Appendix:Nulisü pronunciation

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Nulisü Language Navigation: Home, Phonology, Grammar, Vocabulary

The Nulisü language has 21 consonants, 14 vowels and 1 glide.

Standard Romanization

Letter IPA English example Notes
a a father
ã ã A nasal vowel. Pronounced like the vowel in French danse.
b b bog
d d dog
dh ð this
e ɛ get
ë ɤ cut
f f food
g ɡ good
h h ham
i i machine
ĩ ĩ A nasal vowel. Pronounced like the im in Portuguese rim.
ï ɯ good (Southern California) Like the oo in "mood" in other English varieties, but with the lips unrounded.
k k skill This sound features no aspiration. Aspiration is the puff of air that occurs in the "k" in "key". Compare this with the "k" in "ski", which has no aspiration.
l l left
lh Pronounced like the above sound, but voicelessly, with great breathiness.
m m man
mh Pronounced like the above sound, but voicelessly, with great breathiness.
n n no
nh Pronounced like the above sound, but voicelessly, with great breathiness.
ng ŋ ring
ngh ŋ̊ Pronounced like the above sound, but voicelessly, with great breathiness.
o o moat
p p span This sound features no aspiration. Aspiration is the puff of air that occurs in the "p" in "poke". Compare this with the "p" in "spoke", which has no aspiration.
s s see
t t stop This sound features no aspiration. Aspiration is the puff of air that occurs in the "t" in "take". Compare this with the "t" in "stake", which has no aspiration.
th θ thin
u u rude
ũ ũ A nasal vowel. Pronounced like the um in Portuguese um.
ü y Like the i in "machine" pronounced with rounded lips, or the ü in German für.
v v voice
w w wet
z z zoo

Notes:

  • Long Vowels and Consonants: Held for slightly longer than their short counterparts, and written by doubling the letter. In the case of digraphs or trigraphs, only the first character is doubled.

Phonetics

Consonants

Bilabial Labiodental Dental Alveolar Velar Glottal
Nasal voiceless ŋ̊
voiced m n ŋ
Plosive voiceless p t k
voiced b d ɡ
Fricative voiceless f θ s h
voiced v ð z
Approximant voiceless
voiced w l

Vowels

Front Central Back
Close unrounded i ɯ
rounded y u
long
nasalized ĩ ũ
Mid unrounded ɛ ɤ
rounded o
Open plain a
long
nasalized ã

Stress

Primary stress is assigned to the last syllable, unless the penultimate syllable is heavy and the final syllable is light, in which case stress is assigned to the penultimate syllable. Secondary stresses are assigned to every other syllable from the main stress, unless the foot would ordinarily assign stress elsewhere. So, for example, with a nonce form patakaala, the stresses would be [ˌpa.ta.ˈkaː.la].