Ỹhɛ phonology

Main article: Ỹhɛ

This page gives an extensive description of Ỹhɛ phonological features.

Consonants

The consonant system distinguishes 26 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
nasal		[m]		[n]	m		n
liquid		[r]		[l]	r		l
fricative	sibilant		[s]			s
	sibilant palatal	[ɕ]		[ʑ]	ɕ		ʑ
	alveolar	[ʃ]		[ʒ]	š		ž
	velar		[ɣ]			ɣ
	glottal		[h]			h
	labio-dental		[v]			v
	palatal	[ç]		[ʝ]	ç		ʝ
affricate		[ʧ]		[ʤ]	č		ğ
approximant		[j]		[w]	j		w

The group of the plosive consonants is essentially rich and distinguishes three sub-groups: voiceless, voiced, and glottal.

The groups of the nasal and of the liquid consonants are slighty poorer, but anyway quite developed.

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

There are two affricate consonants, [ʧ] and [ʤ]. The phoneme [w] can have both semivocalic and consonantal value, while the phoneme [j] has always a full consonantal value and it is never regarded as a semivowel.

Vowels

There are 13 vocalic phonemes. Each vowel makes a distinction in nasalization, displaying both a non-nasal and a nasal version.

IPA

Transcription

[i] [ĩ]

[u] [ũ]

i ĩ

u ũ

[ɪ] [ɪ̃]

[ʊ] [ʊ̃]

y ỹ

ü ü̃

[e] [ẽ]

[o] [õ]

e ẽ

o õ

[ɛ] [ɛ̃]

[œ] [œ̃]

[ʌ] [ʌ̃]

[ɔ] [ɔ̃]

ɛ ɛ̃

ö ö̃

å å̃

ɔ ɔ̃

[æ] [æ̃]

[ɑ] [ɑ̃]

ä ä̃

ɑ ɑ̃

[a] [ã]

a ã

The opposition in nasalization is fully distinctive:

čü - čü̃
saline - young

No vowel makes any distinction neither in length nor in tone.