Choni language
Tibetic language spoken in China
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Choni (Jonê) and Thewo are dialects of a Tibetic language spoken in western China in the vicinity of Jonê County.
Phonology
Consonants
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Retroflex | (Alveolo-) palatal |
Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||||
| Plosive | tenuis | p | t | k | ||||
| aspirated | pʰ | tʰ | kʰ | |||||
| voiced | b | d | ɡ | |||||
| prenasalized | ᵐb | ⁿd | ᵑɡ | |||||
| Affricate | tenuis | t͡s | t͡ʂ | t͡ɕ | ||||
| aspirated | t͡sʰ | t͡ʂʰ | t͡ɕʰ | |||||
| voiced | d͡z | d͡ʐ | d͡ʑ | |||||
| prenasalized | ⁿd͡z | ⁿd͡ʐ | ⁿd͡ʑ | |||||
| Fricative | tenuis | s | ʂ | ɕ | x | h | ||
| aspirated | sʰ | ʂʰ | ɕʰ | xʰ | ||||
| voiced | z | ʑ | ɣ | |||||
| Sonorant | r̝ | j | w | |||||
| Lateral | fricative | ɬ | ||||||
| approximant | l | |||||||
Choni has four contrastive aspirated fricatives: /sʰ/ /ɕʰ/, /ʂʰ/, /xʰ/.[2]
- /r/ is phonetically a fricativized alveolar trill [r̝], and may be heard as [ʐ] as an allophone.
- A syllable-initial /k/ can be heard as a uvular fricative [χ] before voiceless consonants and as a voiced [ʁ] before voiced consonants. A syllable-final /k/ can be heard as a uvular stop [q] after /æ/ or /ɔ/ vowel sounds.
- [ʁ] can also be heard as an allophone of /ɣ/ between /æ/ or /ɔ/ and another vowel.[3]
Vowels
- [ũː] rarely exists as a phoneme, and is only attested in a few words with a palatal or alveolo-palatal initial.