Rertu phonology

Main article: Rertu

This page gives an extensive description of Rertu phonological features.

Consonants

The consonant system distinguishes 21 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
	glottal		[ʔ]			ʔ
nasal		[m]	[n]	[ŋ]	m	n	ŋ
liquid		[r]		[l]	r		l
fricative	sibilant	[s]		[z]	s		z
	alveolar	[ʃ]		[ʒ]	š		ž
	glottal		[h]			h
approximant		[j]		[w]	j		w

The group of the plosive consonants is essentially rich and distinguishes four sub-groups: voiceless, voiced, palatal and glottal, even though the glottal sub-group includes only the phoneme [ʔ].

The groups of the nasal and of the liquid consonants are slighty poorer, but anyway quite developed, with the noteworthy presence of the velar phoneme [ŋ].

The group of the fricative consonants is overall scarce, both in the amount of phonemes and in points of articulation, with an extended distinction between voiced and voiceless phonemes, except for the sub-group of glottal consonants.

There is no affricate consonant. The phonemes [j] and [w] have a full consonantal value and they are never regarded as semivowels.

Vowels

There are 8 vocalic phonemes, which display other forms of distinction:

IPA						Transcription
[i]	[iː˩˧] [iː˧˩]			[u]	[uː˩˧] [uː˧˩]	i	ī́ ī̀			u	ū́ ū̀
[e]	[eː˩˧] [eː˧˩]			[o]	[oː˩˧] [oː˧˩]	e	ḗ ḕ			o	ṓ ṑ
[ɛ]	[ɛː˩˧] [ɛː˧˩]			[ɔ]	[ɔː˩˧] [oː˧˩]	ɛ	ɛ̄́ ɛ̄̀			ɔ	ɔ̄́ ɔ̄̀
	[a]	[aː˩˧] [aː˧˩]	[ɑ]	[ɑː˩˧] [ɑː˧˩]			a	ā́ ā̀	ɑ	ɑ̄́ ɑ̄̀

Every vowel has a short form and a long form. Each long form distinguishes two types: one with a rising tone and one with a falling tone.

Tones

The long vowels make a distinction in tone, between a rising [Vː˩˧] tone and a falling [Vː˧˩] tone.

ŋṓʔnez - ŋṑʔnez
to save - to find

Every long vowel has a tonal feature, which is always marked in the script.

pā́ktā́ [ˈpaː˩˧k.taː˩˧]
dū̀ko [ˈduː˧˩.ko]