Xhosa phonology

Vowels

Xhosa has an inventory of ten vowels: [a], [ɛ~e], [i], [ɔ~o] and [u] written as a, e, i, o and u in order, all occurring in both long and short.

Xhosa vowel phonemes

	Front		Back
	short	long	short	long
Close	i (i)	iː (ii)	u (u)	uː (uu)
Mid	ɛ (e)	eː (ee)	ɔ (o)	oː (oo)
Open			a (a)	aː (aa)

Tones

Xhosa is a tonal language with two inherent phonemic tones: low and high. Tones are rarely marked in the written language, but they can be indicated a [à], á [á], â [áà], ä [àá]. Long vowels are phonemic but are usually not written except for â and ä, which are the results of gemination of two vowels, both with different tones; they have thus become long vowels with contour tones (â high-low = falling, ä low-high = rising).

Consonants

Xhosa is rich in uncommon consonants. Besides pulmonic egressive sounds, which are found in all spoken languages, it has 18 clicks (in comparison, Juǀ'hoan, spoken by roughly 10,000 people in Botswana and Namibia, has 48 clicks, and Taa, with roughly 4,000 speakers in Botswana, has 83 click sounds, the largest consonant inventory of any known language). Also, Xhosa has ejectives and an implosive. Although 15 of the clicks also occur in Zulu, they are used less frequently than in Xhosa.

The first six are dental clicks (represented by the letter "c"), made with the tongue on the back of the teeth, and they are similar to the sound represented in English by "tut-tut" or "tsk-tsk" to reprimand someone. The next six are lateral (represented by the letter "x"), made by the tongue at the sides of the mouth, and they are similar to the sound used to call horses. The last six are alveolar (represented by the letter "q"), made with the tip of the tongue at the roof of the mouth, and they sound somewhat like a cork pulled from a bottle.

The following table lists the consonant phonemes of the language, with the pronunciation in IPA on the left and the orthography on the right:

		Labial	Dental/Alveolar		Postalveolar	Velar	Glottal
			central	lateral
Click	tenuis/ejective		[kǀʼ] c	[kǁʼ] x	[kǃʼ] q
	aspirated		[kǀʰ] ch	[kǁʰ] xh	[kǃʰ] qh
	slack voice		[ɡ̊ǀʱ] gc	[ɡ̊ǁʱ] gx	[ɡ̊ǃʱ] gq
	nasal		[ŋǀ] nc	[ŋǁ] nx	[ŋǃ] nq
	slack-voice nasal		[ŋǀʱ] ngc	[ŋǁʱ] ngx	[ŋǃʱ] ngq
	glottalised nasal		[ŋǀˀ] nkc	[ŋǁˀ] nkx	[ŋǃˀ] nkq
Plosive	tenuis/ejective	[pʼ] p	[tʼ] t		[c̟ʼ] ty	[kʼ] k
	aspirated	[pʰ] ph	[tʰ] th		[c̟ʰ] tyh	[kʰ] kh
	slack voice	[b̥ʱ] bh	[d̥ʱ] d		[ɟ̟̊ʱ] dy	[ɡ̊ʱ] g
	implosive	[ɓ] b
Affricate	ejective		[tsʼ] ts		[tʃʼ] tsh	[kxʼ] kr
	aspirated		[tsʰ] ths		[tʃʰ] thsh	[kxʰ] krh
	slack voice		[d̥zʱ] dz 3		[d̥ʒʱ] j
Fricative	voiceless	[f] f	[s] s	[ɬ] hl	[ʃ] sh	[x] rh	[h] h
	slack voice	[v̤] v	[z̤] z	[ɮ̈] dl	[ʒ̈] zh 2	[ɣ̈] gr	[ɦ] hh
Nasal	fully voiced	[m] m	[n] n		[ɲ̟] ny	[ŋ] ngʼ
	slack voice	[m̤] mh	[n̤] nh		[ɲ̟̈] nyh	[ŋ̈] ngh 4
Approximant	fully voiced			[l] l	[j] y	[w] w
	slack voice			[l̤] lh	[j̈] yh	[w̤] wh
Trill	fully voiced		[r] r 1
	breathy voiced		[r̤] r 1

1. Two additional consonants, [r] and [r̤], are found in borrowings. Both are spelled r.
2. Two additional consonants, [ʒ] and [ʒ̈], are found in borrowings. Both are spelled zh.
3. Two additional consonants, [dz] and [dz̤], are found in loans. Both are spelled dz.
4. An additional consonant, [ŋ̈] is found in loans. It is spelled ngh.

