Phonology
Consonants
| labial | alveolar | palatal | velar/uvular | glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| nasal | m | n | ɲ (nh) | ŋ (ng) | |
| plosive | p b | t d | c | k g | |
| fricative | f v | s z | x (kh) | h | |
| approx. | w | j | |||
| liquid | l |
- Consonants are often labialized before /w/ and palatalized before /j/
- /nj/ is also sometimes realized as [ɲ] or [ɲj]
- /j/ is realized as [i] after /h/ and /c/
- Likewise, /w/ is realized as [u] after /h/, and other labial consonants
Vowels
| front | central | back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| close | i y | u | |
| close-mid | e | ə (e) | o |
| open-mid | ɛ̃ (e) | ɔ̃ (o) | |
| open | a |
- /e/ is realized as [ɛ̃] when nasalized and [ə] when preceded by /j/
- /o/ is realized as [ɔ̃] when nasalized
Tones
There are five tones:
- mid level [33]: a
- low falling [21]: à
- high rising [34]: á
Phonotactics
All syllables in DianZì follows C(W)V(N)T pattern, where:
- C is a consonant
- W is either /w/ or /j/ or /y/
- V is a vowel
- N is the vowel nasalization marker
- T is a tone
/w/ cannot precedes /u/ and /j/ not /i/
There are thus 3024 possible syllables.
Romanization
DjanZì is often written in CamelCase to disambiguate cases like /ng/ vs /ŋ/. Hyphenation is also often used as DjanZì words are often not too long, in which case capitalization is only mandatory for proper noun component.
J and W can be romanized as I and U for aesthetics, as there is no ambiguity there. Nasalization is often denoted with N, but sometimes also with NG.
Following spellings are thus all valid for DjanZì:
- DjanZì
- djan-Zì
- DiangZì
- djang Zì