Appendix:Zemeni pronunciation

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Zemeni Language Navigation: Home, Phonology, Grammar, Vocabulary, Orthography, Dialogue

Zemeni has 25 consonants, 5 vowels and 2 glides.

Standard Romanization

Letter IPA English example Notes
a a father
b b bath
ch watch
d d dog
dz dz adze
e e bait
f f food
g ɡ good
h h ham
i i machine
j jog
k k skill
kh x loch (Scottish English)
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.
  • Stress: When stress is not penultimate, it is marked with an acute accent over the stressed vowel.

Phonetics

Consonants

Zemeni has 25 phonemic consonants and 2 phonemic glides:

Labial Alveolar Post-alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m n ny [ɲ] (ng [ŋ])
Stop voiceless p t 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

Stress

Zemeni words are generally stressed on their penultimate syllable.