Vute is a Mambiloid language of Cameroon and Gabon, with a thousand speakers in Nigeria. The orthography was standardized on March 9, 1979. Noted dialect clusters are eastern, central, and Doume.
Phonology
Consonants
Consonants in Vute are numerous and include pulmonic and implosive airstreams. Labialization is phonemic in many consonants, some of which is dialectal.
+ Consonants of Vute Labial Dental/Alveolar Post-alveolar Palatal Velar Labial–velar Glottalplain lab.plain lab.plain lab.plain lab.plain lab. Nasal Implosive Plosive/Affricate voiceless voiced prenasalized Fricative voiceless voiced prenasalized Rhotic(~) Approximant
Tones Source:
There are more phonemic tones than are marked in orthography, such as mid-high rising tone and mid tone being both unmarked for example. Phonologically conditioned downstep is unmarked.
Tone CategoryIPA OrthographyExampleGloss high tone˦á, áátím blood mid tone˧ a, aaməb louse low tone˨à, ààtɨ̀mnɨ to drown mid-high˧˥ a, aátɨm antelopelow-high*˩˥àɓùngrasshigh-low˥˩â, áàbɨ̂ŋ round, completehigh-mid˥˧â, áamîngoodhigh-low-high˥˩˦âásîímrainy season *Only in eastern dialects, on short vowels. All other dialects merge this class with low tone.
Vowels Sources: OralNasalLongShortLongShort[iː] ii[i~ɪ] i[ĩː] i̧i̧[ĩ] i̧[eː] ee[e~ɛ] e[ɛ̃ː] ȩȩ[ɛ̃] ȩ[ɨː] ɨɨ[ɨ] ɨ[ɨ̃ː] ɨ̧ɨ̧[ɨ̃] ɨ̧[əː] əə[ə] ə[ə̃ː] ə̧ə̧[ə̃] ə̧[aː] aa[a] a[ãː] a̧a̧[ã] a̧[uː] uu[u~ʊ] u[ũː] u̧u̧ [ũ] u̧[oː] oo[o~ɔ] o[õː] o̧o̧[õ] o̧[ɔː] ɔɔ[ɔ] ɔ[ɔ̃ː] ɔ̧ɔ̧[ɔ̃] ɔ̧[ei] ei[ẽĩ] ȩi̧[ai] ai[ãĩ] a̧i̧[ɨi] ɨi[ɨ̃ĩ] ɨ̧i̧[əi] əi[ə̃ĩ] ə̧i̧[oi] oi[õĩ] o̧i̧
References