Žérði phonology

Main article: Žérði

This page gives an extensive description of Žérði phonological features.

Consonants

The consonant system distinguishes 23 phonemes, traditionally arranged in the following scheme:

		IPA			Transcription
plosive	voiceless	[p]	[k]	[t]	p	k	t
	voiced	[b]	[g]	[d]	b	g	d
nasal		[m]		[n]	m		n
liquid		[r]		[l]	r		l
fricative	sibilant	[s]		[z]	s		z
	alveolar	[ʃ]		[ʒ]	š		ž
	velar	[ɣ]		[x]	ɣ		x
	glottal		[ɦ]			h
	labio-dental		[v]			v
	palatal		[ç]			ç
	bilabial		[β]			β
	dental		[ð]			ð
affricate		[ʧ]		[ʤ]	č		ğ

The group of the plosive consonants is essentially rich and distinguishes two sub-groups: voiceless and voiced.

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 some distinctions between voiced and voiceless phonemes.

There are two affricate consonants, [ʧ] and [ʤ]. Quite remarkably, there are no approximant phonemes.

Vowels

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

IPA						Transcription
[i]					[u]	i					u
	[e]			[o]			e			o
	[ɛ]			[ɔ]			ɛ			ɔ
		[a]	[ɑ]					a	ɑ

No vowel makes any distinction in length, but all vocalic phonemes are framed in an elaborate tonal system, with multiple tone distinctions. This tonal system is thoroughly described below.

Tones

All vowels make a distinction among five different tones. Tone is a clearly distinctive feature:

ɛ́hnez - ɛ̌hnez
to bite - to help

Using the vowel [a] as an example, the tones, and their graphic transcription, are:

• a: [a˧], mid tone.
• á: [a˧˥], rising tone.
• à: [a˧˩], falling tone.
• â: [a˧˥˧], rising-falling or apical tone.
• ǎ: [a˥˧˥], falling-rising or bottom tone.

The mid tone is usually regarded as a neutral tone, not being graphically expressed by any diacritic mark. The rising and the falling tones are regarded as linear tones. The rising-falling and the falling-rising tones are rearded as spike tones. This distinction is relevant for stress positioning.

Tone variations are abundant among dialects, both diachronically and synchronically. Generally speaking, however, five tonal types are always distinguished.