Bei Kua

Bei Kua is the language spoken in the Empire of Bei (Bei hZi Kuo) on Northern Kratuwe on Nywal.

THIS PAGE IS STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION.

phoneme inventory

consonants

phonemes

	bila​bial		dental		alve​olar		retroflex / pal​a​tal		ve​lar
nasal	m				n				ŋ
plosive	p	b			t	d			k	g
aspirated pl.	pʰ p͡ɸ		t̪ʰ						kʰ k͡x
affricate					t͡s	d͡z
fricative	ɸ		θ		s		ç		x
approximant					ɹ		ɻʲ

letters (transliteration)

	bila​bial		dental		alve​olar		retroflex / pal​a​tal		ve​lar
nasal	m				n				ŋ
plosive	p	b			t	d			k	g
aspirated pl.	ph		th						kh
affricate					c	z
fricative	f		þ		s		h		x
approximant					r		rj

semivowels

/i̯/ i , j (if initial)

/u̯/ u , w (if initial)

vowels

/ɐ/ a

/ɛ/ e

/i/ i

/ɔ/ o

/u/ u

diphthong: /ɛi/ or /eː/ ei

phonotactics

• light initial: consonant (except rh) or empty (21)
• heavy initial: h followed by consonant other than h or rj (20)
• light final: a, e, i, o, u, ei (6)
• heavy final: i + a/e/o/u, u + a/e/i/o, iao (9)

syllable is:

• initial + final; max. 1 heavy; or
• syllabic m or ŋ

437 possible syllables

strong monosyllabic preference, therefore very many homonyms. disambiguation of spoken language by signs. written language no ambiguity because of character script.

writing

characters: partly semantic, partly phonemic.