Bodo phonology

The Bodo language has a total of 30 phonemes: 6 vowels, 16 consonants, and 8 dipthongs—with a strong prevalence of the high back unrounded vowel /ɯ/. The Bodo language use tones to distinguish words. There are three different tones used in the language: high, medium and low. The difference between high and low tone is apparent and quite common.

Vowels

There are six vowels in Bodo language.

Vowels

	Front		Central		Back
	IPA	ROM	IPA	ROM	IPA	ROM
Close	y	y	ʉ	ǔ	u	u
	i	i	ɨ	ǐ	ɯ	w
Near-close	ɪ	ï			ʊ	ü
Close-mid	e	e			o	o
Open-mid	ɛ	ë			ɔ	ö
Open	æ	æ	a	a	ɑ	ä

• All vowels occur in all three positions.

Diphthongs

Diphthongs

	i	o	u
i			iu
e		eo
a	ai	ao
o	oi
u	ui
ɯ	ɯi		ɯu

Consonants

The Bodo language has sixteen consonants.

Consonants

		Labial		Alveolar		Dorsal		Glottal
		IPA	ROM	IPA	ROM	IPA	ROM	IPA	ROM
Nasal	voiceless	m̥	ṁ	n̥	ṅ	ŋ̊	ṅk
	voiced	m	m	n	n	ŋ	ng
Stop	aspirated	pʰ	ph	tʰ	th	kʰ	kh
	voiceless	p	p	t	t	k	k
	voiced	b	b	d	d	ɡ	g
Fricative	voiceless	f	f	s	s	x	x
	voiced	v	v	z	z	ɣ	ɣ	ɦ	h
Flap/Trill	voiced			ɾ	r
Approximant	voiceless	ʍ	c	ɹ̥	ṙ	j̊	j
	voiced	w	w	ɹ	ł	j	y
	lateral			l	l	ʎ	q

• The three voiceless aspirated stops, /pʰ, tʰ, kʰ/, are unreleased in syllable final position. Their unaspirated voiced counterparts are released and cannot occur word final position.
• Sometimes /pʰ, tʰ, kʰ, s/ are pronounced as /b, d, g, z/ respectively.
• The consonants /b, d, m, n, ɾ, l/ can occur in all position.
• The consonants /pʰ, tʰ, kʰ, g, s, ɦ/ cannot appear in word final positions in indigenous Bodo words, but can occur in loan words.
• The consonants /ŋ, y, w/ cannot appear in word initial positions.

Tones

Bodo is a tonal language.

Examples of high and low tone and the difference of meaning

High	Meaning	Low	Meaning
Buh	to beat	Bu	to swell
Hah	earth, to be able	Ha	to cut
Hahm	to get thin	Ham	to get well
Gwdwh	to sink	Gwdw	past
Jah	to eat	Ja	to be
Rahn	to get dry	Ran	to divide

External links

• Bodo language