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| 1.0.2. Vowels |
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INVENTORY OF VOWEL PHONEMES |
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i
u |
e
o |
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a |
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Minimal/sub-minimal pairs are given to make the phonemic status
of these six vowels clear. |
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i
Vs e |
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ki
‘house’
k y
‘marriage’ |
k r
‘come down’
k y
‘shed’ |
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a
Vs e
Vs
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rz
‘plain’
k s
‘new’ |
r
‘to bark’
ks
‘to meet’ |
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rzi
‘to lake’
ks
‘coral’ |
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a Vs
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‘I’
rz
‘plain’ pf
‘father’ |
‘poetry’ s z ‘crow’
pf ‘sister’ |
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| u Vs
o |
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n
‘in:to’
p ts
‘owl’ |
n
‘you(sg)’ putsh
‘wild animal (male)’ |
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All the vowels except /e/ and /o/ occur initially, medially and
finally. /e/ and /o/ don’t occur initially. /i/, / /
have a limited word-initial occurrence. |
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A phonetic description of these vowels, with allophones if any,
follows. |
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/i/ is the unrounded high front vowel. |
 m ‘not his way’ |
k mi
‘wife’ |
mh
‘eye’ |
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/e/ is the unrounded higher front vowel. This has two
allophones. [ ], which
is lower mid, almost the same as cardinal vowel no. 3, occurs
word-finally. |
[k ] ‘sugarcane’ |
[s ]
‘liver’ |
[m ] ‘mouth’ |
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| [e] occurs word-medially. |
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[pr] ‘bird’ |
[mh ] ‘saffron’ |
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[knh] ‘ointment’ |
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| /a/ is the unrounded low central vowel. |
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‘I’ |
 pu
‘father’ |
rz
‘valley’ |
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// is the unrounded mid central vowel. This has two allophones.
[ ], which is a retroflex
vocoid, occurs after the trilled consonant /r/, word-finally. |
[v r ]
‘come’ |
[t r ]
‘rain’ |
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[mr]
‘to vomit’ |
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| []
occurs elsewhere |
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[bo]
‘drum’ |
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[tsb]
‘scissors’ |
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[tf]
‘dog’ |
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/o/ is the rounded
higher mid back vowl. This has two allophones : [ ]
which is lower mid occurs world-finally |
[n ]
‘you (sg.)’ |
[ ib ]
or [sb] ‘tree’ |
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[m] ‘body’ |
| [o] occurs word-medially. |
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[sz]
‘wall’ |
[z p]
‘worm’ |
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[vr]
‘come’ |
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| /u/ is the rounded high back vowel. |
k
‘we (incl.pl.)’ |
b li
‘shirt’ |
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p
‘to speak’ |
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Further, the vowels /i/, //,
/e/, /o/ and /u/ have non-syllabic variants when they form part
of a diphtong and do not carry any tone. |
[m rhi]
‘picture’ /mirh/ |
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[thm]
‘man’ /thmi/ |
[m ]
‘maternal |
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uncle’ /m/ |
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[t] ‘sky’
/t/ |
[d b]
‘sunday’ /deb/ |
[lb ]
‘box’
/lbo/ |
[r h]
‘spear’ /rho/ |
[p ] ‘he, she, it’ /pu/ |
| [lkh] ‘pocket’ /lkhu/ |
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