Nämty phonology

Main article: Nämty

This page gives an extensive description of Nämty phonological features.

Consonants

The consonant system distinguishes 24 phonemes, traditionally arranged in the following scheme:

		IPA			Transcription
plosive	voiceless	[p]	[k]	[t]	p	k	t
	voiced	[b]	[g]	[d]	b	g	d
	palatal	[c]		[ɟ]	c		ɟ
retroflex			[ʂ]			ʂ
nasal		[m]	[n]	[ɲ]	m	n	ň
liquid		[r]	[l]	[ʎ]	r	l	ʎ
fricative	sibilant		[s]			s
	post-alveolar		[ʃ]			š
	bilabial		[β]			β
	palatal	[ç]		[ɕ]	ç		ɕ
	glottal		[h]			h
	pharyngeal		[ħ]			ħ
affricate			[ʧ]			č
approximant			[w]			w

The group of the plosive consonants distinguishes four sub-groups: voiceless, voiced, and palatal.

The groups of the nasal and of the liquid consonants are slighty poorer, but anyway quite developed. There is noticeably only one retroflex phoneme, [ʂ].

The group of the fricative consonants is overall well developed and rich in points of articulation, with only one voiced phoneme, [β].

There is one affricate consonant, [ʧ]. The phoneme [w] can have both a semivocalic and a full consonantal value.

Vowels

There are 11 vocalic phonemes. No vowel makes any distinction neither in length nor in tone:

IPA

Transcription

[i]

[ɨ]

[u]

i

y

u

[ʏ]

ü

[e]

[ɤ]

[o]

e

ë

o

[œ]

ö

[æ]

[ɑ]

ä

ɑ

[a]

a