How to Reduce an Unwritten Language to Writing: II. Consonants

This is the second article on reducing field languages to the written word. Here the author deals with the consonants, setting up a basic set of eighteen consonants and two semivowels and expanding them with Series-Generating Components (SGCs) to forty-eight. There are, of course, many more consonantal varieties in the languages of the world, but this set should be sufficient to get a field ethnographer started. The ethnographer who encounters exotic sounds not listed in this article should consult an expert. Much can be learned by reading about the languages of the area where the fieldwork is to take place. The appendix contains an empty form to be duplicated for fieldwork with unwritten languages.