Examples:
|
káundé ‘is good’ |
khâun ‘coffin’ |
gáun ‘head’ |
9. There is also an unvoiced hush sibilant: šei ‘former times’.
10. The nasals occur in three positions: velar, alveolar, and labial. In each position there are two members: plain and preaspirated.
|
ŋâ ‘fish, five’ |
hŋádé ‘borrows, lends’ |
11. The laterals are plain and preaspirated: léi ‘wind’; hléi ‘boat’.
12. The semivowels are /y/ and /w/: yêidé ‘writes’; wêidé ‘is distant’.
13. The interdental fricative /θ/ occurs in both voiceless and voiced variants. For convenience we write ð to represent the voiced variants: θaθθalâ, ‘did (he) kill (it)?’: θéiðalâ ‘is (he) dead?’
14. The glottal spirant is written /h/ and the glottal stop /Ɂ/: houtté ‘(it) is so’; ɁouɁ ‘brick’.
15. In the absolute form of words, voiceless stops, affricates, and sibilants are far more numerous than their voiced counterparts. Sandhi voicing (28–29) reduces the disparity.
Vowels, 16–24
16. /a/: Tones I, II, III, plain and nasal final; low central retracted: cá ‘water lily’; câ ‘tiger’; càdé ‘falls’; cán ‘sugar cane’: cân ‘floor’; càn ‘rhinoceros’.
Tone IV; higher low central: catté ‘is tight’; zaɁ ‘drama’.
Toneless; mid central, lax and variable: zagabyán ‘interpreter’; tayouɁ ‘Chinese’; sâzayá ‘food’.
17. /i/: Tones I, II, III, plain final; high front unrounded, slightly retracted and lowered: thí ‘lottery’; thî ‘umbrella’; thìdé ‘touches’.
Tones I, II, III, nasal final and tone IV; lower high front unrounded, slightly retracted: myíndé ‘sees’; myîn ‘horse’; myìndé ‘is tall’; myiɁ ‘river’.
18. /u/: Tones I, II, III, plain final; high back rounded, slightly fronted: shúdé ‘is boiling’; shû ‘thorn’; shù ‘reward’.
Tones I, II, III, nasal final and tone IV; lower high back rounded, slightly fronted: wewwún ‘bear’; wûn ‘belly’; šùn ‘mud’; wutté ‘wears (clothes)’.
19. /ei/: Tones I, II, III, plain final; higher mid front unrounded, slightly lowered, not diphthongal when final: néi ‘sun’; lêi ‘four’; nèi ‘day (of 12 hours)’.
Tones I, II, III, nasal final and tone IV; higher mid front unrounded, somewhat lower than the preceding, with a glide to lower high front, slightly retracted: séin ‘diamond’; séindé ‘is green’; sèindé ‘drips’; seiɁ ‘mind’.
20. /ou/: Tones I, II, III, plain final; higher mid back rounded, slightly lowered, not diphthongal when final: póudé ‘exceeds’; pôu ‘silk’; pòudé ‘conveys,
Tones I, II, III, nasal final and tone IV; higher mid back rounded, somewhat lower than the preceding, with a glide to lower high back, slightly fronted: póun ‘story, picture’; pôun ‘container’; pòundé ‘swells up’; poutté ‘is putrid’.
