recursal/Fanatic-Fandom huggingface dataset:
Tai Dam phonology

## Consonants

### Initials

* Sounds /b/ and /d/ can fluctuate to voiced implosive sounds [ɓ], [ɗ]. /d/ may also fluctuate to a lateral sound [l]. /v/ can fluctuate to sounds [b~ɓ].
* In some rare cases /j/ can be realized as a [z] sound.

### Finals

* Final plosive sounds /p t k/ can be realized as unreleased [p̚ t̚ k̚].

## Vowels

* There is also /əw/ that corresponds to Proto-Tai *\*aɰ*.
* /ɛ/ can tend to fluctuate to a more open sound [æ].
* /ɨ/ fluctuates to a back unrounded sound [ɯ].
Tausug phonology

## Vowels

Tausug has three vowel phonemes: /a/, /i/, /u/, with phonemic length (e.g. *īpun*, "shrimp" vs. *ipun*, "tooth"). Stress is not phonemic and usually occurs on the final syllable.

The vowel phonemes have a broad range of allophones:

* /a/: [a,ɐ,ɑ,ɒ,æ]
* /i/: [i,ɪ,ø,œ,ə]
* /u/: [u,ʊ,ɤ,ʌ,ə]
* /e/: [e,ɛ]
* /o/: [o,ɔ]

Tausug has expectedly developed some variations in accent and vocabulary from one area to another, but there are two basic dialects characterized by differences with regard to vowel sounds. The "Gimbahanun" (literally means people from the farm) speakers, the residents of the out-of-town rural areas, use four vowels: /a/, /i/, /u/ and /ü/, the last vowel representing schwa sound or "obscure u", with the IPA symbol "ə"; most likely as a result of the aggregate influences of the languages of the colonists Austronesian, Champuan, Majapahit, and Sanskrit, which all have schwa vowels. The "Parianun", the residents of the urban areas, use only three vowel phonemes: /a/, /i/, /u/, /e/, /o/, which are similar to that of the Arabic language; most probable explanation is that when the Arab missionaries later arrived not to colonize but teach Islam and basic Arabic, the lessons were concentrated on the urban residents, the rural areas being harder to infiltrate.

## Consonants

* /b/: per default [b], but [β] between vowels
* /g/: per default [ɡ], but [ɣ] between vowels
* /h/: per default [h], but [ɦ] between vowels
* /r/: per default [r], but [ɹ] before /m,n,g,k/

Medial gemination (of all non-glottal consonants) is phonemic.
Tagish phonology

The Tagish language includes aspiration, glottalization, nasal sounds, resonance, and tones.

Tagish is characterized by the simplest stem-initial consonant system of the Northern Athabaskan languages, has a conservative vowel system and conserves stem-final consonants. Final glottalization is lost. Constricted vowels are pronounced with low tone.

The Tagish language includes nouns, verbs, and particles. Particles and nouns are single, sometimes compounded, morphemes, but the difference is that nouns can be inflected and particles cannot. Verbs are the most complex class in this language because their stemmed morphemes have many prefixes which indicate inflectional and derivational categories.

The total inventory of phonemes present in Tagish includes:

## Vowels

The short vowels /i, e, a, u/; as well as their long counterparts /iː, eː, aː, uː/.

## Tone

High tone is marked with (v́) on short vowels and (v́v) on long vowels while low tones remain unmarked.

## References

1. ↑ Krauss, M. E., & Golla, V. K. (1978). Northern Athapaskan languages. In Handbook of North American Indians: Subarctic (Vol. 6, pp. 67-85). Government Printing Office 1978.
2. ↑ Helm, June. (1981). Handbook of North American Indians: Subarctic. *Smithsonian Institution*
3. ↑ McClellan, C. (1978). Tagish. In Handbook of North American Indians: Subarctic (Vol. 6, pp. 481-492). Government Printing Office 1978.
Telue phonology

Telue has many uvular and prenasalized consonants.

## Consonants

* The sound of the affricates /ts, tsʰ, dz/ are frequently close to interdental affricate sounds [tθ, tθʰ, dð].
* The pronunciation of /j/ can sometimes be close to an alveolo-palatal sound [ʑ], but not as fully articulated.
* /ŋ/ can also form a syllabic nasal [ŋ̍].
* Sounds /tɕʰ, w/ mainly appear in modern Chinese loanwords.

## Vowels

* /ɹ̩/ only is heard after dental/alveolar fricatives and affricates only, /i/ is never heard in this position.
* /ə/ and /ɯ/ are typically free variants of each other. When used as a single vowel, it is commonly heard as [ɯ], but when followed by a back vowel /ɯ, u/ it is pronounced as [ə].
Tangsa orthography

In 1990, Mr. Lakhum Mossang from Namphai Nong, Arunchal Pradesh in India created an alphabet for the Tangsa language. He taught the alphabet in public events and festivals, and promoted the script with community organisations and schools. In 2021, there were about 100 people who are using the script. The Tangsa Script Development Committee was founded in 2019 and continues development of the script after the passing of Lakhum Mossang in order ensure accommodation to the wide range of Tangsa varieties spoken in the region. The script has not yet gained widespread adoption.

Beyond the use of Lakhum Mossang's script, Tangsa varieties are generally written in the Latin alphabet with multiple different spelling conventions in use. One such Roman orthography is that for Mossang, designed by Reverend Gam Win and used in the Mossang translation of the Bible. Different Roman orthographies are in use among different subtribes, often with considerable variation. These differences tend to follow Christian denominational divisions.

The Gam Win Romanization for Mossang is as follows:

## Vowels

* a - [a]
* aw - [ɔ]
* ä - [ɑ]
* æ - [æ]
* e - [e]
* ë - [ɛ]
* i - [i]
* ï - [ɪ]
* o - [o]
* ö - [ʊ]
* u - [u]
* ue/ü - [ɤ]
* ui - [ɯ]
* uiu - [ɯu]
* v - [ə]

## Consonants

* b - [b]
* bh - [v]
* c - [t͡ɕ]
* ch - [t͡ɕʰ]
* d - [d]
* dh - [ð]
* dz - [d͡z]
* f - [f]
* g - [ɡ]
* gh - [ɣ]
* h - [h]
* j - [d͡ʑ]
* jh - [d̪]
* k - [k]
* kh - [kʰ]
* l - [l]
* m - [m]
* n - [n]
* ng - [ŋ]
* nh - [n̪]
* ny - [ɲ]
* p - [p]
* ph - [pʰ]
* q - [θ]
* r - [r]
* s - [s]
* sh - [ʃ]
* t - [t]
* th - [t̪]
* ht - [tʰ]
* htt - [t̪ʰ]
* ts - [t͡s]
* w - [w]
* x - [x]
* y - [j]
* z - [z]
* zh - [ʒ]

