1. PHONOLOGY

1.1 PHONEMIC INVENTORY

Karbi has a total of thirty-two phonemes of which twenty-nine are segmental and the rest, suprasegmental. Of the segmental, five are vowels and twenty-four consonants. The three suprasegmentals are tones.

Segmental:

Vowels :

Front Central Back High i   u Mid e   o Low   a

Consonants :

Bilabial Labiodental Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal Stop p b   t d     k g ? ph bh   th dh     kh gh   Nasal   m     n           Affricate           c j                 ch         Fricative                   h Lateral         l           Trill         r           Semi vowel     v     y

Suprasegmental :

Tone :

High, Level, Low

CONTRAST

A) Vowels:

High Vs. Low     i ÷ e       thik thek   ‘plan, decide’ ‘see, know’     di de   ‘be tall’ ‘catch something thrown’     ni ne   ‘heart’ ‘husband’s sister’     thi the   ‘die’ ‘be big, grow’     ni ne   ‘sister’ ‘I, my’     ri re   ‘hand’   ‘be clever’