Phonemic inventory

Syllable structure

(C₁)V(C₂)

C₁: a consonant
V: a vowel
C₂: a consonant other than an uvular consonant (/ɴ q ɢ/) or one of /b d g/ (/b d g/)

Allophony

• Non-creaky-voiced non-nasal consonants [p k f ...] persistently assimilate in voice to a following obstruent or nasal and become voiceless word-finally.
• Central vowels [a aː] persistently become non-low front [ɛ ɛː] after a palatal approximant.
• High vowels [i iː u uː] persistently become non-high [e eː o oː] after a non-near-high vowel or an uvular consonant except a vowel.
• Non-nasal implosives [ɓ̰ ɗ̰] persistently become non-creaky-voiced [ɓ ɗ] before a non-nasal phone except a non-nasal vowel or resonant.
• Labial obstruents or nasals [m b ɓ̰ ...] become non-labial rounded and assimilate in dorsality and uvularity and palatalisation and whether palatal or palatalised velar to a following phone.
• Non-ejective voiced vowels and non-glottal stop voiced consonants other than [l], i.e. [m ɢʷ u ...], become creaky-voiced [ɓ ṵ ...] before a creaky-voiced implosive. Consonants other than stops or [ɣʷ ʁʷ] become non-creaky-voiced; non-implosive obstruents other than [v] become implosives; [m n] become [ɓ ɗ]; [v] become [ʋ]; [ɾ] become [ɗ].
• Non-nasal consonants other than implosives [p ɢ ɾ̥ ...] persistently assimilate in voice to a preceding obstruent or nasal.
• Obstruents other than voiced fricatives [p kʷ ɓ ...] become nasals [m ŋʷ m ...] after a nasal. Voiceless obstruents become voiced; obstruents other than stops become stops; creaky-voiced implosives become non-creaky-voiced stops.
• Vowels [i ḛ ɛː ...] become nasal [ĩ ḛ̃ ɛ̃ː ...] before a nasal.
• Obstruents [p gʷ ɗ ...] persistently assimilate in glottalisation to a preceding obstruent. After a creaky-voiced implosive, non-implosive voiced obstruents other than [v] become implosives; [v] become [ʋ].
• Ejective fricatives [fʼ xʼʷ χʼʷ] persistently become non-glottalised non-nasal resonants [ʋ̥ ].
• Short alveolar approximant laterals [l̥ l] become non-lateral taps [ɾ̥ ɾ] between a vowel or resonant and a vowel or resonant.
• Non-nasal consonants other than glottalised stops [p ɢʷ ʁʷ ...] persistently assimilate in voice to a following obstruent or nasal. Before a voiceless obstruent, implosives become non-implosive. Before a voiced obstruent or nasal, ejective fricatives become non-glottalised resonants.
• Velar or uvular obstruents or nasals [ŋ kʷ qʼʷ ...] persistently assimilate in uvularity to a following dorsal consonant.
• Non-back vowels [i eː ɛ̰̃ ...] become back [ɯ ɤː ʌ̰̃ ...] after a back consonant.
• Short non-glottalised non-prenasalised voiced stops [b g ɢʷ ...] become fricatives [β ɣ ʁʷ ...] between a vowel and a vowel. Alveolar stops become resonants; [ɓ] become [ʋ].
• Non-pharyngeal non-alveolar consonants other than uvular consonants [m kʷ ɣ ...] assimilate in palatalisation to a following consonant. Before a palatal approximant, velar obstruents or nasals other than [ŋ] become non-front.
• Stops or nasals [m bʲ kʼʷ ...] become non-affricate and assimilate in place of articulation to a following obstruent. Before an uvular obstruent, implosives become ejective glottal stops. Before a velar obstruent, implosives become ejective glottal stops.

Some words

Generated by Gleb version 0.3.2 / 5.0a with seed 16069267957.