Zinou Creole
Introduction | Tamheed
Phonology
Orthography
Zinou Creole is written using the Latin script; however, it lacks a standardised orthography, particularly for certain vowels and consonants, resulting in spelling variations that are largely dependent on individual speaker preference, or the origin of some words. This irregularity is highly common in informal register of Zinou Creole. Notably, words of French origin tend to exhibit greater orthographic and morphological variation, whereas words derived from Persian and Arabic are generally more phonetically straightforward and structurally simpler.
Consonants
| Plosive | Fricative | Nasal | Approximant | Rhotic | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labial | p
/p/ |
b
/b/ |
f ph
/f/ |
v
/v/ |
m
/m/ |
w
/w/ |
|
| Alveolar | t 6
/t/ |
d 9'
/d/ |
s 9 c[2] ç[3]
/s/ |
z 6’ s[4]
/z/ |
n
/n/ |
l
/l/ |
r
/r/[1] |
| Palatal | ch
/ʃ/ |
j g[2]
/ʒ/ |
y
/j/ |
||||
| Velar | k kh qu 5 c[3] ç[2]
/k/ |
g gh q 8 gu[2]
/g/ |
|||||
| Glottal | ' 2 3
/ʔ/ |
h | /h/ | ||||
[1] - The pronunciation of /r/ varies by speaker's idiolect. It may be guttural [ʁ] or a rhotic [ɹ], or a flap [ɾ] or a non-rhotic (only pronounced before or between vowels).
[2] - Only used before the vowels e i & y.
[3] - Only used before the vowels a o & u.
Vowels
| Monophthong | Diphthong | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ɐ | a à | y | u û ü | ɐi̯ | aï aë ay |
| æ | æ ä | ø | eu eû eo | ɐu̯ | aô aou aw |
| ɑ | â | œ | œ ö ø | ei̯ | ea ei ey |
| e | e é ê | o | o ó ô | ou̯ | eau où ow |
| ɛ | è ai aî | ɔ | ò au å | u̯ɐ | oi wa |
| i | i î ee y | u | ou u oo ù | u̯e | oê we |