Palauan Language - Sounds

Sounds

The phonemic inventory of Palauan consists of 10 consonants and 6 vowels. Phonetic charts of the vowel and consonant phonemes are provided below, utilizing the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).

Vowel Phonemes
Front Central Back
High i u
Mid ɛ ə o
Low a
Consonant Phonemes
Labial Alveolar Velar Glottal
Voiceless
stops
t k ʔ
Voiced
stops
b d
Voiceless
fricatives
s
Nasals m ŋ
Liquids l, ɾ

While the phonemic inventory of Palauan is relatively small, comparatively, many phonemes contain at least two allophones that surface as the result of various phonological processes within the language. The full phonetic inventory of consonants is given below in IPA (the phonemic inventory of vowels, above, is complete).

Surface Consonants
Labial Interdental Alveolar Post-Alveolar Velar Glottal
Voiceless
stops
p
t
k
ʔ
Voiced
stops
b d ɡ
Voiceless
fricatives
θ s
Voiced
fricatives
ð
Nasals m n ŋ
Liquids l, ɾ, r
Approximants w j

Read more about this topic:  Palauan Language

Famous quotes containing the word sounds:

    For sounds in winter nights, and often in winter days, I heard the forlorn but melodious note of a hooting owl indefinitely far; such a sound as the frozen earth would yield if struck with a suitable plectrum, the very lingua vernacula of Walden Wood, and quite familiar to me at last, though I never saw the bird while it was making it.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    To me, the sea is like a person—like a child that I’ve known a long time. It sounds crazy, I know, but when I swim in the sea I talk to it. I never feel alone when I’m out there.
    Gertrude Ederle (b. 1906)

    Dylan used to sound like a lung cancer victim singing Woody Guthrie. Now he sounds like a Rolling Stone singing Immanuel Kant.
    —Also quoted in Robert Shelton, No Direction Home, ch. 2, “Prophet Without Honor” (1986)