Pinyin (language)
Pinyin | ||
---|---|---|
Spoken in |
Northwest Region , Cameroon | |
speaker | 24,600 (2001) | |
Linguistic classification |
Niger-Congo
|
|
Language codes | ||
ISO 639-3 |
pny |
The Pinyin is a bantoide language that a total of about 27,000 people in the region north-west of Cameroon is spoken.
Phonology
phoneme | Allophone | Surroundings | spelling |
---|---|---|---|
p | p | ⟨P⟩ | |
pʰ | Before / u / in an open syllable. | ||
b | After / ɴ̩ /. | ⟨B⟩ | |
β | Between vowels within a sound. | ||
t | t | ⟨T⟩ | |
k | k | Beginning of words and sounds within words, and after / ɴ̩ /. | ⟨K⟩ |
ʔ | Only C at the end of words. | ⟨'⟩ | |
kʷ | kʷ | ⟨Kw⟩ | |
l | l | In sounds. | ⟨L⟩ |
ɾ | In suffixes. | ⟨R⟩ | |
d | After / ɴ̩ /. | ⟨D⟩ | |
ɣ | ɣ | ⟨Ɡh⟩ | |
ɡ | After / ɴ̩ /. | ⟨Ɡ⟩ | |
ɣʷ | ɡʷ | After / ɴ̩ /. | ⟨Ɡw⟩ |
f | f | ⟨F⟩ | |
s | s | / ts / to / ɴ̩ /. | ⟨S⟩ |
ts | ts | ⟨Ts⟩ | |
z | z | ⟨Z⟩ | |
dz | After / ɴ̩ /. | ||
ʃ | ʃ | / tʃ / to / ɴ̩ /. | ⟨Sh⟩ |
tʃ | tʃ | ⟨Ch⟩ | |
ʒ | ʒ | ⟨Zh⟩ | |
dʒ | After / ɴ̩ /. | ⟨J⟩ | |
m | m | ⟨M⟩ | |
n | n | ⟨N⟩ | |
ɲ | ɲ | ⟨Ny⟩ | |
ŋ | ŋ | ⟨Ŋ⟩ | |
N̩ | m̩ n̩ ŋ̍ | Homorganic with following C. Bears clay. | ⟨M⟩, ⟨n⟩ |
w | w | ⟨W⟩ | |
ɥ | ɥ | ⟨Ẅ⟩ | |
j | j | ⟨Y⟩ |
Sequences are:
- py (mby), ly (ndy), ty, ky, ngy, my, kẅ, ngẅ (= / kʷj, ɡʷj / )
- pw (mbw), lw (ndw), tw, tsw, chw, shw, sw, zw, zhw, nw, nyw, ŋw
All nouns and verbs begin with a consonant; initial vowels are necessarily prefixes. Only / a, ɨ / appear in prefixes or at the beginning of words, and only / ə / appear in suffixes. / ɨ, y / do not appear at the end of words.
Phonemes | spelling |
---|---|
i | i |
y | ʉ |
ɛ | e |
a | a |
ɔ | O |
u | u |
ə | ə |
ɨ | ɨ |
All known long vowels can appear medially or at the end of words, none at the beginning, although long / ɛ, y / are not attested. Long vowels are written twice: aa, əə, ii, ‿ɨɨ, oo, uu . Diphthongs ie, iə, ʉə, ɨə, uə contain a single tone.
Tones are high, middle, low, rising or falling. They are written as in the IPA, except for depths that are not written: á ā a ǎ â. Falling tones are mostly attached to suffixes, and rising tones are rare and can be found in a few nouns like tǎ - 'father'.
swell
- The Pinyin Spelling Dictionary (Njeck Mathaus Mbah & Stephen C. Anderson, 2005)
- Pinyin language map from the LL map project
- Information about the Pinyin language from the multi-tree project