| 2.
/z/ has three allophones viz., [j], [z] and [zh]. |
|
[ j ] is voiced fronto-palatal affricate. It occurs immediately before
or after the vowels /«/ or /¨/. |
[j ti]
|
‘race’
|
[aj n]
|
‘friend’
|
[gbj]
|
‘tower’
|
|
[blauj]
|
‘blouse’
|
[jzibili]
|
‘lizard’
|
[z@ja ]
|
‘twin’
|
|
|
| [zh]
voiced aspirated apico-dentalfricative. It occurs in loan words. |
|
[bazhjnė]
|
‘eunuch / barren woman’
|
|
[suzha]
|
‘straight’
|
|
|
| [z]
voiced apico-dental fricative. It occurs elsewhere. |
[zśpua]
|
‘herb’
|
|
[zķnė]
|
‘narrow’
|
|
[zśnta]
|
‘show’
|
|
[zaėN]
|
‘case’
|
|
[mėzer]
|
‘flame’
|
[zinkc]
|
‘infant’
|
[ėz]
|
‘old woman’
|
|
|
| 1.4.2.3.
Nasals : |
| 1.
/m/ is a bilabial nasal. It has only one allophone [m]. It occurs
in all positions. |
|
[ma]
|
‘not’
|
[m dļr]
|
‘sorrow’
|
[mbu]
|
‘priest’
|
[mėram]
|
‘oven’
|
[g@mug]
|
‘letter’
|
|
[simįnė]
|
‘immortal’
|
|
[mķmag]
|
‘war’
|
|
[nemu]
|
‘lemon’
|
|
[tįkum]
|
‘locust’
|
|
[pitam]
|
‘biscuit’
|
[dtėm]
|
‘earth’
|
|
|
| 2.
/n/ has two positional variants ie., [n] and [ n ] |
| [
n ] is apico-dental nasal. It occurs with retroflex vowels
/ļ/ and /ė/ and in word final position. |
|
| [n]
apico alveolar nasal occurs elsewhere. |
[n]
|
‘you’
|
[mitm]
|
‘song’
|
|
[binąm]
|
‘to give’
|
[y @pnąm]
|
‘to lose’
|
|
[lśnam]
|
‘to say’
|
|
|
| 3.
/N/ has only one positional variant [N] dorsovelar nasal, occurs in
all positions. |
[]
|
‘I’
|
[anam]
|
‘to breathe deep’
|
[ukyum]
|
‘shade’
|
|
|
‘fish’
|
[a¨ni]
|
‘torn’
|
[ąla]
|
‘vegetable curry’
|
[radą]
|
‘middle’
|
[luką]
|
‘to wish to speak’
|
[kėbł]
|
‘rat’
|
[įrł]
|
‘hole’
|
|
|
| 4.
/ń/ has one positional variant [ń]. It is a mid-palatal nasal. It
occurs only medially. Questions may be raised about its phonemic status,
because it is in free variation with /n/. Nevertheless, words have
been found in the data where it does not vary freely. |
ė
]
]