## Tone letters

* -c - thuic tsanz (voice-hard) - mid-high level or rising
* -x - thuic hvlz (voice-middle) - mid-high falling
* -z - thuic nyenz (voice-soft) - low falling with creaky phonation
* -q - thuic htaq (voice-break/cut) - short, final glottal stop
Sui phonology

Sui has seven vowels, /i e ə a aː o u/. Diphthongs are /ai̯ aːi̯ oi̯ ui̯ au̯ aːu̯ eu̯ iu̯/. There are six or seven tones, reduced to two in checked syllables. The tones of the Sandu Sui Autonomous County, Guizhou, listed by conventional tone numbers, are:

Sui tones
 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8

The alternate checked tone 7 is found on the long vowel /aːC/. Tone 8 is somewhat variable on a long vowel, appearing in different locations either higher or lower than the short allophone, but always falling, as in tones 2 and 4.

In some villages, tone 6 is two phonemes, /˨˦/ in native words and /˥/ in Chinese loanwords. In the village of Ngam, Libo county, tone 1 is low [˩], the others as above.

Consonants in parentheses were reported by the 1956 dialectology study *Shuiyu diaocha baogao,* but not in Li Fang Kuei's 1942 research in Libo County. (Labio-velars were not listed separately, so it's not clear if they also existed.)

/x/ only occurs phonemically in the Southern Sui dialects. /w/ is classed as a labial because it can be followed by a glide /j/. /j/ can also be pronounced as a voiced fricative [ʑ]. The prenasalized stops have very short nasalization. The voiceless nasals are actually voiced at the end, as most voiceless nasals are around the world. The preglottalized stops are truly preglottalized, not ejective or creaky voiced. The gammas have been described as fricatives, but here have been placed in the approximant row because of the preglottalized phone and the frequent ambiguity between dorsal fricatives and approximants.

In several locations in the Sandu Sui Autonomous County, the preglottalized consonants and the voiceless sonorants do not exist, having merged with the other consonants.

Syllable structure is CjVCT, where /j/ may follow one of the labial or coronal consonants, other than /m̥ ʔm/ (and /ʔw/) and the affricates. (/tsj, tsʰj, tsw, tsʰw/ occur in recent Chinese loans.) All syllables start with a consonant, unless initial [ʔ] is analyzed as phonetic detail of an initial vowel. The final C is one of /p t k m n ŋ/. Final plosives are both unphonated (have glottal closure) and are unreleased; the coronal is apical alveolar: [ʔ͡p̚, ʔ͡t̚, ʔ͡k̚]. They reduce the tonic possibilities to two, "tones" 7 or 8.
Surigaonon phonology

According to Dumanig (2015), Surigaonon has a similar phonological inventory as its sister Bisayan languages, Cebuano and Boholano.

## Vowels

Below is the vowel system of Surigaonon.

Surigaonon vowels

## Consonants

Below is a chart of Surigaonon consonants.

Note: [j] is spelled *y*, [d͡ʒ] is spelled *j* and [ŋ] is spelled *ng*.

## Clusters

Surigaonon has 25 consonant clusters (br, bl, bw, by, dr, dy, dw, gr, gw, kr, kl, kw, mw, my, nw, pr, pl, pw, py, sw, sy, tr, tw, ty, hw) and 4 diphthongs (aw, ay, iw, uy), which is similar to Cebuano.
Southern Pomo phonology

Southern Pomo has a rich sound system with aspirated, unaspirated, ejective and voiced stops. It has a total of 28 consonants (plus the pseudo-consonant /ː/). The vowel system, in contrast, contains only five qualities: /i u e o a ɛ ɔ æ ɒ ʌ ɪ̃ ʊ̃ ɛ̃ ɔ̃ ɑ̃/. All phonemes, both consonants and vowels, can occur long. The full consonant inventory is laid out below.
Teiwa phonology

The following is a phonological description of Teiwa:

## Consonants

Teiwa has an inventory of 20 consonants, a high amount relative to other Papuan languages. In the table below, the orthographic representation of the sound is given in parentheses to the right. The contrast between the pharyngeal and glottal fricative shows itself as exceptional within the languages of Eastern Indonesia, as is the existence of both liquids /l/ and /r/.

The allophones of /ɸ/ are [ɸ] and [p]. The allophones of /v/ are [v] and [f].

## Vowels

Teiwa has an inventory of 5 cardinal vowels. The two high vowels occur as short (/i/, /u/) and long (/uː/, /iː/). As in the consonant table, the orthographic representations are given in the parentheses to the right.

 Mid | /ɛ/ (e)
 Low | /a/ (aa)

The allophones of /a/ are the short [a] and the long [aː].
Sundanese script

ᮝ = wa | ᮞ = sa | ᮠ = ha

***Consonants for writing foreign words***

### Vowel diacritics

Based on their location to the base glyph, 14 *rarangkén* can be categorized as:

* *Rarangkén* above the base glyph = 5 kinds
* *Rarangkén* below the base glyph = 3 kinds
* *Rarangkén* inline the base glyph = 5 kinds

**a. Vowel diacritics above the base glyph**

  ᮨ | *Pamepet*, modifies the vowel /a/ to /ə/.
  ᮩ | *Paneuleung*, modifies the vowel /a/ to /ɤ/.
  ᮁ | *Panglayar*, adds a final /r/ to the base sound.
  ᮀ | *Panyecek*, adds a final /ŋ/ to the base sound.
Example: ᮊᮀ (kang)

**b. Vowel diacritics below the base glyph**

  ᮢ | *Panyakra*, inserts the consonant /r/ to the base sound.
  ᮣ | *Panyiku*, inserts the consonant /l/ to the base sound.
Example: ᮊᮣ (kla)

**c. Vowel diacritics inline the base glyph**

  ᮧ | *Panolong*, modifies the vowel /a/ to /o/.
  ᮡ | *Pamingkal*, inserts the consonant /j/ to the base sound.
  ᮂ | *Pangwisad*, adds final consonant sound /h/ to the base sound.
  ᮪ | *Patén* or *pamaéh*, removes vowel sound of the base sound.
Example: ᮊ᮪ (k)

### Numbers

In texts, numbers are written surrounded with dual pipe sign | ... |.

