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 | |
| o | o | coat | |
| p | p | span | |
| p' | pʼ | — | Pronounced like the p in pop while holding one's breath. |
| r | ɾ | battle | |
| rr | 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 |
Phonetics
Méníshè is a register tone language with a series of ejectives. Méníshè has three tone levels: high (á [a˥]), low (à [a˩]), and neutral (a [a˩˧]). Though the neutral level is transcribed as mid, it is probably best understood as non-specific. That is, it may be higher before a high tone syllable, or lower before a low tone syllable. Neutral tones, by definition, can only occur on the first syllable of a word. Any syllable that has a neutral tone that occurs outside the first syllable of the word 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 isn't able to 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] | ||
| Lateral | l [l] | |||||
| Approximant | w [w] | r [ɾ], rr [r] | 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] |
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.