Colognian phonology

This article covers the phonology of modern Colognian as spoken in the city of Cologne. Varieties spoken outside of Cologne are only briefly covered where appropriate. Historic precedent versions are not considered.

Consonants

With about 25 phonemes, the Colognian consonant system exhibits an average number of consonants in comparison with other languages. Notable differences with the enveloping German language are the absence of the fricative [ç] and the High German affricate /p͡f/. All Colognian consonants are pulmonic with the obvious exception of the glottal stop /ʔ/ which briefly interrupts the pulmonic air flow.

Consonant phonemes

		Labial	Alveolar	Post- alveolar		Palatal	Velar/ Uvular	Glottal
Nasal		m	n			ɲ	ŋ
Stop	voiceless	p	t			c	k	ʔ
	voiced	b	d			ɟ	ɡ
Affricate	voiceless		t͡s	t͡ʃ
	voiced			d͡ʒ
Fricative	voiceless	f	s	ʃ	ɧ	ç	x	h
	voiced	v	z	ʒ		ʝ	ʁ
Approximant		ʋ	l			j	ʟ

Vowels

	Front				Central		Back
	unrounded		rounded				unrounded		rounded
	short	long	short	long	short	long	short	long	short	long
Close	i	iː	y	yː	ɨ	ɨː			u	uː
Near-close	ɪ		ʏ						ʊ
Close-mid	e	eː	ø	øː	ə	əː	ɤ	ɤː	o	oː
Open-mid	ɛ	ɛː	œ	œː	ɐ	ɐː			ɔ	ɔː
Open	æ	æː			a	aː	ɑ	ɑː

• There are also two semivowels: [ɐ̯] and [ɔ̯], the latter of which is not phonemic.

Diphthongs are /aɪ, aːʊ, aʊ, eɪ, iɐ̯, oʊ, ɔʏ, øʏ/. /aːʊ/ only occurs with Stoßton.

External links

• Colognian phonology