Pı̇ħ phonology

Main article: Pı̇ħ

This page gives an extensive description of Pı̇ħ phonological features.

Consonants

The consonant system distinguishes 17 phonemes, traditionally arranged in the following scheme:

		IPA			Transcription
plosive		[p]	[k]	[t]	p	k	t
		[q]		[ʔ]	q		ʔ
nasal		[m]		[n]	m		n
		[ɴ]		[ŋ]	ɴ		ŋ
liquid		[r]		[ɮ]	r		ɬ
fricative	sibilant		[s]			s
	velar		[x]			x
	faringal		[ħ]			ħ
	glottal		[h]			h
	bilabial		[ɸ]			ɸ
affricate			[ʦ]			ts

The group of the plosive consonants and the group of the fricative consonants are essentially balanced, with the same amount of phonemes. They considerably differ in their places of articulation. Both groups overall lack any voiced or aspirated phoneme.

The group of the nasal consonants is overall well developed, with four places of articulation, while the group of the liquid consonants is notably poorer, with the noteworthy presence of the phoneme [ɮ].

There is only one affricate phoneme, [ʦ].

Vowels

There are 7 vocalic phonemes.

IPA					Transcription
[i]				[u]	ı				u
	[e]		[o]			e		o
	[ɛ]		[ɔ]			ɛ		ɔ
		[a]					a

Aside from the distinction in height and backness, all vowels are framed in a tonal system, with a threefold tone distinction. This tonal system is thoroughly described below.

Tones

All vowels make a distinction among three different tones. Tone is a clearly distinctive feature:

ɬɔ̇j - ɬɔj - ɬɔ̣j
eagle - to say - to cultivate

Using the vowel [a] as an example, the tones, and their graphic transcription, are:

• ȧ: [a⁵⁵], high tone.
• a: [a³³], mid tone.
• ạ: [a¹¹], low tone.

All tones as regarded as linear, other tonal types not being present in the same syllable. The mid is usually regarded as a neutral tone, not being graphically expressed by any diacritic mark. The high and the low tones, conversely, are expressed by a dot over or under the letter.