Ersu (ersu1241-1)

Chirkova, Katia; Wang, Dehe; Chen, Yiya; Amelot, Angélique; Antolík, Tanja Kocjančič. Ersu. 2015.

Consonants (66)

ⁿpʰ p ʱb ʱp b ⁿb ⁿtʰ t ʱd ʱt d ⁿd ⁿkʰ k ʱg ʱk g ⁿg
ⁿts̪ʰ ts̪ʰ ts̪ ʱts̪ dz̪ ⁿdz̪ ⁿtsʰ tsʰ ts ʱts dz ⁿdz ⁿʈɽ̥ʰ ʈɽ̥ ʈɽ̥ʰ ɖɽ ⁿɖɽ tɕʰ ⁿtɕʰ ʱtɕ ⁿdʑ
f v ʱz̪ s z ɕ ʑ x ʱx
ɬ
ʱm m ʱn n ʱŋ ŋ
j w
l
ɽr

Vowels (12)

ɿ
i
əʵ o
ɛ ɛ̃
a

Tones (2)

˥ ˩

Notes

Dental stops are laminal denti-alveolar, involving contact on both the teeth and most of the alveolar ridge.

Dental affricates have "a smaller contact area, which includes the upper front teeth and the front part of the alveolar ridge".

Alveolar affricates are laminal flat alveolar, "produced with the tongue touching the middle of the alveolar ridge".

Alveolopalatals have a restricted distribution in native vocabulary, co-occuring only with the vowels /i o a/. They involve "simultaneous alveolar and palatal articulation ... compare 'laminal palatalized post-alveolar'".

Retroflex affricates are subapical, and produced with contact between the underside of the tongue and the hard palate. "The articulation of retroflex affricates involves lateral bracing of the tongue against the teeth, so that the tongue tip is free to move to and from the hard palate." They have a trilled release, but this release is typically single-contact, except when followed by fricative vowels.

/f/ occurs only before /i ꭒ/.

Dental fricatives are grooved, and alveolar affricates are flat.

The trill is given as /ɽ/, but is noted to be trilled. "Similar to the retroflex trill in Toda ... the first contact of the tongue tip is made at the back of the alveolar ridge, whereas subsequent contacts are made slightly further forward near or at the alveolar ridge, so that the trill is realized as [ɽr]."

Initials with voiceless preaspiration occur in Tibetan loans, but a full inventory of them isn't given, so they're omitted.

Nasalized vowels occur in recent Mandarin loans and two native words, but a full inventory of them isn't given. We assume all vowels that are neither rhotacized nor fricated can take nasalization.

Allophonic rules