The vowel, a distinctive sound in the language, does
not occur before frictionless continuants, and occurs
atypically before stops; it has a word medical and
final distrubutions.2 |
[a] is the unrounded low central vowel
|
| As to both tongue
height and the part of the tongue articulated. It
is almost the same as the English [a] as in a word
like cart [F1 650 Hz, F2 1200 Hz]. Concomitantly,
the velum is raised and the lips spread. |
It occurs word-initially, -medially, and -finally. |
Initial
|
| ątū |
‘to bounce [intr]’ |
| ącą |
‘to break [as
of anything straight in shape,eg. stick,
chair etc.] [intr]’ |
āf
|
‘to sink [as
of objects, ship etc.] [intr]’ |
|
Medial
|
 pą |
‘kind of shawl’ |
| pąp |
‘to carry baby
pick-a-back’ |
|
Final
|
| ōn |
‘ornament’ |
| ōp |
‘wooden structure
in which pounding is done’ |
| khą |
‘to close [as
bottle, lock, account etc.] |
| şą |
to pluck [as
flowers]’ |
|
[o] is the rounded higher mid back vowel.
|
| In the articulation
of this vowel, it is the back part of the tongue which
is raised. The height to which it is raised varies
between [i] that for the production of the English
[o] as in [the first syllabic of] possess,
which is |
2
|
Prof. Wang thought it was
an ‘apical’ vowel, "a little noisier than palatal
or velar ones, but with not enough frication to consider
it a real contoid." [P.C] Presumably, the F1
figure then must be lower than for the highest Mao
vowel, which is not the case [See 2.2.2]. "It
is made" said Wang, "with the tongue being
in a more forward position than for palatal vowels"
in which case the F2 figure must be higher than for
the front most Mao vowel. This is not the case either. |
the mid point
of the range [F1500 Hz, F2 900
Hz] that for the production of the English [  ]
as in talk, or the English [Ω] as in
cot, which is the lowest and the front most
point of the range [F1 600 Hz, F2 1000 Hz] and [iii]
a height which is slightly lower than is required
for the English [u] as in put, which is the
highest point of the range, symbolized as [U] [F1
450 Hz, F2 850 Hz]. Concomitantly, the velum is raised
and the lips rounded rather than spread. |
Tongue height [i] [o]. This occurs typically, if not
always, in the word-medial position.
|
| phÒdÓ |
‘word expressive
of male sex [as for bovine quadrupeds |
| |
viz., cows,
mithuns, yaks, etc.]’ |
| mņrōną |
‘orphan’ |
|
Tongue height [ii] [Ω≈].
This variety occurs, typically though not always,
in the wor-final position.
|
ōm / |
‘female genital’ |
ōv/ |
‘daughter-in-law’ |
|
| |
| Examples of word-medial occurence’ |
| |
| n/puo |
‘infant’ |
| n/luli |
‘childhood’ |
|
| |
|
Tongue height [ii] [U]. This variety occurs, typically
though not always, in the wor-final position.
|
| Ūmĭ |
‘fire’ |
Ūs |
‘swamp’ |
|
Example of word-medial occurrence
|
| pfUze |
‘pfuze,
a clan name in Shongshong village’ |
|
Analogous to the i/e ambivalence mentioned earlier,
the medial vowel of auli ‘Ashuli’, a proper
name is lower than the second vowel, for instance,
of pķŭ ‘hair
of the head’, but not as low as the first vowel, for
instance, of koŋo ‘neck’. In an ambivalent
fix because there is no symbol in the current orthography,
native speakers are found writing both Ashuli
and Aholi, Pfuze pfoze, the former
is coming to stay though. |
[u] is the rounded high back vowel.
|
