Editing Zenaga language (section)

== Phonology ==

=== Vowels ===
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
!
![[Front vowel|Front]]
![[Central vowel|Central]]
![[Back vowel|Back]]
|-
![[High vowel|High]]
|{{IPA link|i}} {{IPA link|iː}}
|
|{{IPA link|u}} {{IPA link|uː}}
|-
![[Mid vowel|Mid]]
|
|{{IPA link|ə}}
|
|-
![[Low vowel|Low]]
|
|{{IPA link|a}} {{IPA link|aː}}
|
|}

{| class="wikitable"
!Phoneme
!Allophones<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Cohen |first1=David |title=À propos du zénaga. Vocalisme et morphologie verbale on berbère |last2=Taine-Cheikh |first2=Catherine |year=2000 |journal=Bulletin de la Société de Linguistique de Paris |volume=95 |pages=269–322 |language=fr}}</ref>
|-
|-
|/i/
|[i], [ɨ]
|-
|/u/
|[u], [ʊ], [o], [ɔ]
|-
|/a/
|[ä], [æ], [ɛ], [œ], [ø], [ɔ], [ɑ]
|}

=== Consonants ===
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
! colspan="2" rowspan="2" |
! rowspan="2" |[[Labial consonant|Labial]]
! colspan="2" |[[Dental consonant|Dental]]
! colspan="2" |[[Alveolar consonant|Alveolar]]
! rowspan="2" |[[Postalveolar consonant|Post-alv.]]/<br>[[Palatal consonant|Palatal]]
! rowspan="2" |[[Palatal consonant|Post-<br>palatal]]
! rowspan="2" |[[Velar consonant|Velar]]
! rowspan="2" |[[Pharyngeal consonant|Pharyngeal]]
! rowspan="2" |[[Glottal consonant|Glottal]]
|-
!<small>plain</small>
!<small>phar.</small>
!<small>plain</small>
!<small>phar.</small>
|-
! rowspan="2" |[[Plosive]]
!<small>voiceless</small>
|
|
|
|{{IPA link|t}}
|({{IPA link|tˤ}})
|{{IPA link|tʲ}}
|{{IPA link|c̠}}
|{{IPA link|k}}
|
|{{IPA link|ʔ}}
|-
!<small>voiced</small>
|{{IPA link|b}}
|
|
|{{IPA link|d}}
|{{IPA link|dˤ}}
|{{IPA link|dʲ}}
|{{IPA link|ɟ̠}}
|
|
|
|-
! rowspan="2" |[[Fricative]]
!<small>voiceless</small>
|{{IPA link|f}}
|{{IPA link|θ}}
|{{IPA link|θˤ}}
|{{IPA link|s}}
|({{IPA link|sˤ}})
|{{IPA link|ʃ}}
|
|{{IPA link|x}}
|({{IPA link|ħ}})
|{{IPA link|h}}
|-
!<small>voiced</small>
|({{IPA link|v}})
|{{IPA link|ð}}
|{{IPA link|ðˤ}}
|{{IPA link|z}}
|{{IPA link|zˤ}}
|{{IPA link|ʒ}}
|
|{{IPA link|ɣ}}
|({{IPA link|ʕ}})
|
|-
! colspan="2" |[[Nasal consonant|Nasal]]
|{{IPA link|m}}
|
|
|{{IPA link|n}}
|
|{{IPA link|nʲ}}
|
|
|
|
|-
! colspan="2" |[[Trill consonant|Trill]]
|
|
|
|{{IPA link|r}}
|{{IPA link|rˤ}}
|
|
|
|
|
|-
! colspan="2" |[[Lateral consonant|Lateral]]
|
|
|
|{{IPA link|l}}
|{{IPA link|lˤ}}
|
|
|
|
|
|-
! colspan="2" |[[Approximant]]
|{{IPA link|w}}
|
|
|
|
|{{IPA link|j}}
|
|
|
|
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|+Geminated consonants
! colspan="2" rowspan="2" |
! rowspan="2" |[[Labial consonant|Labial]]
! colspan="2" |[[Alveolar consonant|Alveolar]]
! rowspan="2" |[[Postalveolar consonant|Post-<br>alveolar]]
! rowspan="2" |[[Palatal consonant|Post-<br>palatal]]
! rowspan="2" |[[Velar consonant|Velar]]
|-
!<small>plain</small>
!<small>phar.</small>
|-
! rowspan="2" |[[Plosive]]
!<small>voiceless</small>
|
|{{IPA link|tː}}
|
|{{IPA link|tʲː}}
|{{IPA link|c̠ː}}
|{{IPA link|kː}}
|-
!<small>voiced</small>
|{{IPA link|bː}}
|{{IPA link|dː}}
|{{IPA link|dˤː}}
|{{IPA link|dʲː}}
|{{IPA link|ɟ̠ː}}
|
|-
! rowspan="2" |[[Fricative]]
!<small>voiceless</small>
|{{IPA link|fː}}
|{{IPA link|sː}}
|
|{{IPA link|ʃː}}
|
|
|-
!<small>voiced</small>
|
|{{IPA link|zː}}
|{{IPA link|zˤː}}
|{{IPA link|ʒː}}
|
|
|-
! colspan="2" |[[Nasal consonant|Nasal]]
|{{IPA link|mː}}
|{{IPA link|nː}}
|
|{{IPA link|nʲː}}
|
|
|-
! colspan="2" |[[Lateral consonant|Lateral]]
|
|{{IPA link|lː}}
|
|
|
|
|-
! colspan="2" |[[Trill consonant|Trill]]
|
|{{IPA link|rː}}
|
|
|
|
|}
* [v] can be heard as an allophone of /f/.
* Sounds [tˤ] and [sˤ] occur marginally.
* Pharyngeal sounds /ħ, ʕ/ are heard from Arabic loanwords.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Taine-Cheikh |first=Catherine |title=La corrélation de gémination consonantique en zénaga (berbère de Mauritanie) |publisher=GLECS |year=2003 |journal=Comptes rendus du Groupe Linguistique d'Études Chamito-Sémitiques |volume=34 |pages=5–66 |language=fr}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Taine-Cheikh |first=Catherine |title=Dictionnaire zénaga-français: Le berbère de Mauritanie présenté par racines dans une perspective comparative |publisher=Köln: Köppe |year=2008}}</ref>