Phonology

Phonology and Orthography

 

Vowels

 

Phonetically, the following vowels occur in Buli:

 

short vowels:    a, e, ε, i, o, ɔ, u, ɥ, ø, ə

long vowels:     a:, e:, ε:, i:, o:, ɔ:, u:, ɥ:, ø:

diphthongs:       ai, a:i, ao, a:o, au, a:u

ei, e:i, εo, e:o, εu

ia, i:a, ie:, io, io:, iɔ, iu, iu:, i:u, iɥ:, iə, i:ə

oa, o:a, ɔa, ɔa:, oe:, oi, o:i, ɔi

ua, ue:, ui, u:i, uo:, uɔ

ɥa, ɥe, ɥi, ɥɔ, ɥu, ɥo, ɥe:, ɥi:, ɥ:e, ɥo:, ɥ:u, ɥu:, ɥ:ə

triphthongs:      ɔai, ɥai, ɥei

 

All short and long vowels (except a), diphthongs and triphthongs occur both medially and finally but not initially. Some of the vowels, particularly the diphthongs, may appear in a nasalized form.

The orthography used in this dictionary is largely based on the common Buli spelling currently in use. This also means that phonetic details such as the openness of o, e and i, the phonetic fronting of u [ɥ] and the marking of tones have not found any expression in the spelling here.

 

2.2. Consonants

 

The following table (see Akanlig-Paare 2020, pp. 73-74) shows the places where Buli consonants are articulated:

 

	labial	lab-dent	alveolar	alveo-pal	palatal	lab-velar	velar
plosive	p,  b		t,  d			kp, gb	k, g
fricative		f,  v	s,  z
affricate				ʧ,  ʤ
lateral			l
flapped/trilled			r
nasal	m		n		ɲ	ŋm	ɲ
semi-vowels					j	w

 

To a large degree, the orthography of consonants usually corresponds to the spellings in European and African languages. In some cases it follows the English way of writing:

ch [ʧ] chiik (moon)

j [ʤ] jinla (today)

z [z] ziim (blood)

w [w] pronounced as a semi-vowel as in English; waab (snake)

y [j] pronounced as a semi-vowel (as in English); yaba (market)

ng [ŋ] ngobi (to chew)

ngm [ŋm] ngmana (ochro)

 

Although the Buli orthography has apparently coalesced into its standard form, there are still some obsolete ways of spelling: gy [ʤ] instead of j; ky [ʧ] instead of ch and mw [ŋm] instead of ngm.

 

Tones

 

There are three tonal levels and many tonal glides in Buli:

high level, marked by [h], e.g. biik [h], child

middle level, marked by [m], e.g. nari [m m], to wash; all verbs in their infinitive form have middle tone

low level, marked [l], e.g. dok [l], room, hut

 

Tones may have, in a few cases, a lexical distinctive function:

            bang [m] bangle - bang [l] lizard

            biik [h] child - biik [l] talk

            naab [h] cow - naab [l] chief

posuk [h h] sheep - posuk [l m] room of a compound

siuk [h] path - siuk [m] navel - siuk [l] sp. fish

turi [h h] bean - turi [m m] ear

 

Although every word in its basic, isolated form has its own particular tone pattern, in a syntactic scheme, many deviations from this form occur, and the functions of tone are numerous.