Pinyin is a Grassfields language spoken by some 27,000 people in the Northwest Region of Cameroon.
Phonology
Consonants +ConsonantsPhoneme Allophones Environment Orthographypp pʰBefore /u/ in an open syllable. bAfter /ɴ̩/. βBetween vowels within a root. t t kkBeginning of words and of roots within words, and after /ɴ̩/. ʔ Only C found at ends of words. kʷ kʷ l lIn roots. ɾIn suffixes. dAfter /ɴ̩/. ɣ ɣ ɡAfter /ɴ̩/. ɣʷɡʷAfter /ɴ̩/. f f ss /ts/ after /ɴ̩/.tsts z z dzAfter /ɴ̩/. ʃʃ /tʃ/ after /ɴ̩/.tʃtʃ ʒʒ dʒAfter /ɴ̩/. mm nn ɲɲ ŋŋ N̩ m̩ n̩ ŋ̍ Homorganic with following C. Carries tone. , ww ɥɥ jj
Sequences are: py (mby), ly (ndy), ty, ky, ngy, my, kẅ, ngẅ (= ) pw (mbw), lw (ndw), tw, tsw, chw, shw, sw, zw, zhw, nw, nyw, ŋw
All noun and verb roots begin with a consonant; initial vowels are necessarily prefixes. Only occur in prefixes or at the beginning of words, and only occurs in suffixes. do not occur at the ends of words.
Vowels +VowelsPhoneme Orthography i y ɛ a ɔ u ə ɨ
All known long vowels may occur medially or at ends of words, none at the beginning, though long are not attested. Long vowels are written double: . Diphthongs take a single tone.
Tones are high, mid, low, rising, falling. They are written as in IPA, apart from low, which is not written: . Falling tone is largely confined to suffixes, and rising tone is rare, found only on a few nouns such as 'father'.
References
The Pinyin Orthography Guide ( Mathaus & Stephen C. Anderson, 2005)