Transcriptions
All words in Wambule and Jero can be written in a number of ways.
Alphabetic writing systems using modified Roman symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) have been devised by myself and other linguists to transcribe the sounds of the spoken language. A functional distinction can be made between phonetic or phonemic transcriptions and phonemic orthography.
In addition to Latin based alphabetic writing systems, Wambule and Jero are also generally written in Devanāgarī, an abugida script that is also used to write several Indo-Aryan languages, including Sanskrit, Hindi and Nepali. Words written in Devanāgarī script can be transcribed into a modified Roman alphabet.
The choice of which type of writing to use depends on a number of factors, including purpose, convention and personal choice.
Phonetic and phonemic transciptions
Transcription is the conversion of spoken language into written, typewritten or printed form.
The phonetic and phonemic transcriptions are used for linguistic purposes. A phonetic transcription aims to transcribe the phonetic realisation (production, audition and perception) of any speech sound in a language, whereas a phonemic transcription aims to describe the phonology of a language, thus dealing with sound systems and abstract (theoretical) sound units. Following linguistic conventions, phonetic transcriptions are placed between square brackets [ ], whereas phonological or phonemic transcriptions are written between slanted brackets / /.
The phonological analyses given in my grammars of Wambule and Jero (Opgenort 2002, 2004b, 2005d) are based on a classical phonemic approach, in which the qualification of the minimal units of the sound system is given in terms of their distribution and identity. Sounds are considered phonemic if substitution of one sound for another causes a change in meaning. If substitution does not cause a change in meaning or if two sounds do not occur in the same environments, they can be considered allophonic realisations of the same phoneme. Neutralisation is the loss of contrast between two or more phonemes in a particular environment.
A phonological distinction is made between vowels and consonants.
Vowels
|
|
FRONT
|
CENTRAL
|
BACK
|
|
CLOSE
|
/i/, /i:/
|
|
/u/, /u:/
|
|
HALF-CLOSE
|
/e/
|
|
/o/
|
|
HALF-OPEN
|
/ya/ ~ /ɛ/
|
|
/wa/ ~ /ɔ/, /ʌ/
|
|
OPEN
|
|
/a/, /a:/
|
|
The qualitative contrast between the monophthongual vowels involves four degrees of vowel height dimension and three degrees in the front-back dimension. The quantitative contrast involves a binary opposition between short and long vowels. Wambule and Jero distinguish the close front vowels /i/ and /i:/, a half-close front vowel /e/, a half-open front vowel /ɛ/ (which, however, merged with /ya/ in Hilepāne Wambule), the open central vowels /a/ and /a:/, an open back vowel /ʌ/ (especially in loans from Nepali), a half-close back vowel /o/, a half-open back vowel /ɔ/ (which, however, merged with /wa/ in Hilepāne Wambule), and the close back vowels /u/ and /u:/. In addition to these monophthongs, Wambule and Jero possess a number of diphthongal vowel phonemes and/or vowel sequences. The semi-vowels /y/ and /w/ are typically followed by the open central vowel /a/ in Hilepāne Wambule, i.e modern Hilepāne /ya/ and /wa/ often correspond to the half-open vowels /ɛ/ and /ɔ/ in other dialects.
Vowel length is marginally distinctive in Wambule and Jero. Differences in vowel length are generally not distinctive other than in the stressed open syllable of polysyllabic words and a limited number of other related phonological environments. The opposition between the six vowels which partake in the length contrast is generally neutralised in most environments. The length-neutral vowels are /A, I, U/.
Vowel nasalisation, which is distinctive in Nepali, is also albeit marginally phonologically relevant in Jero. By contrast, vowel nasalisation can be analysed as a subphonemic realisation of the velar nasal consonant /ŋ/ in Wambule. Nasalised vowels are generally indicated by placing a tilde ( ~ ) above the vowel. However, due to technical reasons, the tilde is replaced by the postvocalic symbol ( ṁ ) in the case of the loan vowel /ʌ/ and Nepali long vowels such as /ā/.
