Appendix:Zemeni pronunciation
Zemeni has 26 consonants, 5 vowels and 2 glides.
Standard Romanization
| Letter | IPA | English example | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| a | a | father | |
| b | b | bath | |
| ch | tʃ | watch | |
| d | d | dog | |
| dz | dz | adze | |
| e | e | bait | |
| f | f | food | |
| g | ɡ | good | |
| h | h | ham | |
| i | i | machine | |
| j | dʒ | jog | |
| k | k | skill | |
| kh | x | loch (Scottish English) | |
| ky | c ~ kʲ | skew | |
| l | l | left | |
| ly | ʎ | million | |
| m | m | man | |
| n | n | no | Assimilates to a following velar consonant. |
| ny | ɲ | onion | |
| o | o | moat | |
| p | p | span | |
| r | ɾ | battle | |
| ry | ɾʲ | medium | |
| s | s | see | |
| sh | ʃ | sheep | |
| t | t | stop | |
| ts | ts | pits | |
| u | u | rude | |
| v | v | voice | |
| w | w | wet | |
| y | j | young | |
| z | z | zone | |
| zh | ʒ | casual |
Notes:
- Geminates: To pronounce a geminate consonant, simply pronounce it twice. They are written by doubling the consonant letter. In the case of digraphs, only the first letter of the digraph is doubled.
Phonetics
Consonants
Zemeni has 26 phonemic consonants and 2 phonemic glides:
| Labial | Alveolar | Post-alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ny [ɲ] | (ng [ŋ]) | |||
| Stop | voiceless | p | t | ky [c ~ kʲ] | k | ||
| voiced | b | d | g | ||||
| Affricate | voiceless | ts | ch [tʃ] | ||||
| voiced | dz | j [dʒ] | |||||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | sh [ʃ] | kh [x] | h | |
| voiced | v | z | zh [ʒ] | ||||
| Approximant | w | y [j] | |||||
| Lateral | l | ly [ʎ] | |||||
| Tap | r [ɾ] | ry [ɾʲ] | |||||
Vowels
Zemeni has five phonemic vowels:
| Front | Mid | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Mid | e | o | |
| Open | a |