Phonemic inventory

Syllable structure

(C₁)V(C₂)

C₁: a consonant
V: a vowel
C₂: a consonant

Allophony

• Central vowels [ɨ ɨ̤ a a̤] become back [ɯ ɯ̤ ɑ ɑ̤] before an uvular fricative.
• Before a non-nasal alveolar fricative, non-sibilant coronal non-implosive stops become non-nasal alveolar affricate sibilants; [ɗ̰] become [z].
• Nasals [m̤ n̤ ŋ̤ ...] persistently become nasals and assimilate in place of articulation to a following obstruent.
• Non-sibilant coronal alveolar nasals [n̤ n] persistently become nasals and assimilate in place of articulation to a following obstruent.
• Alveolar voiced nasals [n̤ n] become non-nasal approximant laterals [l̤ l] before an alveolar approximant.
• Obstruents [pʰ d d͡z ...] persistently assimilate in voice to a following non-nasal consonant other than approximant. Before a voiceless consonant, implosives become non-implosive.
• Glottal fricatives [h ɦ] become velar or uvular back fricatives [χ ʁ] before a non-labial obstruent.
• Unaspirated voiced vowels and non-glottal fricative voiced consonants other than fricatives [m d ɨ ...] become breathy-voiced [m̤ d̤ ɨ̤ ...] before a breathy-voiced consonant. Creaky-voiced implosives become non-glottalised non-implosive.
• Tense vowels [i ɨ ɯ̤ ...] become non-high [e ɘ ɤ̤ ...] after a non-near-high vowel or an uvular consonant except for a vowel.
• Unaspirated voiced vowels and non-glottal fricative voiced consonants other than fricatives [m g u ...] persistently become breathy-voiced [m̤ g̤ ṳ ...] after a breathy-voiced consonant. Creaky-voiced implosives become non-glottalised non-implosive.
• Short non-nasal voiced phones other than non-near-high vowels and uvular consonants [b̤ d͡z̤ i ...] become voiceless [pʰ t͡sʰ i̥ ...] before a voiceless glottal fricative. Breathy-voiced vowels and approximants become unaspirated; creaky-voiced implosives become non-implosive.
• [b d g d͡z ɦ i ɨ ɯ u e ɘ ɤ o ɛ ɔ a ɑ] persistently become creaky-voiced before a creaky-voiced implosive. Consonants other than non-affricate stops become non-glottalised; [b d] become [ɓ̰ ɗ̰]; [g] are deleted; [ɦ] become [h]; [d͡z] become [z].
• Non-creaky-voiced non-breathy-voiced voiced vowels [i e ɛ ...] persistently become creaky-voiced [ḭ ḛ ɛ̰ ...] after a creaky-voiced implosive.
• Non-glottalised unaspirated obstruents [p g s ...] persistently assimilate in voice to a preceding obstruent.
• Labial obstruents or nasals [m̤ pʰ b ...] persistently assimilate in labiodentality to a following labial obstruent or nasal.
• Short non-ejective unaspirated voiceless vowels and short non-glottal stop non-glottal fricative voiceless consonants [p ɸ l̥ ...] become voiced [b β l ...] between a voiced phone and a voiced phone.
• Stops or nasals other than [t͡sʰ t͡s d͡z̤ d͡z], i.e. [m̤ ɴ tʰ ...], become non-affricate and assimilate in place of articulation to the previous phone between an obstruent or nasal and an obstruent or nasal. After a velar or uvular obstruent or nasal, implosives are deleted.

Some words

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