Consonants
|
VOICELESS
|
/p/
|
/t/
|
/ʈ/
|
/c/
|
/k/
|
|
ASPIRATED
|
/ph/
|
/th/
|
/ʈh/
|
/ch/
|
/kh/
|
|
VOICED
|
/b/
|
/d/
|
/ɖ/
|
/j/
|
/g/
|
|
BREATHY VOICED
|
/bh/
|
/dh/
|
/ɖh/
|
/jh/
|
/gh/
|
|
IMPLOSIVE/GLOTTAL
|
/ɓ/
|
/ɗ/
|
/ʔ/
|
||
|
NASAL
|
/m/
|
/n/
|
|
|
/ŋ/
|
|
FRICATIVE
|
|
/s/
|
|
|
|
|
TRILL
|
|
/r/
|
|
|
|
|
LATERAL
|
|
/l/
|
|
/ʔl/
|
|
|
APPROXIMANT
|
/w/
|
/y/
|
|
/h/
|
The consonant systems incorporate five series of plosive stops and affricates with the laryngeal settings voiceless, aspirated, voiced and breathy voiced. There is a series of implosive stops at two points of articulation (only in Wambule, not in Jero, which has no implosives /ɓ/ and /ɗ/), a glottal stop, a series of nasals at three points of articulation, one fricative, one trill, two laterals (not in Hilepāne Wambule, which only has plain /l/ but not preglottalised /ʔl/) and three approximants. The breathy voiced consonants, the voiceless aspirated affricate /ch/ and the retroflex consonants except /ɖ/ are generally found in loans from Nepali. In native Wambule and Jero words, the use of retroflex or post-alveolar stops in place of apico-alveolar stops seems to be determined by personal style or preference.
The syllable-final stops in pre-consonantal position in indigenous Wambule words are the archiphonemes /P, T, K/. These archiphonemes have two predictable allophonic realisations without a clearly audible release.
Please note the phonetic realisations of the following phonemes: /c/ [ʦ] , /ch/ [ʦh] , /j/ [ʣ], /jh/ [ʣh], /ʔl/ [ʔl], /y/ [j].
Phonemic orthography
The orthography of a language deals with the set of symbols used to write a language and the rules describing how to write these symbols, including spelling, punctuation, and capitalization.
Texts and illustrative sentences that are used in my grammars of Wambule and Jero (Opgenort 2002, 2004b, 2005d) are written in a phonologically based orthography that uses the symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). The orthography is phonemic in nature, representing a writing system in which there is a direct relationship between the graphemes in the written form and the phonemes in the spoken form.
The phonemic orthography and the phonemic transcription use the same symbols, but differ from one another in that the orthography distinguishes several allophones and renders archiphonemes as phonemes:
- The predictable allophones of the consonant archiphonemes /P, T, K/ in pre-consonantal syllable-final position are written p ~ b, c ~ j, ʈ ~ ɖ, t ~ d and k ~ g depending on the environment.
- The vowel archiphonemes /A, I, U/ are rendered as the short vowel graphemes a, i and u.
Devanāgarī script and Roman transliteration
The Wambule and Jero people generally write in Devanāgarī script, an abugida script that is also used to write Nepali and Hindi as well as a number of other Indic and Tibeto-Burman languages spoken in Nepal and India. An abugida, or alphasyllabic script is a writing system in which consonant signs are inherently associated with a following vowel. The absence of a vowel, or other following vowels, are usually indicated explicitly.
The Roman transliteration of the Devanāgarī script is based on spelling, not on pronunciation or phonology. The Roman transliteration uses the following symbols:
|
अ a
|
आ ā
|
||||||||
|
इ i
|
ई ī
|
||||||||
|
उ u
|
ऊ ū
|
||||||||
|
ऋ ṛ
|
|||||||||
|
ए e
|
ऐ ai
|
||||||||
|
ओ o
|
औ au
|
||||||||
|
ं ṃ
|
ः ḥ
|
||||||||
|
क k
|
ख kh
|
ग g
|
घ gh
|
ङ ṅ
|
|||||
|
च c
|
छ ch
|
ज j
|
झ jh
|
ञ ñ
|
|||||
|
ट ṭ
|
ठ ṭh
|
ड ḍ
|
ढ ḍh
|
ण ṇ
|
|||||
|
त t
|
थ th
|
द d
|
ध dh
|
न n
|
|||||
|
प p
|
फ ph
|
ब b
|
भ bh
|
म m
|
|||||
|
य y
|
र r
|
ल l
|
व v
|
||||||
|
श ś
|
ष ṣ
|
स s
|
|||||||
|
ह h
|
|||||||||
Please note that transcription differs from transliteration in that the former is the conversion of spoken language into written, typewritten or printed form, whereas the latter creates a mapping from one script to another that is designed to match the original script as directly as possible.