stops (such as b/p and g/k), and features a full set of stops and nasals at six places of articulation. The distinction between 'apical' and 'laminal' consonants lies in whether the tip (apex) of the tongue or its flattened blade makes contact with the place of articulation. Hale's 1997 practical orthography has 'k' for in order to disambiguate nasal+velar clusters (as in wanka 'arm') from instances of the velar nasal phoneme (as in wangal ‘boomerang’) and to avoid suggesting -gemination in clusters (as in ngangkirr 'together'). The sounds represented by the digraphs 'nh' and 'ly' are not common in Lardil, but speakers perceive them as distinct, respectively, from and , and they do occur in some words (e.g. minhal 'burnt ground', balyarriny [title of a social subsection]). Vowels Lardil has eight phonemically distinct vowels, differentiated by short and long variants at each of four places of articulation. Phonemic vowel length is an important feature of many Australian languages; minimal pairs in Lardil with a vowel length distinction include waaka/waka 'crow'/'armpit' and thaldi/thaldii 'come here!’/'to stand up'. Long vowels are roughly twice as long as their short counterparts. Some sources describe /e eː/ as low vowels, closer to /æ æː/. Stress Primary word stress in Lardil falls on the initial syllable, and primary phrase stress on the final word in the phrase. These stress rules have some exceptions, notably compounds containing tangka 'man' as a head noun modified by a demonstrative or another nominal; these expressions, and other compound phrases, have phrase-initial stress. Phonotactics Common alternations (consonants) /rr ~ d/, _# The distinction between /rr/ and /d/ is lost word-finally, as in yarburr 'bird/snake', which may be realized as [jaɻpurr] or [yaɻpud], depending on the instance. /d ~ n, j ~ ny/, _N /d/ and /j/ may assimilate to a following nasal, as in bidngen > binngen 'woman', or yuujmen > yuunymen 'oldtime'. /r ~ l/, #_ Word-initial /r/ is often expressed as /l/; as with /rr ~ d/, either (e.g.) [leman] or [reman] may be heard for 'mouth'. Word-final phonology In addition to the common phonological alterations noted above, Lardil features some complex word-final phonology which is affected by both morphological and lexical factors. Augmentation acts on many monomoraic forms, producing, for example, /ʈera/ 'thigh' from underlying *ter. High vowels tend to undergo lowering at the end of bimoraic forms, as in *penki > penke 'lagoon'. In several historical locative/ergatives,