*** Welcome to piglix ***

Somali phonology


This article describes the phonology of the Somali language.

Common Somali has 22 consonant phonemes. Its consonants cover every place of articulation on the IPA chart, though not all of these distinctions are phonemic.

/ɖ/ is a voiced retroflex stop. Some phoneticians say that it has an implosive quality for some speakers. It is sometimes realised as a flap [ɾ] between vowels.

The voiceless stops /t/ and /k/ are always aspirated.

/ʕ/, the voiced pharyngeal fricative, may have creaky voice.

/r/ is often pronounced with breathy voice and may be partially devoiced. Between vowels it may be a single tap.

Somali has five vowel articulations that all contrast murmured and harsh voice as well as vowel length. There is little change in vowel quality when the vowel is lengthened.

There are five diphthongs that also occur in front and back, long and short versions, except for /ɞi/, which does not appear to occur in the back series.

Somali has tonic accent with one high-tone mora per word.

The tone system distinguishes grammatical rather than lexical differences. Differences include singular and plural, masculine and feminine. One example is ínan ('boy') and inán ('girl'). This reflects a pattern that marks grammatical gender, such as daméer ('male donkey') and dameér ('female donkey').


...
Wikipedia

...