Clwang

Phonology

Vowels

Simple Vowels

Hainan Cham has seven simple vowels. There are two front vowels, /i/ and /e/, two central vowels, /ə/ and /a, a:/, two back vowels, /u/ and /o/. The vowel /a/ and /a:/ counts as one vowel. The usage of the semicolon in /a:/ indicates a prolonged /a/. The table below shows the seven simple vowels in IPA form.

Hainan Cham Vowel IPA

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		u
Mid	e	ə	o
Low		a/a:

Diphthongs

Hainan Cham has nine diphthongs. The two types of diphthongs in Hainan Cham are rising diphthongs and falling diphthongs. There are in five rising diphthongs and four falling diphthongs. The five rising diphthongs are /i̯u/, /i̯ɘ/, /i̯o/, /i̯a/, and /u̯a/. The four falling diphthongs are /ui̯/, /oi̯/, /ai̯/ and /a:i̯/, and /au̯/ and /a:u̯/.

Rising		Falling
iu	[i̯u]	uj	[ui̯]
iɘ	[i̯ɘ]
io	[i̯o]	oj	[oi̯]
ia	[i̯a]	aj, a:j
ua	[u̯a]	aw, a:w

Triphthongs

Hainan Cham has three triphthongs. The three triphthongs are /iaj/, /iaw/, and /uaj/.

Consonants

Hainan Cham has nineteen consonants in total. There are five places of articulation shown on the top horizontal row, and five manners of producing sound shown in the first column. The table below shows a complete IPA chart of the consonants present in Hainan Cham.

Hainan Consonant Chart in IPA

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stops:	Unaspriated:	p-	t		k	ʔ
	Aspirated:	pʰ-	tʰ-		kʰ-
	Implosives:	ɓ-	ɗ-
Fricatives:		v-	s-, z-			h-
Affricates:			ts-
Nasals:		m-	n	ɲ-	ŋ
Lateral:			ɭ-

The "-" behind the consonants /p-/, /pʰ-/, /ɓ-/, /v-/, /m-/, /tʰ-/, /ɗ-/, /s-/, /z-/, /ts-/, /ɭ-/, /ɲ-/, /kʰ-/, and /h-/ indicate the placement of the consonant in a morpheme. The addition of "-" indicates that the consonant can occur initially and finally.

Tones

There are five tones in Hainan Cham. The tones are 55, 33, 21, 43, and 24. Tone 55 usually is a rising tone. Tone 33 is a lower tone than tone 55. Tone 21 is a low level tone. Tone 43 and tone 24 are contours tones. The different between tone 43 and tone 24 is, tone 24 is a low-rising tone while tone 43 is a high-falling tone.

Hainan Cham Tones

Tones		Example
55	rising tone	ta^55 'raw; unripe'
33	varies between a level and falling pitch	ta^33 ' long'
21	low level	ta^21 'blind'
43	contour, high-falling	ta^43 'pillow'
24	contour, low-rising	ta:ʔ^24 'beans, peas'