Example: |᮲᮰᮲᮰| = 2020
Ternary

A **ternary** numeral system (also called **base 3** or **trinary**) has three as its base. Analogous to a bit, a ternary digit is a **trit** (**tri**nary dig**it**). One trit is equivalent to log2 3 (about 1.58496) bits of information.

Although *ternary* most often refers to a system in which the three digits are all non–negative numbers; specifically 0, 1, and 2, the adjective also lends its name to the balanced ternary system; comprising the digits −1, 0 and +1, used in comparison logic and ternary computers.

## Comparison to other bases

Representations of integer numbers in ternary do not get uncomfortably lengthy as quickly as in binary. For example, decimal 365 or senary 1405 corresponds to binary 101101101 (nine digits) and to ternary 111112 (six digits). However, they are still far less compact than the corresponding representations in bases such as decimal – see below for a compact way to codify ternary using nonary and septemvigesimal.

As for rational numbers, ternary offers a convenient way to represent 1/3 as same as senary (as opposed to its cumbersome representation as an infinite string of recurring digits in decimal); but a major drawback is that, in turn, ternary does not offer a finite representation for 1/2 (nor for 1/4, 1/8, etc.), because 2 is not a prime factor of the base; as with base two, one-tenth (decimal1/10, senary 1/14) is not representable exactly (that would need e.g. decimal); nor is one-sixth (senary 1/10, decimal 1/6).

### Sum of the digits in ternary as opposed to binary

The value of a binary number with *n* bits that are all 1 is Template:Math.

Similarly, for a number *N*(*b*, *d*) with base *b* and *d* digits, all of which are the maximal digit value Template:Math, we can write:

Template:Math
Template:Math
Template:Math.
Template:Math and
Template:Math, so
Template:Math, or
Template:Math
Then

Template:Math
Template:Math
Template:Math
For a three-digit ternary number, Template:Math.

### Compact ternary representation: base 9 and 27

Nonary (base 9, each digit is two ternary digits) or septemvigesimal (base 27, each digit is three ternary digits) can be used for compact representation of ternary, similar to how octal and hexadecimal systems are used in place of binary.
Template:Numeral systems (prime numbers)
Swazi phonology

## Consonants

Swazi does not distinguish between places of articulation in its clicks. They are dental (as [ǀ]) or might also be alveolar (as [ǃ]). It does, however, distinguish five or six manners of articulation and phonation, including tenuis, aspirated, voiced, breathy voiced, nasal, and breathy-voiced nasal.

The consonants /ts k ŋɡ/ each have two sounds. /ts/ and /k/ can both occur as ejective sounds, [tsʼ] and [kʼ], but their common forms are [tsʰ] and [k̬]. The sound /ŋɡ/ differs when at the beginning of stems as [ŋ], and commonly as [ŋɡ] within words.

## Tone

Swazi exhibits three surface tones: high, mid and low. Tone is unwritten in the standard orthography. Traditionally, only the high and mid tones are taken to exist phonemically, with the low tone conditioned by a preceding depressor consonant. Bradshaw (2003) however argues that all three tones exist underlyingly.

Phonological processes acting on tone include:

* When a stem with non-high tone receives a prefix with underlying high tone, this high tone moves to the antepenult (or to the penult, when the onset of the antepenult is a depressor).
* High spread: all syllables between two high tones become high, as long as no depressor intervenes. This happens not only word-internally, but also across a word boundary between a verb and its object.

The depressor consonants are all voiced obstruents other than /ɓ/. The allophone [ŋ] of /ŋɡ/ appears to behave as a depressor for some rules but not others.
Syllabic consonant

A **syllabic consonant** or **vocalic consonant** is a consonant that forms a syllable on its own, like the *m*, *n* and *l* in the English words *rhythm*, *button* and *bottle*, or is the nucleus of a syllable, like the *r* sound in the American pronunciation of *work*.[*citation needed*] To represent it, the understroke diacritic in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is used, ⟨U+0329  ̩ COMBINING VERTICAL LINE BELOW⟩. It may be instead represented by an overstroke, ⟨U+030D  ̍ COMBINING VERTICAL LINE ABOVE⟩ if the symbol that it modifies has a descender, such as in [ŋ̍].

Syllabic consonants in most languages are sonorants, such as nasals and liquids. Very few have syllabic obstruents, such as stops and fricatives in normal words, but English has syllabic fricatives in paralinguistic words like *shh!* and *zzz*.
Sonsorolese phonology

## Consonants

In Sonsorolese, there are 19 consonants. These consonants are: /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /c/, /k/, /g/, /m/, /n/, /f/, /v/, /j/, /x/, /ɣ/, /r/, /w/, /s/, /ŋ/, and /ʟʲ/ (Capell, 1969).

## Vowels

Sonsorolese has 12 vowels: /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/, /ɑ~ɒ/, /ɛ/, /æ/, /ɔ/, /ʌ/, /ɪ/, and /ʊ/. There are also diphthongs, including /ae/, /ai/, /ao/, and /au/. An example of the diphthong /ae/ is mae, which means "breadfruit" (Capell, 1969).

### Voiceless vowels

Voiceless vowels occur in three contexts: “as finals, after a consonant, after a full, generally long vowel, and before a consonant, when they are acoustically similar to falling diphthongs, after non-final consonants a furtive /i/ or /u/ produces palatalization or velarisation (respectively) of the consonants” (Capell, 1969).
Taivoan phonology

The following is the phonology of the language:

## Consonants

It's likely that there were no /g/, /ts/, and /tsʰ/ in the 17th–19th century Taivoan, although Adelaar claims *c* preceding *i* or *y* be sibilant or affricate and so could be /ts/ or /ʃ/. However, the three sounds appeared after the 20th century, especially in Tevorangh dialect in Siaolin, Alikuan, and Dazhuang, and also in some words in Vogavon dialect in Lakku, for example:

* /g/: *agang* /a'**g**aŋ (crab), *ahagang* /aha'**g**aŋ/ or *agaga*' /a**g**a'**g**a?/ (red), *gupi* /**g**u'pi/ (*Jasminum nervosum* Lour.), *Anag* /a'na**g**/ (the Taivoan Highest Ancestral Spirit), *kogitanta agisen* /ko**g**itan'ta a**g**i'sən/ (the Taivoan ceremonial tool to worship the Highest Ancestral Spirits), *magun* /ma'**g**un/ (cold), and *agicin* /a**g**it͡sin/ or *a**g**isen* /agisən/ (bamboo fishing trap).
* /t͡s/: *icikang* /i**t͡s**i'kaŋ/ (fish), *vawciw* /vaw'**t͡s**iw/ (*Hibiscus taiwanensis* Hu), *cawla* /**t͡s**aw'la/ (*Lysimachia capillipes* Hemsl.), *ciwla* /**t͡s**iw'la/ (*Clausena excavata* Burm. f.), and *agicin* /a**g**it͡sin/ (bamboo fishing trap). The sound also clearly appears in a recording of the typical Taivoan ceremonial song "Kalawahe" sung by Taivoan in Lakku that belongs to Vogavon dialect.

