pronounced in isolation, words like /gud/ ‘good’, /big/ ‘big’, /bad/ ‘bad’ and /bed/ ‘bed’ sometimes retain voice on the final consonant, but when they are followed by a word with a voiceless consonant at initial position, the devoicing is obligatory. Consider these examples:

Final consonant devoicing has also been observed to occur systematically in words such as: