Middle Nyángar
Phonology
Phonemes
Consonants
Middle Nyángar contrasts 28 different consonant sounds:
| Consonants | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bilabial | Labiodent. | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||||||||||
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | |||||||||||||
| Nasal Geminate | m: | n: | ŋ: | |||||||||||||
| Plosive | p | b | t | d | g | q | ʔ | |||||||||
| Plosive Geminate | g: | |||||||||||||||
| Ejective | tʼ | qʼ | ||||||||||||||
| Implosive | ɓ | ɗ | ||||||||||||||
| Fricative | ɸ | v | s̺ | s̻ | ʁ | |||||||||||
| Fricative Geminate | s̺: | |||||||||||||||
| Lateral Fricative | ɬ | |||||||||||||||
| Lateral Approximant | l | |||||||||||||||
| Approximant | w | j | ||||||||||||||
Vowels
Despite the moderate consonant inventory, the language only contrasts 3 vowel qualities, also contrasting short and long quantities.
| Vowels | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Front | Central | Back | ||||||||
| Close | i(:) | u(:) | ||||||||
| Open | a(:) | |||||||||
There are also 3 diphthongs, each with a corresponding long diphthong:
/ɑe æu øy/ and /ɑ:e æ:u ø:y/
Orthography
Middle Nyángar uses a modified version of the Latin alphabet in writing. It is a somewhat deep orthography, that is, there is no one-to-one correspondence between phoneme and grapheme. Here are the phonemes again with their corresponding graphemes.
| Consonants | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phoneme | Grapheme | ||||||||
| m, m: | m | ||||||||
| n, n: | n | ||||||||
| ŋ, ŋ: | ng | ||||||||
| p | p, ph | ||||||||
| b, ɓ | b | ||||||||
| t | t | ||||||||
| d, ɗ | d | ||||||||
| g, g: | g | ||||||||
| q | c, k | ||||||||
| ʔ | h | ||||||||
| t' | t, th | ||||||||
| q' | c, k, kh | ||||||||
| ɸ | f | ||||||||
| v | v | ||||||||
| s̺, s̺: | s | ||||||||
| s̻ | z | ||||||||
| ʁ | r | ||||||||
| ɬ | l, lh | ||||||||
| l | l | ||||||||
| w | w | ||||||||
| j | j | ||||||||
| Vowels | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phoneme | Grapheme | ||||||||
| ɑ | a, ä | ||||||||
| i | i, ï ie | ||||||||
| u | o, u, ü | ||||||||
| ɑ: | ai, oe | ||||||||
| i: | e, ë, ee, ui | ||||||||
| u: | iu, ue, uu | ||||||||
| ɑe | ia, í | ||||||||
| æu | eu, ou | ||||||||
| øy | o, ö, eo | ||||||||
| ɑ:e | ae, ei, í | ||||||||
| æ:u | á, io, ou, oou | ||||||||
| ø:y | á, ou, oou, ú | ||||||||
Spelling
In general, spelling is quite straightforward; it just so happens that there are multiple ways to write many of the sounds, and in a few cases, some spellings have multiple pronunciations. There aren't any patterns to this, spelling just has to be learned with pronunciation.
The diaeresis (ä ë ï ö ü) has a specialized function. As you can see, each single vowel has a diaersis counterpart that is pronounced essentially the same as its non-diaeresis version. The diaeresis is only used when a vowel follows another vowel and it creates two syllables, rather than a diphthong.
In general, a glide is inserted in between the two vowels in pronunciation (either [j w ɥ]). Those that introduce a [j] are: aï, aë, eä, eö, eü. Those that introduce a [w] are: aü, iä, iö, iü. Those that introduce a [ɥ] are: oä, oë, öi.
There are also some unusual spelling quirks that are introduced due to the diaeresis, shown in the table below:
| Irregular Spelling | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Should be | Is Spelled | ||||||||
| aä | a, aa | ||||||||
| aö | o | ||||||||
| eë | ee | ||||||||
| eï | ee | ||||||||
| ië | ee | ||||||||
| iï | ee | ||||||||
| oö | oou | ||||||||
| oü | oou | ||||||||
| uö | uu | ||||||||
| uü | uu | ||||||||
In general, these are pronounced as would be expected: aa [ɑ:], ee [i:], oou [æ:u] or [øy], uu [u:] (when the ö comes from [u])
Additionally, uä, uë, uï, uö are pronounced [ɥɑ], [ɥi:], [ɥi], [ɥø] (when the ö derives from [øy])