The digraph *ts* recorded in the early 20th century may represent /t͡sʰ/ or /t͡s/:

* /t͡sʰ/ or /t͡s/: ma**ts**a (door, gate), tabu**ts**uk (spear), **ts**aki**ts**ak (arrow), ma**ts**ihaha (to laugh), **ts**ukun (elbow), a**ts**ipi (a sole of the foot), **ts**au (dog). Only one word is attested in Vogavon dialect in Lakku: ka**ts**ui (pants, trousers).

Some scholar in Formosan languages suggest it's not likely that /t͡sʰ/ and /t͡s/ appear in a Formosan language simultaneously, and therefore **ts** may well represent /t͡s/ as **c** does, not /t͡sʰ/.

## Stress

It's hard to tell the actual stressing system of Taivoan in the 17th–19th century, as it's been a dormant language for nearly a hundred years. However, since nearly all the existing Taivoan words but the numerals pronounced by the elders fall on the final syllable, there has been a tendency to stress on the final syllable in modern Taivoan for language revitalization and education, compared to modern Siraya that the penultimate syllable is stressed.
Southern Sámi phonology

Southern Sámi has two dialects, the northern and the southern dialect. The phonological differences between the dialects are relatively small; the phonemic system of the northern dialect is explained below.

## Vowels

The vowel phonemes of the northern dialect are the following; orthographic counterparts are given in italics:

The non-high vowels /e/, /ɛ/, /o/ and /ɑ/ contrast in length: they may occur as both short and long. High vowels only occur as short.

The vowels may combine to form ten different diphthongs:
Soyombo script

The first character of the alphabet represents a syllable starting with a short *a*. Syllables starting with other vowels are constructed by adding a vowel mark to the same base character. All remaining base characters represent syllables starting with a consonant. A starting consonant without a vowel mark implies a following *a*.

In theory, 20 consonants and 14 vowels would result in almost 4,000 combinations, but not all of those actually occur in Mongolian. There are additional base characters and marks for writing Tibetan or Sanskrit, and some of the symbols used in these two languages will also not be used in Mongolian.

## Mongolian

A syllable in Mongolian can contain the following elements: consonant or vocal carrier (Cb), vowel (V), length marker (L), diphthong marker (Vd) and a final consonant Cf).

### Vowels

Mongolian uses seven vowels, all of which have a short and a long form. The long form is indicated with the length mark:

Diphthong markers are used with other vowel signs to represent diphthongs in Mongolian:

### Consonants

A final consonant is written with a simplified variant of the basic letter in the bottom of the frame. In cases where it would conflict with the vowels u or ü the vowel is written to the left.

## Sanskrit and Tibetan

A syllable in Sanskrit or Tibetan can contain the following elements: Consonant in prefix form (Cp), consonant or vocal carrier (Cb), stack of medial consonants (C2…Cn), vowel (V) and length marker (L). For Sanskrit, there are two diacritics: anusvara (Sa) and visarga (Sv). In Tibetan, syllables can be separated by tsheg (T), a small triangle-shaped sign comparable to a space.

### Vowels

Sanskrit contains additional vowels ṛ, ṝ, ḷ and ḹ.

An anusvara diacritic indicates nasalization (transcribed as ṃ). A visarga indicates post-vocalic aspiration (transcribed as ḥ).

### Consonants

Soyombo contains the full set of letters to reproduce Sanskrit and Tibetan. Note that some of the letters represent different sounds in Mongolian, Sanskrit, and Tibetan. The primary difference between the three occurs in Mongolian where letters for Sanskrit voiceless sounds are used for voiced stops, while the letters for voiceless aspirated sounds are used for voiceless stops. In Mongolian, letters used specifically for Tibetan and Sanskrit are called 'гали' *galig* noting they are characters used for the transcription of foreign sounds.

Consonant clusters in Sanskrit and Tibetan are usually written by stacking several consonants vertically within the same frame. In existing sources clusters occur with up to three consonants, but in theory they could contain as many as possible. Four consonants, ra, la, śa and sa, can also be written as a special prefix, consisting of a small sign written to the left of the main triangle. They are pronounced before the other consonants.
Tatar phonology

## Vowels

There exist several interpretations of the Tatar vowel phonemic inventory. In total Tatar has nine or ten native vowels, and three or four loaned vowels (mainly in Russian loanwords).

According to Baskakov (1988) Tatar has only two vowel heights, high and low. There are two low vowels, front and back, while there are eight high vowels: front and back, round (R+) and unround (R-), normal and short (or reduced).

 High
 Short
 Low

Poppe (1963) proposed a similar yet slightly different scheme with a third, higher mid, height, and with nine vowels.

 High
 Higher Mid
 Low

According to Makhmutova (1969) Tatar has three vowel heights: high, mid and low, and four tongue positions: front, front-central, front-back and back.

The mid back unrounded vowel ''*ë* is usually transcribed as *ı*, though it differs from the corresponding Turkish vowel.

The tenth vowel *ï* is realized as the diphthong *ëy* (IPA: [ɯɪ]), which only occurs word-finally, but it has been argued to be an independent phoneme.

Phonetically, the native vowels are approximately thus (with the Cyrillic letters and the usual Latin romanization in angle brackets):

 High

## Consonants

Notes
The phonemes /v/, /ts/, /tɕ/, /ʒ/, /h/, /ʔ/ are only found in loanwords. /f/ occurs more commonly in loanwords, but is also found in native words, e.g. *yafraq* 'leaf'. /v/, /ts/, /tɕ/, /ʒ/ may be substituted with the corresponding native consonants /w/, /s/, /ɕ/, /ʑ/ by some Tatars.
/dʑ/ and /tɕ/ are the dialectal Western (Mişär) pronunciations of **җ** ⟨**c**⟩ /ʑ/ and **ч** ⟨**ç**⟩ /ɕ/, the latter are in the literary standard and in the Central (Kazan) dialect. /ts/ is the variant of **ч** ⟨**ç**⟩ /ɕ/ as pronounced in the Eastern (Siberian) dialects and some Western (Mişär) dialects. Both /tɕ/ and /ts/ are also used in Russian loanwords (the latter written **ц**).
/q/ and /ʁ/ are usually considered allophones of /k/ and /ɡ/ in the environment of back vowels, so they never written in the Tatar Cyrillic orthography in native words, and only rarely in loanwords with **къ** and **гъ**. However, /q/ and /ʁ/ also appear before front /æ/ in Perso-Arabic loanwords which may indicate the phonemic status of these uvular consonants.
Sulka phonology

## Consonants

The phonological system of Sulka comprises 38 contrasting segments, fourteen consonants, and seven vowels. On the topic of consonants, there is no recent evidence to support contrast between [b] and [β], therefore they're assumed to be allophones and are represented in the table of consonants as [β] only.

