Appendix:Tpaalha pronunciation
The Tpaalha language has 26 consonants, 8 vowels, and 2 glides.
Standard Romanization
| Letter | IPA | English example | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| a | a | father | |
| b | b | bog | |
| d | ɖ | — | |
| dy | ɟ | — | |
| e | ɛ | bet | |
| f | ɸ | food | |
| g | g | good | |
| gh | ɣ | — | Approximately like the r in French rouge. |
| h | h | ham | |
| i | i | machine | |
| k | k | skill | |
| kh | x | loch (Scottish English) | |
| l | ɭ | — | |
| lh | ꞎ | — | |
| ly | ʎ | million | |
| m | m | man | |
| n | n ~ ɳ | no, — | |
| ng | ŋ | sing | |
| ny | ɲ | onion | |
| o | ʌ | cut | |
| p | p | span | |
| r | ɻ | — | |
| s | s | see | |
| sh | ʂ | sheep | |
| sy | ç | huge | |
| t | ʈ | — | |
| ty | c | — | |
| u | ɯ | — | |
| v | β | voice | |
| w | ʍ | what (certain varieties) | |
| y | j | yawn | |
| z | z | zoo | |
| zh | ʐ | azure | |
| zy | ʝ | — | Like the h in "huge" but voiced. |
Notes:
- Long vowels are written by doubling the vowel letter.
Phonetics
Consonants
| Labial | Alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n [n ~ ɳ] | ny [ɲ] | ng [ŋ] | |||
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t [ʈ] | ty [c] | k | ||
| voiced | b | d [ɖ] | dy [ɟ] | g | |||
| Fricative | voiceless | f [ɸ] | s | sh [ʂ] | sy [ç] | kh [x] | h |
| voiced | v [β] | z | zh [ʐ] | zy [ʝ] | gh [ɣ] | ||
| Lateral | voiceless | lh [ꞎ] | |||||
| voiced | l [ɭ] | ly [ʎ] | |||||
| Approximant | voiceless | w [ʍ] | |||||
| voiced | (w) | r [ɻ] | y [j] | ||||
Notes:
- [w] is of uncertain status as a phoneme. [ʍ] is more common, and is what is usually spelled w in the romanization.
Vowels
Tpaalha has five vowel qualities, with the three cardinal vowels having two lengths, making up a total of eight monophthongs:
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i [i] ii [iː] |
u [ɯ] uu [ɯː] | |
| Mid | e [ɛ] | o [ʌ] | |
| Open | a [a] aa [aː] |
Diphthongs
There are a number of diphthongs, for example uo [ɯʌ] and ou [ʌɯ].