In addition to the ejective affricate [tʃʼ], the spelling tsh may also be used for either of the aspirated affricates [tsʰ] and [tʃʰ].

The breathy voiced glottal fricative [ɦ] is sometimes spelled h.

The ejectives tend to be ejective only in careful pronunciation or in salient positions and, even then, only for some speakers. Otherwise, they tend to be tenuis (plain) stops. Similarly, the tenuis (plain) clicks are often glottalized, with a long voice onset time, but that is uncommon.

The murmured clicks, plosives and affricates are only partially voiced, with the following vowel murmured for some speakers. That is, da may be pronounced [dʱa̤] (or, equivalently, [d̥a̤]). They are better described as slack voiced than as breathy voiced. They are truly voiced only after nasals, but the oral occlusion is then very short in stops, and it usually does not occur at all in clicks. Therefore, the absolute duration of voicing is the same as in tenuis stops. (They may also be voiced between vowels in some speaking styles.) The more notable characteristic is their depressor effect on the tone of the syllable.

Consonant changes with prenasalization

When consonants are prenasalized, their pronunciation and spelling may change. The murmur no longer shifts to the following vowel. Fricatives become affricated and, if voiceless, they become ejectives as well, at least with some speakers: mf is pronounced [ɱp̪fʼ], ndl is pronounced [ndɮ], n+hl becomes ntl [ntɬʼ], n+z becomes ndz [ndz], etc. The orthographic b in mb is the voiced plosive [mb].

When voiceless clicks (c, x, q) are prenasalized, the silent letter k is added (nkc, nkx, nkq) to prevent confusion with the nasal clicks nc, nx, nq.

List of consonant changes with prenasalisation

Normal	Prenasalised	Rule
/pʰ/, /tʰ/, /c̟ʰ/, /kʰ/	/mp/, /nt/, /ɲc̟/, /ŋk/	Aspiration is lost on obstruents.
/kǀ/, /kǁ/, /kǃ/	/ŋǀʱ/, /ŋǁʱ/, /ŋǃʱ/	Plain clicks become slack voiced nasal.
/kǀʰ/, /kǁʰ/, /kǃʰ/	/ŋǀˀ/, /ŋǁˀ/, /ŋǃˀ/	Aspirated clicks become glottalised nasal.
/ɓ/	/mb̥ʱ/	Implosive becomes slack voiced.
/f/, /s/, /ʃ/, /ɬ/, /x/ /v/, /z/, /ɮ/, /ɣ/	[ɱp̪f], /nts/, /ɲtʃ/, /ntɬ/, /ŋkx/ [ɱb̪̊vʱ], [nd̥zʱ], [nd̥ɮʱ], [ŋɡ̊ɣʱ]?	Fricatives become affricates. Only phonemic, and thus reflected orthographically, for /nts/, /ɲtʃ/, /ntɬ/ and /ŋkx/.
/m/, /n/, /ɲ̟/	/m/, /n/, /ɲ̟/	No change when the following consonant is itself a nasal.

Consonant changes with palatalisation

Palatalisation is a change that affects labial consonants whenever they are immediately followed by /j/. While palatalisation occurred historically, it is still productive.

Moreover, Xhosa does not generally tolerate sequences of a labial consonant plus /w/. Whenever /w/ follows a labial consonant, it changes to /j/, which then triggers palatalisation of the consonant.

External links

• Xhosa language