Lesson 2 — Sound Rule 2 — Sibilant harmony

You've already learned about sibilant harmony within words.
As a reminder, there are two kinds of sibilants in Samala. The phonetic symbols help to make the difference between these two classes of sounds clearer.
c and s — hissing sounds of "ts" and "s"
No wedge: c and s
With wedge: and
or and — hushing sounds of "ch" and "sh"
Sibilant harmony also applies when you put build larger words out of smaller elements.
The sound rule of sibilant harmony is that the last sibilant in the word determines whether all the sibilants that come before it in the word are:
c and s — hissing sounds of "ts" and "s"
as in  ciwis  "rattle"
or and — hushing sounds of "ch" and "sh" as in  aya  "path, trail"

Sibilant Harmony and the person marker s–

You often use the rule of sibilant harmony when you add the person marker s– to a word.
The third-person marker s– becomes if or show up later in the word.
This happens whether or come right after the s– dead, to be dead  
s–amn am "he knows," "she knows" to cry, weep
or one syllable later
s–aqan aqan "he/she/it dies, is dead"       aqan
  s–mi mi "he/she/it cries"
strong, to be strong
mi
  s–ukal ukal "he/she/it is strong" crooked, twisted, to be crooked
or even further away.
  s–woyo woyo "it is crooked, twisted"
ukal    
woyo
  s–popo popo "his/her grandfather (on the father's side)"

Two sound rules in order

You've learned two sound rules so far:
1 s becomes before l, n and t.    
2 sibilant harmony — where the last sibilant in the word determines the ones that come before it   red, to be red
  s–tasn "it is red"  
Suppose you add s– to a word that starts with l, n and t and also contains a c or s sound.
The second rule prevails, since it applies after the first rule.
Result:  s–tasn stays stasn rather than becoming *tasn.

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