Laal Language - Sounds

Sounds

The sounds of Laal are transcribed here using International Phonetic Alphabet symbols. The consonants are:

Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Plosive Voiceless p t c k ʔ
Voiced b d ɟ ɡ
Prenasalized (ᵐb) (ⁿd) (ᶮɟ) (ᵑɡ)
Implosive ɓ ɗ (ʄ)
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
Fricative s h
Trill r
Approximant l j w

Implosives and prenasalised stops, as well as h, are found only word-initially. Voiceless stops, as well as s, cannot occur at the end of a syllable. /ŋ/ occurs only intervocalically and word-finally. /s/ appears exclusively in loanwords and certain numbers. The prenasalized stops, as well as the implosive /ʄ/, are extremely rare.

The vowel system for non-initial syllables is: /i/, /ɨ/, /u/, /e/, /ə/, /o/, /a/, and the diphthong /ua/, with no length distinction. For initial syllables, however, it is much more complicated, allowing length distinctions and distinguishing the following additional diphthongs: /ia/, /yo/, /ya/ (though the latter two appear only as morphologically conditioned forms of /e/ and /ia/, and are perhaps better seen as allophonic.) In addition, /y/ may occur very occasionally; Boyeldieu quotes the example of mỳlùg "red (pl.)".

There are three level tones: high (á), middle (a), low (à). Combinations of these may occur on a single vowel, resulting in phonetic rising and falling tones; these are phonemically sequences of level tones. Such cases are transcribed here by repeating the vowel (e.g. àá); long vowels are indicated only by the colon (e.g. a:).

Suffixes may force any of four kinds of ablaut on the vowels of preceding words: raising (takes /ia/, /a/, /ua/ to, ), lowering (takes /e/, /ə/, /o/ to, ), low rounding (takes /i/ and /ɨ/ to ; /e/ and /ia/ to ; /ə/, /a/, and /ua/ to ), and high rounding (takes /i/ and /ɨ/ to ; /e/ and /ia/ to ; /ə/, /a/, and /o/ to ). They are transcribed in the suffix section as ↑, ↓, ↗, ↘ respectively. In some verbs, a/ə is "raised" to rather than, as expected, .

In suffixes, ə and o undergo vowel harmony: they become ɨ and u respectively if the preceding vowel is one of {i, ɨ, u}. Likewise, r undergoes consonant harmony, becoming l after words containing l. Suffixes with neutral tone copy the final tone of the word they are suffixed to.

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Famous quotes containing the word sounds:

    Bill: I have champagne, caviar, marinated truffles, brilliant foie gras and half-a-dozen assorted Hungarian gypsies.
    Lili: Sounds delicious.
    Bill: I thought we’d go on a picnic.
    Lili: At three in the morning?
    Bill: It’s the best time—no ants.
    Blake Edwards (b. 1922)

    O to dream, O to awake and wander
    There, and with delight to take and render,
    Through the trance of silence,
    Quiet breath;
    Lo! for there, among the flowers and grasses,
    Only the mightier movement sounds and passes;
    Only winds and rivers,
    Life and death.
    Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894)

    Not many sounds in life ... exceed in interest a knock at the door.
    Charles Lamb (1775–1834)