Sulka consonants are:

## Vowels

For its vowels, Sulka has a contrast between three front vowels: high, mid, and low, [i], [e], and [ε], but there is no instance of the central high vowel [ɨ]. However, when it comes to vocalic contrasts, it is not always clear. The mid front vowel may fluctuate somewhere between close-mid [e] and the more central-close vowel [ɪ], pronounced like English *i* in 'in'. The sounds [o] and [u] often fluctuate with each other as in the example of '1SG verbal pronoun' [ku] and [ko]. This pattern of fluctuation seems to commonly occur for high front vowels. When looking at the length of vowels, long vowels are often confused with diphthongs.

The seven vowel sounds can be found in the following words:

 [hep]
 [hɛp]
 [lul]
 [lol]
 [yok]
 [yɔk]
 [ko]
 [kat]

The words below contain closed syllables which are the only attested words showing that syllable length is phonemic:

 [pkɔːn]
 [harpeːt]
 [βuːt]
 [poːm]
 [naːk]
Sundanese phonology

Sundanese orthography is highly phonemic (see also Sundanese script).

## Vowels

There are seven vowels: a /a/, é /ɛ/, i /i/, o /ɔ/, u /u/, e /ə/, and eu /ɨ/.

## Consonants

According to Müller-Gotama (2001) there are 18 consonants in the Sundanese phonology: /b/, /tʃ/, /d/, /ɡ/, /h/, /dʒ/, /k/, /l/, /m/, /n/, /p/, /r/, /s/, /ŋ/, /t/, /ɲ/, /w/, /j/; however, influences from foreign languages have introduced several additional consonants such as /f/, /v/, /z/ (as in *fonem*, *qur'an*, *xerox*, *zakat*). The consonantal phonemes are transcribed with the letters p, b, t, d, k, g, c (pronounced /tʃ/), j /d͡ʒ/, h, ng (/ŋ/), ny /ɲ/, m, n, s /s/, w, l, r /r~ɾ/, and y /j/.
Other consonants that originally appear in Indonesian loanwords are mostly transferred into native consonants: f → p, v → p, sy → s, sh → s, z → j, and kh /x/ → h.

Ephentetic semivowels /w/ and /j/ are inserted after a high vowel immediately followed by another vowel, as in the words:

* kuéh - /ku**w**ɛh/
* muih - /mu**w**ih/
* béar - /be**j**ar/
* miang - /mi**j**aŋ/
Tarifit phonology

## Vowels

* A mid-central vowel /ə/ can occur in lax positions.
* Lax allophones of /i, a, u/ are heard as [ɪ, æ, ʊ].
* In many words, mainly loanwords, the mid-back vowel /o/ can occur.

## Consonants

Riffian's most noticeable differences from other Berber dialects are that:

* /l/ in other dialects corresponds to ⟨ř⟩ (/r/) in Riffian (example: *ul* (heart) → *uř*)
	+ /ll/ (geminate /lː/) in other dialects corresponds to ⟨ǧǧ⟩ (/dː͡ʒ/) in Riffian (example: *yelli* (my daughter) → *yeǧǧi*).
	+ /lt/ in other dialects corresponds to ⟨č⟩ (//t͡ʃ//) in Riffian (example: *weltma* (my sister) → *wečma*).

These variations do not occur in the Riffian dialects of Ikebdanen and Iznasen.

* postvocalic /r/ preceding a consonantal coda is dropped, as in *taddart* (house/home) → *taddaat*. Thus in *tamara* the /r/ is conserved because it precedes a vowel.
* Additionally, the initial masculine *a-* prefix is dropped in certain words, e.g., *afus* (hand) becomes *fus*, and *afighar* (snake) becomes *fighar*. This change, characteristic of Zenati Berber varieties, further distances Riffian from neighbouring dialects such as Atlas-Tamazight and Shilha.
	+ "Tarifit" or "Tarifiyt" is by some tribes pronounced as "Tarifect" (θærifəʃt).
Tahitian phonology

Tahitian features a very small number of phonemes: five vowels and nine consonants, not counting the lengthened vowels and diphthongs. Notably, the consonant inventory lacks any sort of dorsal consonants.

Tahitian consonants

There is a five vowel inventory with vowel length:

Tahitian vowels

Next follows a table with all phonemes in more detail.
Tuamotuan phonology

## Consonants

 Nasal | m

Glottal stop is found in a large number of Tahitian loanwords. It's also found in free variation with /k/ and /ŋ/ in a number of words shared between Tuamotuan and Tahitian. Epenthetic glottal stop may be found at the beginning of monophthong-initial words.

## Vowels

Tuamotuan Vowel Phonemes
 High-mid | /e/
 Low | /æ/

Short vowels contrast with long vowels and vowel length is thereby phonemic. A number of non-identical vowel pairs appear in Tuamotuan, and long vowels are interpreted as pairs of identical vowels and written by doubling the vowels in all cases. In non-stressed position, the distinction between long and short may be lost. The position of stress is predictable. Primary stress is on the penultimate vowel before a juncture, with long vowels counting double and semi-vocalized vowels not counting as vowels. One out of every two or three vowels is stressed.. that is, the minimum domain for assigning stress is two vowels, and the maximum is three. When a long vowel is stressed, the stress falls on the entire vowel, regardless of which mora is penultimate, unless the long vowel is word-final. No more than one unstressed vowel/mora can occur in a row, but, when the first of two vowels is long, there is no stresses mora between them. Morphemes of a single short vowel cannot be stressed.

