Sounds
The phonemic vowels of Bench are /i e a o u/
There are six phonemic tones: five level tones (numbered 1 to 5 in the literature, with 1 being the lowest) and one rising tone 23 /˨˧/. The top tone is sometimes realized as a high rising 45 . On the vowel o, they are /ő ó ō ò ȍ ǒ/
The consonants are:
| Bilabial | Coronal | Palato- alveolar |
Retroflex | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | |||||
| Plosive | p | t | k | ʔ | |||
| b | d | ɡ | |||||
| pʼ | tʼ | kʼ | |||||
| Affricate | ts | tʃ | tʂ | ||||
| tsʼ | tʃʼ | tʂʼ | |||||
| Fricative | s | ʃ | ʂ | h | |||
| z | ʒ | ʐ | |||||
| Rhotic | r | ||||||
| Approximant | l | j | |||||
All of these can occur palatalized, but only before /a/, suggesting an alternate analysis of a sixth phonemic vowel /ja/. Labialized consonants are reported for and, but their phonemic status is unclear; they only occur after /i/.
For the phoneme /p/ the realizations of and are in free variation; /j/ has the allophone before back vowels.
The syllable structure is (C)V(C)(C)(C) + tone or (C) N (C), where C represents any consonant, V any vowel, N any nasal, and brackets an optional element. CC clusters consist of a continuant followed by a plosive, fricative, or affricate; in CCC clusters, the first consonant must be one of /r/ /j/ /m/ /p/ or /pʼ/, the second either /n/ or a voiceless fricative, and the third /t/ or /k/.
Read more about this topic: Bench Language
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“A flutist who is moved to tears by his own performance will soon make the listeners laugh because of the sounds that he produces.”
—Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)