Tyap/Phonology

Fonoloji nTyap ※ Tyap phonology A̱nwuat-yei ※ Intonation Tyap is a tonal language with high, mid, low, mid-low, high-low and low-high ranges, but only one (the high tone indicated by the acute accent) is used for writing. Tyap has no nasal vowel sounds. It, however, has nasal consonants sounds (m /m/, n /n/, and ng /ŋ/) which are also tonal. Tyap also uses the underscore diacritic mark usually placed under vowels "a" and "i"; a̱ denotes the schwa sound /ǝ/ while i̱ denotes the shortened "i" sound /ɨ/. A̱yaatsa̱ntsai ※ Vowels The seven vowels of Tyap can be classified as either short or long monophthongs sounds. Short Monophthongs a a̱ e i i̱ o u Long Monophthongs a a̱a̱ ee ii i oo uu The language has seven (or more) diphthongs: ai ei a̱i a̱u ea ia oi A̱yaagha̱ghap ※ Consonants Labialization, palatalization, and palate-labialization of consonant sounds are responsible for the many consonant sounds in the Tyap language, unlike in english. The language has over 80 monographic and multigraphic labialized, palatalized, and palate-labialized consonant sounds, classified into fortis and lenis modifications. <<Back to the previous lesson On to the next Lesson>>