## References

1. ↑ Kuki (1973), p. 104
2. ↑ Kuki (1973), p. 103
3. ↑ Kuki (1973), p. 104–105, 108–112.
Sonsorolese orthography

Sonsorolese is primarily a spoken language. Many of the sounds are like those in Tobian and Woleaian. A couple of dialects include the pronunciation of *d*, which is common at the beginning of words and similar to [ð]; *r* is pronounced as in Spanish; also, *l* is always pronounced with tongue touching the back roof of the mouth and sounds something like a combination of the [ɡ] and [l] sounds. For that reason, some Sonsorolese prefer to spell their els as ⟨ɡl⟩. As in Woleaian, voiceless vowels are usually found at the end of Sonsorolese words. For example, in *Dongosaro*, the native name for Sonsorol island, the final *-o* is voiceless.

Written documents in Sonsorolese include the Constitution of Sonsorol State and certain parts of the Bible. However, there seems to be a confusion regarding the Bible since there seems not to be a distinction between Tobian and Sonsorolese.

* a - [a]
* aa - [ɑ~ɒ/ʌ]
* ae - [ae]
* ai - [ai]
* ao - [ao]
* au - [au]
* b - [b]
* c - [c/ç]
* d - [d/ð]
* e - [e]
* ee - [ɛ/æ]
* f - [f]
* g - [g/ɣ]
* h - [x]
* i - [i]
* ii - [ɪ]
* j - [ɟ]
* k - [k]
* l - [ʟʲ]
* ll - [ʟ]
* m - [m]
* n - [n]
* ng - [ŋ]
* ny - [ɲ]
* o - [o]
* oo - [ɔ]
* p - [p]
* r - [r]
* rb - [ʙ]
* s - [s]
* t - [t/θ]
* u - [u]
* uu - [ʊ]
* v - [v]
* w - [w]
* wy - [ɥ]
* x - [ɹ]
* xy - [ɹʲ]
* y - [j]
* z - [z]
Thadou phonology

## Consonants

* /p t k/ are heard unreleased as [p̚ t̚ k̚] in word-final position.

* /ts/ is heard as more apical [ts̺] when occurring before front and central vowels.

* /x/ can have a cognate of an aspirated velar plosive [kʰ] in the dialect spoken in Burma.

* /ɬ/ can have an allophone of [l̥] in word-medial position.

## Vowels

 Close-mid | e
 Open-mid | ɛ
 Open | æ
Tarangan phonology

The following is the description for West Tarangan:

## Consonants

* /k/ can occur as a glottal [ʔ] intervocalically between two non-high vowels.
* /ɸ/ is heard as a stop [p] syllable-final position.
* /w j/ are heard as voiced stops [ɡ dʒ] in word-initial position and within a stressed noninitial syllable onset.

## Vowels

* /a i/ in unstressed positions are heard as [ə ɪ].
* Sounds /e o/ are phonetically [e̝ o̝].
Teanu phonology

## Consonants

The labiodental fricative /v/ can be freely devoiced [f], especially word-initially. By contrast, the phoneme /s/ is always heard voiceless.

## Vowels

Teanu has 5 phonemic vowels, /i e a o u/.

Tryon (2002) proposed that vowel length may be contrastive, but more recent research has found this to be incorrect: the language only has five short vowels.

## References

1. ↑ Tryon (2002).
2. ↑ François (2009, 2021), *pace* Tryon (2002).
Standard Zhuang phonology

The following displays the phonological features of the Wuming and northern dialects of Zhuang:

## Consonants

Among other northern dialects of Zhuang, /w/ may be heard as a [β] or [v] sound. Absent consonant produces /ʔ/.

## Vowels

[ə] only occurs in diphthong or triphthong sounds.

Among other northern Zhuang dialects, /e, o/ have shortened allophones of [ɛ, ɔ].

## Tones

Standard Zhuang has six tones, reduced to two (numbered 3 and 6) in checked syllables:

The sentence *Son mwngz hwnj max gvaq dah (Son mɯŋƨ hɯnз maч gvaƽ daƅ)* "Teach thee to climb on a horse to cross a river" is often used to help people remember the six tones.

Tones for open syllables (not terminated by a closing consonant) are written at end of syllables.
Takelma phonology

## Consonants

The consonant phonemes as described by Sapir are:

## Vowels

The vowel system of the Takelma language comprises the eighteen vowels /a e i o u ɑ ɛ ɔ ɨ ʉ æ ə ɒ ʌ ɤ œ ø ɐ/, as well as their lengthened counterparts /aː eː iː oː uː ɑː ɛː ɔː ɨː ʉː əː æː øː ɤː œː ʌː ɐː ɒː/.

## Tones

Three tones are noted as /v́/, /v̀/, and /v/.
Tzʼutujil phonology

In the charts below each of the Tzʼutujil phonemes is represented by the character or set of characters that denote it in the standard orthography developed by the Guatemalan Academy of Mayan Languages (ALMG) and sanctioned by the Guatemalan government.
Where different, the corresponding symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet appears in brackets.

Stress is always on the final syllable of native words, except for the adjectival vowel suffix in certain environments.

## Vowels

Tzʼutujil has five short and five long vowels.

*Ee* and *oo* tend to be more open ([ɛː, ɔː]) before a glottal stop.

Many words allow either *a* and *e*, and although many allow *a* only, there are few which require *e*, suggesting that /e/ is merging into /a/. A smaller number of words allow either *a* or *o*.

## Consonants

The glottalized stop *kʼ* and affricates *chʼ*, *tzʼ* are ejective, while *bʼ*, *tʼ* are voiced implosives before vowels, and ejectives ([pʼ], [tʼ]) elsewhere (before consonants and at the ends of words). *Qʼ* may be either ejective or implosive before vowels, ejective elsewhere.

The pulmonic stops and affricates, *p, t, tz, ch, k, q,* are tenuis before vowels and aspirated elsewhere.

Velar *k, kʼ* are palatalized before *i*, and also usually before a non-back vowel (*i, e, a*) followed by a post-velar (*q, qʼ, j*), though the latter dissimilation is not completely productive.

*W* is [β] before front vowels (*i, e*) and [w] before non-front vowels (*a, o, u*).

*J* is a post-velar [x] in most positions, but [h] before two consonants or a word-final consonant.

At the beginning of a morpheme, there is no distinction between glottal stop and zero: Monosyllabic forms always have a glottal stop, with the exception of a few grammatical forms which never do, and when prefixed the glottal stop is retained. With polysyllabic forms the glottal stop is optional, and when prefixed it is not retained. Usually initial glottal stops are invisible to the morphology, but in some words they are treated as consonants.

