Phonology

Sound inventory and phonological rules

21 consonants
12 vowels

Consonant Inventory

MannerBilabialLabiodentalAlveolarPostalveolarRetroflexPalatalVelarUvularPharyngeal
Plosive
pb
·
td
·
ɖ
·
kg
·
·
Nasal
m
·
n
·
·
·
·
·
·
Fricative
·
f
s
ʒ
·
·
·
χʁ
ħ
Affricate
·
·
·
tʃdʒ
·
·
·
·
·
Approximant
·
·
·
·
·
ɥ
w
·
·
Lateral approximant
·
·
l
·
·
·
·
·
·

Vowel Inventory

HeightFrontCentralBack
Close
iy
·
u
Close-mid
eø
·
o
Mid·
ə
·
Open-mid
ɛ
·
ɔ
Open
aɶ
·
ɑ

Syllable Structure

CV(V)

Phoneme Frequency

Distribution of phonemes across 281 transcribed dictionary entries (999 total tokens)

/u/
88 (8.8%)
/s/
69 (6.9%)
/a/
62 (6.2%)
/o/
60 (6%)
/ɖ/
60 (6%)
/ʁ/
53 (5.3%)
/k/
49 (4.9%)
/i/
47 (4.7%)
/ɔ̃/
46 (4.6%)
/ʒ/
46 (4.6%)
/j/
40 (4%)
/n/
34 (3.4%)
/t/
34 (3.4%)
/e/
33 (3.3%)
/ɛ̃/
28 (2.8%)
/b/
26 (2.6%)
/ɛ/
25 (2.5%)
/wa/
24 (2.4%)
/ø/
21 (2.1%)
/ɶ/
19 (1.9%)
/f/
19 (1.9%)
/l/
15 (1.5%)
/m/
15 (1.5%)
/p/
12 (1.2%)
/ɥ/
11 (1.1%)
/y/
11 (1.1%)
/ɔ/
10 (1%)
/ɑ̃/
10 (1%)
/wi/
9 (0.9%)
/w/
8 (0.8%)