Appendix:Méníshè pronunciation
The Méníshè language has 27 consonants, 5 vowels, and 2 glides.
Standard Romanization
| Letter | IPA | English example | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| a | a | father | |
| b | b | bog | |
| ch | tʃ | chop | |
| ch' | tʃʼ | — | Pronounced like the ch in chop while holding one's breath. |
| d | d | dog | |
| e | e | bait | |
| f | f | food | |
| g | ɡ | good | |
| gh | ɣ | — | Roughly as in French rouge. |
| i | i | beet | |
| j | dʒ | judge | |
| k | k | skill | |
| k' | kʼ | — | Pronounced like the k in kid while holding one's breath. |
| kh | x | — | As in German Buch. |
| l | l | left | |
| m | m | man | |
| n | n | no | Has the allophones [ɲ] before palatals and [ŋ] before velars. |
| o | o | coat | |
| p | p | span | |
| p' | pʼ | — | Pronounced like the p in pop while holding one's breath. |
| r | ɾ | battle | |
| rr | ɾː~r | — | Allophone of a geminate r, trilled as in Spanish perro. |
| s | s | see | |
| sh | ʃ | sheep | |
| t | t | stop | |
| t' | tʼ | — | Pronounced like the t in top while holding one's breath. |
| u | u | rude | |
| v | v | voice | |
| w | w | wet | |
| y | j | yawn | |
| z | z | zoo | |
| zh | ʒ | azure | |
| ' | ʔ | uh-oh |
Geminates are the same consonant pronounced twice in a row, they are written by doubling letters. Digraphs are not fully doubled, only their first letter is.
Phonetics
Tones
Méníshè is a register tone language with three tone levels: high (á [a˥]), low (à [a˩]), and neutral (a [a˩˧]). Though the neutral level is transcribed as mid, it is best understood as non-specific in that it may be higher before a high tone syllable or lower before a low tone syllable. Neutral tones can only occur on the first syllable of a word, underlying neutral tones that occur outside it will simply inherit the previous tone in full.
Méníshè allows no more than two changes (defined as from high to low or low to high; a neutral tone moving to another tone does not count as a full change) in a word's tone melody. When a tone cannot be realized because it would eventuate a third tone change, the word carries with it a floating tone, that results in either upstep [↑] or downstep [↓], which affects the following word. This affects the overall tone level of everything that follows the floating tone. A floating high tone will cause upstep; a floating low tone will cause downstep.
Consonants
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m [m] | n [n] | (n [ɲ]) | (n [ŋ]) | ||
| Plosive | voiceless | p [p] | t [t] | ch [tʃ] | k [k] | ' [ʔ] |
| voiced | b [b] | d [d] | j [dʒ] | g [g] | ||
| ejective | p' [pʼ] | t' [tʼ] | ch' [tʃʼ] | k' [kʼ] | ||
| Fricative | voiceless | f [f] | s [s] | sh [ʃ] | kh [x] | h [h] |
| voiced | v [v] | z [z] | zh [ʒ] | gh [ɣ] | ||
| Approximant | w [w] | l [l] | y [j] | |||
| Tap | r [ɾ], (rr [ɾː~r]) | |||||
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] |
Again, all of these vowels can occur with high tone (á, áá, é, éé, í, íí, ó, óó, ú, úú), low tone (à, àà, è, èè, ì, ìì, ò, òò, ù, ùù), or neutral tone (a, aa, e, ee, i, ii, o, oo, u, uu). Long vowels or sequences of vowels may have different tones, resulting in a contour tone. Some examples, among many, many possible: áà, èí, aé, oà.
Phonotactics
Méníshè syllables are (C)(C)V(V)(C), syllable-initial consonant clusters are rare, their second consonant must be a sonorant. Most syllabes are open, the only codas are m, n, s, z, l, r and the first part of any geminate consonant. An underlying y often palatalizes the previous consonant. Vowel sequences are common, and glottal stops contrast with null onsets.