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Daley 1985
Sopvoma phonology

## Consonants

* /t͡ʃʰ/ and /w/ only rarely occur, and with /t͡ʃʰ/ only occurring in word-initial position.
* The pre-aspirated voiceless /ʰr̥/, may have a word-initial allophone of [ʂ], [ʂ] rarely occurs phonemically.
* [ɡ] only occurs marginally from loanwords.
* /t̪, p͡f/ in word-initial position may be heard as [t̪ʰ, p͡fʰ] in free variation, rarely as phonemic.
* /h/ may have an allophone of [x] word-initially, word medially in free variation. [x] rarely occurs as a phoneme.
* /m/ before a central vowel /ɨ/ can have an allophone of a labiodental [ɱ].
* /n/ before high vowel sounds can have an allophone of a palatalized [nʲ].

## Vowels

* [ə] only occurs inter-morphemically.
* /ɨ/ can be heard as rounded [ʉ] in free variation.
* In word-initial position, /i, u/ can be lowered to [ɪ, ʊ].
* /e, o/ can be lowered to [ɛ, ɔ] in word-final position.
Tai Nuea phonology

Tai Nuea is a tonal language with a very limited inventory of syllables with no consonant clusters. 16 syllable-initial consonants can be combined with 84 syllable finals and six tones.

## Vowels and diphthongs

Tai Nuea has 15 short oral vowels, three long vowels, six unrounded nasal vowels, and 13 diphthongs:

Tai Nuea's diphthongs are iu, eu, ɛu; ui, oi, ɔi; əi, əu; ai, aɯ, au; aːi, aːu
## Tones

Tai Nuea has six tones:

1. rising [˨˦] (24)
2. high falling [˥˧] (53) or high level [˥] (55)
3. low level [˩] (11)
4. low falling [˧˩] (31)
5. mid falling [˦˧] (43) or high falling [˥˧] (53)
6. mid level [˧] (33)

Syllables with p, t, k as final consonants can have only one of three tones (1., 3., or 5.).
Svan phonology

## Consonants

The consonant inventory of Svan is almost identical to Laz, Georgian, and Mingrelian.

## Vowels

1. Freely varies between [ə] and [ɨ]

Apart from the odd /eː/, only Upper Bal and Lashkh dialects have long vowels. Only Upper Bal has /æ, æː/; Lashkh does not have the front rounded vowels /œ, œː, y, yː/.

## Alphabet

The alphabet, illustrated above, is similar to the Mingrelian alphabet, with a few additional letters otherwise obsolete in the Georgian script:

* ჶ /f/
* ჴ /q⁽ʰ⁾/
* ჸ /ʔ/
* ჲ /j/
* ჳ /w/
* ჷ /ə/
* ჱ /eː/

These are supplemented by diacritics on the vowels (the umlaut for front vowels and macron for length), though those are not normally written. The digraphs

* ჳი ("wi") /y/
* ჳე ("we") /œ/

are used in the Lower Bal and Lentekh dialects, and occasionally in Upper Bal; these sounds do not occur in Lashkh dialect.
Taishanese phonology

## Initial consonants

1. The respective nasal onsets (/m/, /n/, and /ŋ/) are allophones of the pre-nasalized voiced stop onsets (/ᵐb/, /ⁿd/, and /ᵑɡ/).
2. The palatal sibilants (/t͡ɕ/, /t͡ɕʰ/, and /ɕ/) are allophones of the respective alveolar sibilants (/t͡s/, /t͡sʰ/, and /s/) when the first vowel of the final consonant is high (/i/ and /u/).
3. The palatal approximate (/j/) is an allophone of the voiced fricative sibilant initial (/ʒ/).
4. The palatal approximate (/j/) can be a semivowel of the vowel /i/ when used as a glide.
5. The labio-velar approximate (/w/) can be a semivowel of the vowel /u/ when used as a glide.

## Vowels

There are about seven different vowels in Taishanese:

1. The closed front vowel (/i/) can be a palatal approximant (/j/) as a semivowel.
2. The closed back vowel (/u/) can be a labiovelar approximant (/w/) as a semivowel.
3. The closed-mid central vowel (/ɵ/) is an allophone of the mid vowel central vowel (/ə/).

## Final consonants

The final consonant (or rime) occurs after the initial sound, which consists of a medial, a nucleus, and a coda. There are three medial (or glides) in Taishanese that occur after the initial sound: null or no medial, /i/, or /u/. There are five main vowels after the medial: /a/, /e/, /i/, /u/, and null or no vowel. There are nine main codas at the end of the final: null or no coda, /i/, /u/, /m/, /n/, /ŋ/, /p/, /t/, and /k/.
Trumai phonology

This inventory is atypical of Amazonian languages (Trumai is a recent immigrant to the Xingu basin) in its ejective consonants, the lateral fricative /ɬ/, and the alveolar–dental distinction. Guirardello, who specializes on Trumai, has presented varied inventories of these phonemes: Guirardello (1999a) lists /t̪ t̪' ts ts' s/ as dental, and /t t' d n l ɬ ɾ/ as alveolar; whereas Guirardello (1999b) lists only /t/ and /t'/ as alveolar. Younger speakers do not make the ejective distinction.

The vocalic inventory is /i, e, a, o, u/ and ɨ. Syllable structure is maximally CVC, and stress always falls on the final syllable of a word.
Tswana phonology

## Vowels

The vowel inventory of Tswana can be seen below.

Some dialects have two additional vowels, the close-mid vowels /e/ and /o/. The circumflex on e and o in general Setswana writing is only encouraged at elementary levels of education and not at upper primary or higher; usually these are written without the circumflex.

## Consonants

The consonant inventory of Tswana can be seen below.

The consonant /d/ is merely an allophone of /l/, when the latter is followed by the vowels /i/ or /u/. Two more sounds, **v** /v/ and
**z** /z/, exist only in loanwords.

Tswana also has three click consonants, but these are only used in interjections or ideophones, and tend only to be used by the older generation, and are therefore falling out of use. The three click consonants are the dental click /ǀ/, orthographically ⟨c⟩; the lateral click /ǁ/, orthographically ⟨x⟩; and the palatal click /ǃ/, orthographically ⟨q⟩.

There are some minor dialectal variations among the consonants between speakers of Tswana. For instance, /χ/ is realised as either /x/ or /h/ by many speakers; /f/ is realised as /h/ in most dialects; and /tɬ/ and /tɬʰ/ are realised as /t/ and /tʰ/ in northern dialects.

## Stress

Stress is fixed in Tswana and thus always falls on the penult of a word, although some compounds may receive a secondary stress in the first part of the word. The syllable on which the stress falls is lengthened. Thus, mosadi (woman) is realised as [mʊ̀ˈsáːdì].

