Tee language explained

Tẹẹ
States:	Nigeria
Region:	Tai, Rivers State
Date:	2006
Ref:	e18
Familycolor:	Niger-Congo
Fam2:	Atlantic–Congo
Fam3:	Benue–Congo
Fam4:	Cross River
Fam5:	Ogoni
Fam6:	East Ogoni
Iso3:	tkq
Notice:	IPA
Glotto:	teee1242
Glottorefname:	Tee

Tẹẹ (pronounced as /[tɛ̀ː]/), or Tai, is an Ogoni language and the language of the Tai tribe of the Ogoni people of Rivers State, Nigeria. It is to a limited degree mutually intelligible with Khana, the main Ogoni language, but its speakers consider it to be a separate language.

Phonology

The Tẹẹ sound system is typical of an Ogoni language and identical to that of Khana, with the exception of four or five voiceless sonorants not found in that language. The voiceless pronounced as /[w]/ is also found in other Ogoni languages, and voiceless pronounced as /[j]/ and pronounced as /[l]/ are also found in other languages of Nigeria.

Vowels

There are seven oral vowels, pronounced as //i e ɛ a ɔ o u//, spelt (i e ẹ a ọ o u), and five nasal vowels, pronounced as //ĩ ẽ ã õ ũ// (spelt this way also). All may occur in long or short forms.

	Front		Central		Back
	oral	nasal	oral	nasal	oral	nasal
Close	i	ĩ			u	ũ
Close-mid	e	ẽ			o	õ
Open-mid	ɛ				ɔ
Open	a	ã

Consonants

Consonants
		Bilabial	Alveolar		Palatal	Velar		Labial- velar
		Bilabial	central	lateral	Palatal	plain	lab.	Labial- velar
Plosive	voiceless	p	t			k	kʷ ⟨kw⟩	k͡p ⟨kp⟩
Plosive	voiced	b	d			ɡ	ɡʷ ⟨gw⟩	ɡ͡b ⟨gb⟩
Fricative	voiceless		s
Fricative	voiced		z
Nasal	voiceless	(m̥) ⟨hm⟩	n̥ ⟨hn⟩
Nasal	voiced	m	n		ɲ ⟨ny⟩		ŋʷ ⟨nw⟩
Approximant	voiceless			l̥ ⟨hl⟩	ȷ̊ ⟨hy⟩		w̥ ⟨hw⟩
Approximant	voiced		ɹ ⟨r⟩	l	j ⟨y⟩		w

A glottal stop pronounced as /[ʔ]/ appears before any otherwise vowel-initial stem. The alveolar consonants are apical.

Tẹẹ includes a rather unusual series of voiceless sonorants. The voiceless palatal pronounced as //ȷ̊// sounds rather like the voiceless palatal fricative pronounced as /[ç]/, but is not as noisy (that is, there is not much random-frequency noise in its sound spectrum). Similarly, pronounced as //l̥// is a voiceless approximant, not a voiceless fricative pronounced as /

[ɬ]

/. The voiceless bilabial nasal, pronounced as //m̥//, is only known to occur in one word, pronounced as //àm̥èː// (an unidentified abdominal organ), and then only for some speakers. All of the voiceless sonorants are actually voiced during the second half of their enunciation. That is, pronounced as //n̥// is pronounced pronounced as /[n̥͡n]/ However, they are considerably shorter than their voiced homologues, and hence cannot be considered /hC/ sequences with an otherwise unattested consonant pronounced as /

Tone

Tẹẹ has three tones:, and .

The high tone is indicated by an acute accent : á, ã́, é, ẹ́, ẽ́, í, ĩ́, ó, ọ́, ṍ, ú, ṹ;
The low tone is indicated by a grave accent : à, ã̀, è, ẹ̀, ẽ̀, ì, ĩ̀, ò, ọ̀, õ̀, ù, ũ̀;
The middle tone is indicated with no diacritic.

References

Citations

Ladefoged. Peter. October 1995. Voiceless approximants in Tee. Fieldwork Studies of Targeted Languages III. UCLA Working Papers in Phonetics. 91. 85–88.