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| ==Vowels== | | ==Tones== |
| There are 6 vocalic phonemes, which display other forms of distinction.
| | The long vowels make a distinction in tone, between a '''rising''' [Vː˩˧] tone and a '''falling''' [Vː˧˩] tone. Every long vowel has a tonal feature, which is always marked in the script. |
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| {| class="wikitable"
| | ŋṓʔnez - ŋṑʔnez |
| |- style=max-width:4em
| | <small>to save - to find</small> |
| | colspan="2" | <center>''IPA''</center> || colspan="2" | <center>''Transcription''</center>
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| | <center><small>''front''<small></center> || <center><small>''back''<small></center> || <center><small>''front''<small></center> || <center><small>''back''<small></center>
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| | style="width: 30px;"| <center>[i]</center> || style="width: 30px;"| <center>[u]</center> || style="width: 30px;"| <center>i</center> || style="width: 30px;"| <center>u</center>
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| | <center>[e]</center> || <center>[o]</center> || <center>e</center> || <center>o</center>
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| | <center>[æ]</center> || <center>[a]</center> || <center>æ</center> || <center>a</center>
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| |}
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| The relative scarcity of the vowel system is balanced by the ability of every vowel to be '''lenghtened''' in every syllabic position. This distinction between short and long vowels is phomenic, essentially doubling the amount of the distinguished consonants up to 12.
| | Every long vowel has a tonal feature, which is always marked in the script. |
| sampo - sampoo [sampo – sampoː]
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| <small>new - bird</small>
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| As seen from the above example, long vowels are orthographically transcribed with a double letter.
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| Moreover, all vowels make a primary distinction in backness, being divided in two groups: '''front''' vowels and '''back''' vowels. This distinction is relevant in the process of ''vowel harmony'' between the root and every morphological or derivational affix.
| | pā́ktā́ [ˈpaː˩˧k.taː˩˧] |
| | dū̀ko [ˈduː˧˩.ko] |
Revision as of 15:55, 22 May 2025
Tones
The long vowels make a distinction in tone, between a rising [Vː˩˧] tone and a falling [Vː˧˩] tone. Every long vowel has a tonal feature, which is always marked in the script.
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]
