Nkwu

Nkwu (endonym: tembadu hānkwu [te̞ˈmbaɾu ˈhaːŋkwu]) is a language spoken by the Nkwu people of Bū.

Phonology

Consonants

The usual phonemic analysis of Nkwu consonants devised by Trang (1958) comprises many phonemes that, on surface analysis, would appear to be clusters. These are analysed as phonemes for reasons of parsimony in describing phonotactics and morphophonology.

	Labial/ Labio-dental/ Labio-velar	Dental/ Alveolar	Post-Alveolar/ Palatal	Velar	Glottal	Romanisation (Krauss)/ Romanisation (Harlowe)
Nasal	m [m]	n [n]	ɲ [ɲ]	ŋ [ŋ]		⟨ m n ny ng ⟩ ⟨ m n ñ ŋ ⟩
Glottalised Prenasalised Nasal	ⁿˀm [m̆ʔm]	ⁿˀn [n̆ʔn]	ⁿˀɲ [ɲ̆ʔɲ]	ⁿˀŋ [ŋ̆ʔŋ]		⟨ mpm ntn ntny nkng ⟩ ⟨ mpm ntn ñcñ ŋkŋ ⟩
Plosive	p b [p] [b]	t d [t~t̪] [d~d̪]		k ɡ [k] [ɡ]	ʔ [ʔ]	⟨ p b t d k g q ⟩ ⟨ p b t d k g q ⟩
Prenasalised Plosive	ⁿp ⁿb [mp] [mb]	ⁿt ⁿd [nt] [nd]		ⁿk ⁿɡ [ŋk] [ŋɡ]		⟨ mp mb nt nd nk ngg ⟩ ⟨ mp mb nt nd ŋk ŋg ⟩
Glottalised Prenasalised Plosive	ⁿˀb [m̆ʔb]	ⁿˀd [n̆ʔd]		ⁿˀɡ [ŋ̆ʔɡ]		⟨ mpb ntd nkg ⟩ ⟨ mpb ntd ŋkg ⟩
Affricate		ts dz [t͡s] [d͡z]	tʃ dʒ [t͡ʃ] [d͡ʒ]			⟨ ts dz tx dj ⟩ ⟨ ts dz tš dž ⟩
Prenasalised Affricate		ⁿts ⁿdz [nt͡s] [nd͡z]	ⁿtʃ ⁿdʒ [nt͡ʃ] [nd͡ʒ]			⟨ nts ndz ntx ndj ⟩ ⟨ nts ndz ntš ndž ⟩
Glottalised Prenasalised Affricate		ⁿˀdz [n̆ʔd͡z]	ⁿˀdʒ [n̆ʔd͡ʒ]			⟨ ntdz ntdj ⟩ ⟨ ntdz ntdž ⟩
Fricative	f v [f] [v]	s z [s] [z]	ʃ ʒ [ʃ] [ʒ]		h [h~ɦ]	⟨ f v s z x j h ⟩ ⟨ f v s z š ž h ⟩
Prenasalised Fricative	ⁿf ⁿv [ɱf] [ɱv]	ⁿs ⁿz [ns~nt͡s] [nz~nd͡z]	ⁿʃ ⁿʒ [nʃ~nt͡ʃ] [nʒ~nd͡ʒ]		ⁿh [ŋh~ŋɦ]	⟨ mf mv ns nz nx nj ngh ⟩ ⟨ mf mv ns nz nš nž ŋh ⟩
Semivowel	w [w]		j [j]			⟨ w y ⟩ ⟨ w y ⟩
Glottalised Prenasalised Semivowel	ⁿˀw [ŋkʷw]		ⁿˀj [ŋkʲj~ɲcj]			⟨ nkw nky ⟩ ⟨ ŋkw ŋky ⟩
Lateral		l [l~ɫ]				⟨ l ⟩ ⟨ l ⟩
Prenasalised Lateral		ⁿl [nl~lː~l̃ː¨~ld~ɫd]				⟨ nl ⟩ ⟨ nl ⟩

Vowels

Nkwu has a simple system of five-vowels qualities as in Spanish and Swahili.

Single vowels

	front	central	back
high	i		u
mid	e		o
low		a

Some authors have described Nkwu as also having phonemic long vowels as well, however long vowels behave prosodically in an identical way to vowel sequences, encouraging the analysis of them as sequences of two identical vowels. Such sequences of two identical vowels are, however, generally written with a macron for traditional reasons and to save space, however when it is impossible to type a macron, the vowel is doubled.

Phonemic Analysis	Romanised (macrons possible)	Romanised (macrons impossible)
/a/	⟨ a ⟩	⟨ a ⟩
/aa/	⟨ ā ⟩	⟨ aa ⟩
/e/	⟨ e ⟩	⟨ e ⟩
/aa/	⟨ ē ⟩	⟨ ee ⟩
/i/	⟨ i ⟩	⟨ i ⟩
/ii/	⟨ ī ⟩	⟨ ii ⟩
/o/	⟨ o ⟩	⟨ o ⟩
/oo/	⟨ ō ⟩	⟨ oo ⟩
/u/	⟨ u ⟩	⟨ u ⟩
/uu/	⟨ ū ⟩	⟨ uu ⟩

Unstressed vowels tend to be pronounced laxly as [ɪ ɛ ɐ ɔ ʊ] for /i e a o u/. Some speakers pronounce stressed vowels more tensely, closer to their cardinal pronunciations of [i e a o u].