Lesson 3 — Sound Rule — Double consonants become aspirated

When two identical consonants of a certain type come one after another, they're pronounced as a single aspirated consonant.
This happens with the three person markers k–, p– and s–.  As usual, the arrow indicates the result or output of applying the sound rule.
with k–    k–kuti kuti "I see" kuti to see, look
  ma k–koko ma koko "my father"  
       
with p– ma p–pu ma pu "your hand/arm" hand, arm
  ma p–popo ma popo   "your grandfather (paternal)"  ma pu
       
with s– ma s–sa ma sa "his/her/its tooth"   toothma sa
  s–sinay sinay "he/she puts something away"  
       
Sibilant harmony applies when the person marker s– comes before a word that starts with .
There are two steps here:  First sibilant harmony applies when s– becomes before the that comes after it, and then the sequence of + becomes .
  s–oyin oyin "it is dark, black"    
  ma s–ay ma ay "his/her daughter"    
  s–umaw umaw "he/she/it is healthy"   to be well, healthy; "the child is healthy"
  crow' "the bird is black" or "the crow is black"
umaw ha ii
  oyin ha wic
  or  oyin ha a  

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