Vowels[]
Sango has seven oral and five nasal vowels.[1] Vowel quality and number of nasalized vowels may be affected by the mother tongue of non-native speakers of Sango.[1]
| Oral vowels | Nasal vowels | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Front | Back | Front | Back | |
| Close | i | u | ï /ĩ/ | ü /ũ/ |
| Close-mid | e | o | ||
| Open-mid | ɛ | ɔ | ë /ɛ̃/ | ö /ɔ̃/ |
| Open | a | y /ɒ/ | ä /ã/ | ÿ /ɒ̃/ |
Consonants[]
| Bilabial | Labio- dental |
Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Labial- velar |
Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | p b (ɓ) | t d | c ɟ | k ɡ | k͡p ɡ͡b | ʔ | ||
| Prenasalized | ᵐb | ᶬv | ⁿd | ⁿz | nj | ᵑɡ | ᵑ͡ᵐɡ͡b | |
| Nasal | m | ɱ | n | ɲ | ŋ | |||
| Fricative | ɸ β | f v | θ ð | s z | ç ʝ | x ɣ | h | |
| Approximant | ʋ | l r | j | ɰ | w |
Palatal affricates occur in loan words and certain dialects.[1] Some dialects have alternations between [ᶬv] and [m], [ᵐb] and [ᵑ͡ᵐg͡b], [ᵐb] and [b], word-medial [l] and [r], and word-initial [h] and [ʔ].[1] [ᶬv] is quite rare.[1]
Syllable structure[]
Syllable structure is generally CV.[1] Consecutive vowels are rare but do occur.[1] Consonants may be palatalized or labialized, orthographically C⟨i⟩ and C⟨u⟩, respectively.[1]
Words are generally monosyllabic or bisyllabic but less commonly are trisyllabic.[1] Four-syllable words are created via reduplication and compounding, and may also be written as two words (kêtêkêtê or kêtê kêtê 'tiny bit', walikundû or wa likundû 'sorcerer').[1]
Tone[]
Sango has three basic tones (high, mid, and low), with contour tones also occurring, generally in French loanwords.[1] Tones have a low functional load, but minimal pairs exist: dü 'give birth' versus dû 'hole'.
Monosyllabic loan words from French usually have the tone pattern high-low falling (bâan 'bench' from French banc). In multisyllabic words all syllables carry low tone except the final syllable, which is lengthened and takes a descending tone. The final tone is generally mid-low falling for nouns ('ananäa' pineapple from French ananas) and high-low falling for verbs ('aretêe' 'to stop' from French arrêter).
In isolation, tones have ideolectal variation, and they may also be affected by the mother language of non-native speakers.[1]