Dʰakʰi phonology

Main article: Dʰakʰi

This page gives an extensive description of Dʰakʰi phonological features.

Consonants

The consonant system distinguishes 22 phonemes, traditionally arranged in the following scheme:

		IPA			Transcription
plosive	voiceless	[p]	[k]	[t]	p	k	t
	voiced	[b]	[g]	[d]	b	g	d
	voiceless aspirated	[pʰ]	[kʰ]	[tʰ]	pʰ	kʰ	tʰ
	voiced aspirated	[bʰ]	[gʰ]	[dʰ]	bʰ	gʰ	dʰ
	uvular	[q]	[ɢ]	[ʡ]	q	x	ʡ
nasal		[m]	[n]	[ɴ]	m	n	ṅ
liquid		[r]		[l]	r		l
fricative	sibilant		[s]			s
	post-alveolar		[ʃ]			š

The group of the plosive consonants is remarkably rich and distinguishes five sub-groups: voiceless, voiced, voiceless aspirated, voiced aspirated, and uvular.

TThe groups of the nasal and of the liquid consonants are noticeably poorer, but anyway quite developed. The group of the nasal consonants notably includes the phoneme [ɴ].

The group of the fricative consonants is extremely scarce, with only two phonemes and no distinction between voiced and voiceless phonemes.

There is nor affricate either approximant consonants. The phonemes [j] and [w], although existant, are not traditionally included in the consonant system, since they can have only a semi-vocalic value and they are always regarded only as semivowels.

Vowels

There are 7 vocalic phonemes, which display other forms of distinction.

5 vowels have a short form and a long form. The central phonemes, [ə] and [ɨ], make no distinction in length.

IPA						Transcription
[i]	[iː]	[ɨ]		[u]	[uː]	i	iː	y		u	uː
		[ə]						ə
[ɛ]	[ɛː]			[ɔ]	[ɔː]	e	eː			o	oː
		[a]	[aː]					a	aː

The vocalic system is typologically simple and essentially balanced.

All long vowels have an additional tonal feature, being every of them pronounced with an ascending tone. This feature, however, is not distinctive.