Hoð‘i phonology

Main article: Hoð‘i

This page gives an extensive description of Hoð‘i phonological features.

Consonants

The consonant system distinguishes 27 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
	palatal		[c]			c
	glottal		[ʔ]			ʔ
nasal		[m]	[n]	[ɲ]	m	n	ň
liquid		[r]		[l]	r		l
fricative	sibilant		[s]			s
	post-alveolar	[ʃ]		[ʒ]	š		ž
	dental		[ð]			ð
	palatal		[ʑ]			ż
	velar	[x]		[ɣ]	x		ɣ
	glottal		[h]			h
	uvular		[ʁ]			ṙ
	labio-dental		[v]			v
affricate			[ʧ]			č
approximant		[j]		[w]	j		w

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

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 a distinction between some voiced and voiceless phonemes limited to the sub-group of velar consonants, and the noteworthy presence of the uvular phoneme [ʁ].

There is one affricate consonant, [ʧ]. 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 10 vocalic phonemes. No vowel makes any distinction neither in length nor in tone:

IPA

Transcription

[i]

[ɨ]

[u]

i

y

u

[e]

[ə]

[o]

e

ə

o

[ɛ]

[ɔ]

ɛ

ɔ

[æ]

æ

[a]

a