## Tone

Tswana has two tones, high and low, but the latter has a much wider distribution in words than the former. Tones are not marked orthographically, which may lead to ambiguity.

**go bua** /χʊ búa/ *"to speak"*
**go bua** /χʊ bua/ *"to skin an animal"*
**o bua Setswana** /ʊ́búa setswána/ *"He speaks Setswana"*
**o bua Setswana** /ʊbúa setswána/ *"You speak Setswana"*
An important feature of the tones is the so-called spreading of the high tone. If a syllable bears a high tone, the following two syllables will have high tones unless they are at the end of the word.

**simolola** /símʊlʊla/ > /símʊ́lʊ́la/ *"to begin"*
**simologêla** /símʊlʊχɛla/ > /símʊ́lʊ́χɛla/ *"to begin for/at"*
Taos phonology

## Consonants

Words exemplifying Taos consonants are in the table below:

## Vowels

### Monophthongs

Five of the vowels have an oral-nasal contrast, which persists even before a nasal consonant coda (i.e. the syllables CVN and CṼN contrast, where C = any consonant, V = any vowel, N = any nasal consonant). For example, the Taos has a /ju/ syllable before /n/ as well as /jũ/ syllable before /n/ as in the words /ˌkæˈjūnæ/ ('maternal aunt') and /ˈjũ̄næ/ ('this').

Morphemes exemplifying Taos monophthongs are in the table below:

The allophonic variation of the vowels detailed above are summarized in the following chart:

Phonetic vowels

## References

1. ↑ Harrington (1910) does not note this oral-nasal contrast in the context of a following nasal stop.
Tsuutʼina phonology

## Consonants

The consonants of Tsuutʼina in the standard orthography are listed below (with IPA notation in brackets):

## Vowels

There are five distinct vowels in Tsuutʼina - **i**, **e**, **a**, **o**, and **u**. While a and o are fairly constant, i and u can vary considerably. Vowels are also distinguished by length and tone, similar to other Athabaskan languages.

* **i** varies between [i] and [e]
* **ï** varies between [ɪ] and [ɛ]
* **e** [æ] - The vowel **e** does not correspond to the sound [e].
* **ë** varies between [ɨ] and [ə]
* **a** [a]
* **ä** varies between [ʌ] and [ɑ]
* **o** [ɒ] - The vowel **o** does not correspond to the sound [o].
* **ö** varies between [ɜ] and [ɞ]
* **u** varies between [u] and [o]
* **ü** varies between [ʊ] and [ɔ]

* long vowels are marked with an asterisk, e.g., **a\*** [aː]
* high tone is marked with an acute accent, e.g., **á**
* low tone is marked with a grave accent, e.g., **à**
* medial tone is marked with a macron, e.g., **ā**
Triphthong

In phonetics, a **triphthong** (from Greek τρίφθογγος, "triphthongos", literally "with three sounds," or "with three tones") is a monosyllabic vowel combination involving a quick but smooth movement of the articulator from one vowel quality to another that passes over a third. While "pure" vowels, or monophthongs, are said to have one target articulator position, diphthongs have two and triphthongs three.
Telefol phonology

## Consonants

/ʔ/ and /h/ only appear in a few particles and some exclamations. /p/ and /ɡ/ only appear in a few loans.

Allophones

## Vowels

Vowels
 Close

There are two contrastive phonemic tones in Telefol, high and low. For example, *ùlín* 'club' vs. *úlìn* 'planted'.

/e/ and /eː/, /o/ and /oː/, are nearly in complementary distribution. Also, single /e/ and /o/ don't occur in one-syllable words or in terminal syllables.

Vowel length only contrasts in initial syllables. However, in initial syllables single /u/ and /o/, and /i/ and /e/, don't contrast.

## Phonotactics

Syllable structure is (C)V(ː)(C).

/l/ does not occur word-initially.

/ŋ/ is allowed in medial, but not word-initial, onsets.

1. ↑ *Telefol Organized Phonology Data*, p. 3.
Tobian phonology

## Vowels

Table of Vowel Sounds
open
ɪ
i̯
ʊ
 Mid close
open
ɛ
e̯
ɛ̯
œ
ɔ
o̯
 Low close
open
a
æ
æ̯
ɑ̯

"œ" is used rarely and sounds similar to the French "eu" but the lips do not round out at the end of the sound and has critical meaning in words. There is a central low vowel that sounds like the "u" in "but", but it does not have semantic value and it has very rare occurrence.

## Diphthongs

There are a lot of diphthongs in Tobian and according to Capell, "several of them are difficult for Europeans".

äe as in mäe: breadfruit

äi fäivi: woman

aḛ wa′ŋaḛt: then

ai maik: swordfish

a:i ms:il, forehead decoration

ao̯ wao̯: top

au jau: needle, sauruai: my friend

a:u sa:u: piece

ei lei: agent of action

oʉ woʉ: rather of house

øi røi: coconut oil

øʉ Pannøʉ: Palau

## Homonyms and Near Homonyms

Like most other languages, Tobian has examples of homonyms but they are not as abundant. Meanings can vary solely on vowel length. Also small differences in sounds can produce major differences in meanings. For example, the difference between voiceless (f) and voiced (v) consonants are important but there are many exceptions where it does not affect the meaning.

ŋøŋa 1. to chew betelnut 2. a stick used in weaving

ʉl 1. a lobster 2. to pull, drag

taitai 1. to excel, precede 2. to shave

### Differences In Sounds

mäk: tatooing as compared with ma: kind of garnish

′pannʉ: coconut leaf Pannøʉ: Palau

i′te: my name i′tøʉ?: who?

teiføʉ: thirsty taivøʉ: new

ŋøs: tired ŋo̯s: glans penis

### Accents Of Words And Sentences

Tobian utilizes both stress and pitch accents or tones. Compared to the other dialects, it uses less musical tone. It is not a tonal language because the tone does not change the meaning of the word. Although it is not tonal, the speech has a wide variety of tone variations that appear to be emotional rather than linguistic and either show emphasis or other semantic components. Stress accents are used but not as much as English or Russian. In the past, the stress marks would normally be placed on the last syllable of the words. In the present, the stress marks can be placed either on the last syllable or the second to last syllable.

1. Accent on the Penultimate (Second to last)
2. Accent on the Final Syllable
3. Accent on the Antepenultimate (Third to last)
4. Sentence Stress
5. Vowel Harmony
6. Vowel Length
7. Furtive Vowels (Slightly heard or silent vowels)