Appendix:Méníshè pronunciation
The Méníshè language has 27 consonants, 5 vowels, and 2 glides.
Standard Romanization
| Letter | IPA | English example | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| a | a | father | It has both a front and back pronunciation. |
| an | ɐ̃ | - | A nasal version of a regular a, but centralized. |
| b | b | bog | |
| d | d | dog | |
| e | e | bait | |
| en | ɛ̃ | prince (French) | A nasal vowel. |
| f | f | food | |
| g | g | good | |
| h | h | ham | |
| i | i | beet | |
| j | ʒ | azure | It's spelled with a j because this show takes place in New Orleans, and the language is reminiscent of French. |
| k | k | skill | |
| l | l | left | |
| m | m | man | |
| n | n | no | |
| o | o | coat | |
| on | ɔ̃ | on(French) | A nasal vowel. |
| p | p | span | |
| r | ɾ | battle | |
| s | s | see | |
| t | t | stop | |
| u | u | rude | |
| v | v | voice | |
| w | w | wet | |
| y | j | yawn | |
| z | z | zoo |
Phonetics
Méníshè has tone and ejectives aplenty.
Consonants
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m [m] | n [n] | (n [ɲ]) | (n [ŋ]) | ||
| Plosive | voiceless | p [p] | t [t] | k [k] | ||
| voiced | b [b] | d [d] | g [g] | |||
| Fricative | voiceless | f [f] | s [s] | h [h] | ||
| voiced | v [v] | z [z] | zh [ʒ] | |||
| Lateral | l [l] | |||||
| Approximant | w [w] | r [ɾ] | y [j] | |||
Vowels
Méníshè has 5 phonetically distinct vowels that come in long and short pairs:
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i [i], ii [iː] | u [u], uu [uː] | |
| Mid | e [e], ee [eː] | o [o], oo [oː] | |
| Open | a [a], aa [aː] |