Ṙaçi phonology

Main article: Ṙaçi

This page gives an extensive description of Ṙaçi phonological features.

Consonants

The consonant system distinguishes 42 phonemes, traditionally arranged in the following scheme:

		IPA			Transcription
plosive	voiceless	[p]	[k]	[t]	p	k	t
	voiced	[b]	[g]	[d]	b	g	d
	uvular		[q]			q
	glottal		[ʔ]			ʔ
	palatal		[ɟ]			ɟ
nasal		[n]	[ɴ]	[ɲ]	n	ṅ	ň
			[m]			m
retroflex	dental	[ʈ]		[ɖ]	ʈ		ɖ
	nasal		[ɳ]			ɳ
	liquid	[ɽ]	[ɻ]	[ɭ]	ɽ	ɽ̇	ɭ
	sibilant	[ʂ]		[ʐ]	ʂ		ʐ
liquid		[r]		[l]	r		l
fricative	sibilant	[s]		[z]	s		z
	post-alveolar	[ʃ]		[ʒ]	š		ž
	palatal-alveolar		[ɕ]			ɕ
	palatal	[ç]		[ʝ]	ç		ʝ
	glottal		[h]			h
	velar		[x]			h
	pharyngeal	[ħ]		[ʕ]	ḣ		ṙ
	labio-dental	[f]		[v]	f		v
affricate		[ʧ]		[ʤ]	č		ǧ
approximant	post-alveolar	[j]		[w]	j		w
	lateral		[ɬ]			[ɬ]
	labio-dental		[ʋ]			[ḃ]

The group of the plosive consonants is essentially rich and distinguishes five sub-groups: voiceless, voiced, voiced aspirated, uvular, glottal and palatal, even though the latter three sub-groups include only one phoneme each.

The groups of the nasal is noticeably rich, while the group of the liquid is considerably poorer.

There is an entire group of retroflex consonants, which is remarkably well developed and distinguishes four sub-groups, dental, nasal, liquid, and sibilant.

The group of the fricative consonants is overall well developed and rich in points of articulation, with an extensive distinction between voiced and voiceless phonemes.

There is are two affricate consonants, [ʧ] and [ʤ]. The group of the approximant is unexpectedly rich and developed, and it distinguishes three sub-groups, post-alveolar, lateral, and labio-dental. The phonemes [j] and [w] can have both a semivocalic and a full consonantal value.

Vowels

There are 10 vocalic phonemes. No vowel makes any distinction neither in length nor in tone:

IPA

Transcription

[i]

[u]

i

u

[ɪ]

[ʊ]

y

ü

[e]

[o]

e

o

[ə]

ə

[œ]

ö

[æ]

ä

[a]

a