Emmese

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Emmese is a language isolate.

Phonology

Phonemic Inventory

Consonants

  Labial Dental Alveolar Palatal Dorsal Glottal
Plosive p  b t̪  d̪ t  d c  ɟ k  g ʔ
Fricative ɸ  β θ  ð s  z ʃ  ʒ χ h
Nasal m n̪, n ɲ ŋ  
Trill     r      
Approximant     l j w  

Many of these consonants are found only in Sandhi or other similar contexts.

Front Central Back
Close y  ɪ u  ʊ
Mid e ə o
Open a  ɐ

Emmese has tense-lax vowel harmony throughout its verbal chains, although there are exceptions to this rule.

Grammar

Emmese forms sentences using so-called 'verbal chains'. As an ergative-absolutive language, these always consist of a patient pronoun and a verb.