Pinyin language

Pinyin is a Grassfields language spoken by some 27,000 people in the Northwest Region of Cameroon.

Pinyin
RegionNorthwest Region, Cameroon
Native speakers
25,000 (2001)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3pny
Glottologpiny1238

Phonology

Consonants

Consonants
PhonemeAllophonesEnvironmentOrthography
ppp
Before /u/ in an open syllable.
bAfter /ɴ̩/.b
βBetween vowels within a root.
ttt
kkBeginning of words and of roots within words, and after /ɴ̩/.k
ʔOnly C found at ends of words.
kw
llIn roots.l
ɾIn suffixes.r
dAfter /ɴ̩/.d
ɣɣɡh
ɡAfter /ɴ̩/.ɡ
ɣʷɡʷAfter /ɴ̩/.ɡw
fff
ss/ts/ after /ɴ̩/.s
tststs
zzz
dzAfter /ɴ̩/.
ʃʃ/tʃ/ after /ɴ̩/.sh
ch
ʒʒzh
After /ɴ̩/.j
mmm
nnn
ɲɲny
ŋŋŋ
m̩ n̩ ŋ̍Homorganic with following C. Carries tone.m, n
www
ɥɥ
jjy

Sequences are:

py (mby), ly (ndy), ty, ky, ngy, my, kẅ, ngẅ (= /kʷj, ɡʷj/)
pw (mbw), lw (ndw), tw, tsw, chw, shw, sw, zw, zhw, nw, nyw, ŋw

All noun and verb roots begin with a consonant; initial vowels are necessarily prefixes. Only /a, ɨ/ occur in prefixes or at the beginning of words, and only /ə/ occurs in suffixes. /ɨ, y/ do not occur at the ends of words.

Vowels

Vowels
PhonemeOrthography
ii
yʉ
ɛe
aa
ɔo
uu
əə
ɨɨ

All known long vowels may occur medially or at ends of words, none at the beginning, though long /ɛ, y/ are not attested. Long vowels are written double: aa, əə, ii, ‿ɨɨ, oo, uu. Diphthongs ie, iə, ʉə, ɨə, uə take a single tone.

Tones are high, mid, low, rising, falling. They are written as in IPA, apart from low, which is not written: á ā a ǎ â. Falling tone is largely confined to suffixes, and rising tone is rare, found only on a few nouns such as 'father'.

References

  1. Pinyin at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  • The Pinyin Orthography Guide (Njeck Mathaus Mbah & Stephen C. Anderson, 2005)
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.