Steele, Mary and Gretchen Weed. 1966. Collected Field Reports on the Phonology of Konkomba. (Collected Language Notes, 3) Legon: Institute of African Studies.
Bilabial | Labiodental | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Palatal | Velar | Labial-velar | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Stop | Voiceless | p | t | tʃ | k | k͡p | ||
Voiced | b | d | dʒ | ɡ | ɡ͡b | |||
Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ŋ͡m | |||
Fricative | Voiceless | f | s | |||||
Voiced | ||||||||
Approximant | w | y ** | ||||||
Lateral Approximant | l | |||||||
Trill | r |
** IPA symbol [j]
Orthography note:
tʃ - is written as ch in words like cha - go, kichɔk - axe
dʒ - is written as j in words like uja - man, ji - eat
k͡p - is written as kp in words in words like kpa - have, likpuul - funeral
ɡ͡b - is written as gb in words like gbaa - beat, gbin - tether, tie
ɲ - is written as ny in words like nyi - know, unyoon - bird
ŋ - is maintained as ŋ in words like ŋa - do, liŋuul - anger
ŋ͡m - is written as ŋm in words like ŋmee - write, uŋmal - moon
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
High | i | u | |
Close-mid | e | o | |
Open-mid | ɔ | ||
Low | a |
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
High | iː | uː | |
Close-mid | eː | oː | |
Open-mid | ɛː | ɔː | |
Low | aː |
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
High | ĩ | ũ | |
Close-mid | ẽ | õ | |
Open-mid | ɔ̃ | ||
Low | ã |
High tone is marked with the letter h following a vowel in cases where it is necessary to separate meaning.
Examples:
upii - woman, upiih - sheep
unyoon - bird, unyoohn - scorpion
But tone is also used grammatically in
Waa buen kisaak - He did not go to farm
Waah buen kisaak na ... - When he went to farm ...