Sedang phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n	ɲ	ŋ
Plosive	prenasalized	ᵐb	ⁿd	ᶮdʑ	ᵑɡ
	voiced	b	d	dʑ	ɡ
	unaspirated	p	t	tɕ	k	ʔ
	aspirated	pʰ	tʰ	tɕʰ	kʰ
Fricative	voiceless	f	s	ɕ	x	h
	voiced	v	z	ʑ	ɣ
Approximant	central	w	ɹ	j	ɰ
	lateral		l	ʎ	ʟ

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
			unrounded	rounded
High	i			u
Upper Mid	e			o
Lower Mid	ɛ	ɜ	ʌ	ɔ
Low	æ	a	ɑ	ɒ

Diphthongs

	Front Glide	Central Glide	Back Glide
/i/ Nucleus	iɛ̯, ḭɛ̯	iə̯, ḭə̯, ĩə̯̃, ḭ̃ə̯̃	io̯, ĩõ̯
/u/ Nucleus		uə̯, ṵə̯, ũə̯̃, ṵ̃ə̯̃	uo̯, ṵo̯
/e/ Nucleus		eə̯, ḛə̯, ẽə̯̃, ḛ̃ə̯̃	eo̯, ḛo̯, ḛ̃o̯
/o/ Nucleus	oɛ̯, o̰ɛ̯	oə̯, o̰ə̯, õə̯̃

Sedang itself has 24 pure vowels: 7 vowel qualities, all of which may be plain ([a]), nasalized ([ã]), and creaky ([a̰]) and three of which /i a o/ may be both nasal and creaky ([ã̰]). While it does not have the length distinctions of other North Bahnaric languages, it has more diphthongs, between 33 and 55 vowel sounds altogether. (The above set yields 50.) Sedang is thus sometimes claimed to have the largest vowel inventory in the world. However, other Bahnaric languages have more vowel qualities (Bahnar, for example, has 9) in addition to phonemic vowel length so the language with the record depends closely on how the languages are described and distinct vowels are defined.

External links

• Sedang language