54 Chapter 2 Phonology
‘read’, are pronounced as [a] [maca], as well as in kata’ ‘frog’ [kata]. Given
the relatively small number of ‘non-alternating’ vowels, it is also the case that
most a’s following the orthographic symbols b, d, dh, j, and g represent [ɤ], as
in badha ‘exist’ [bɤḍɤ] and jaga ‘awake’ [cɤkɤ].
With respect to e, the ambiguity is more difficult to resolve. However, as
[] occurs only in closed syllables (which can trigger gemination at morpheme
boundaries), when e occurs in an open syllable it unambiguously signals a pho-
nemic //. This is illustrated in the following, in which all e’s represent phonem-
ic //: meja ‘table’, pote ‘white’, kene ‘now’. Additionally, given the vowel al-
ternations, when e follows b, d, dh, j, or g, in the vast majority of cases (that is
barring a non-alternating vowel) it represents [ə], as in beddel ‘soak’, dhekdhek
‘bran’, jejjel ‘crammed, crowded’. However, in other closed-syllable environ-
ments, e may represent [ɛ] or [ə]. For example, in kenneng ‘get, hit’ the e of the
first syllable is [ə] and that of the second [ɛ] [kənnɛ], while in senneng ‘happy’
both are [ə] [sənnə], and in pennes ‘pocket knife’ both are [ɛ] [pɛnnɛs]. This
dual use of e can result in some minimal pairs (and near minimal pairs) taking
the same orthographic representation, such as kenneng which represents both
[kənnɛ] ‘get, hit’ and [kənnə] ‘place’, kerem which represents both [kɛrɛm]
‘send’ and [kɛrəm] ‘sink’, and pancer which represents both [pancər] ‘rudder’
and [pancɛr] ‘heel, rim’. Of course, while a completely phonetic alphabet is in
some ways desirable, for the native speaker of the language this alphabet need
not pose any particular problems. Safioedin (1977) adopts this standard in his
dictionary, which is given in (73).