Vowels[]
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| High | i /ɪ ɪː/ | u /ʊ ʊː |
| Mid | e /ɛ ɛː/ | o /ɔ ɔː/ |
| Low | æ /æ/ | a /ɑ ɑː/ |
Diphthongs that occur are /ɑi ɑu ɔi ui/. The consonants /l n/ can also be syllabic.
Consonants[]
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | lab. | plain | Late. | plain | lab. | |||
| Nasal | m /m/ | n /n/ | ŋ /ŋ/ | |||||
| Stop | voiceless /voiced |
c /p/ b /b/ |
(bʷ) |
t /t/ d /d/ |
k /k/ g /ɡ/ |
(gʷ) | ||
| Fricative | h /ɸ/ v /β/ |
s /s~ʃ/ ʒ /z~ʒ/ |
z /ɬ/ l /l/ |
x /x/ ɣ /ɣ/ |
||||
| Approximant | j /j/ | q /ɰ/ | w /w/ | |||||
| Trill | f /ʙ/ | r /r/ | ||||||
/bʷ ɡʷ/ are treated as single consonants by Bunn & Bunn (1970), but as combinations of /b/ + /w/, /ɡ/ + /w/ by Evans et al. (2005).
Two consonants appear to allow free variation in their realisations: [s] varies with [ʃ], and [l] with [ɬ].
/n/ assimilates to [ŋ] before /k/ and /ɡ/.
Tone[]
Golin is a tonal language, distinguishing high ([˧˥]), mid ([˨˧]), and low ([˨˩]) tone. The high tone is marked by an acute accent and the low tone by a grave accent, while the mid tone is left unmarked. Examples:
- High: mú [mu˧˥] 'type of snake'; wí [wi˧˥] 'scream (man)'
- Mid: mu [mu˨˧] 'type of bamboo'; wi [wi˨˧] 'coming from the same ethnic group'
- Low: mù [mu˨˩] 'sound of river'; wì [wi˨˩] 'cut (verb)'