Ho ba

Pronunciation is flexible. A speaker can draw from sounds in their native language rather than learning new sounds.

On this page, ⟨ ⟩ brackets enclose the Latin alphabet spelling, and / / slashes enclose International Phonetic Alphabet transcriptions. Click these phonetic symbols to hear them pronounced.

Ho ming | Vowels

The Ba Kom word for "vowel" is ho ming, "clear sound".

Ba Kom has 5 vowels and 6 diphthongs.
The 5 vowels are "pure" monophthongs, which means that the tongue does not move from the beginning to the end of the vowel.

These are the vowels:

• ⟨a⟩ /a, ɑ/
  Like a in calm, or Spanish a in gato.

• ⟨i⟩ /i/
  Like ee in green.

• ⟨u⟩ /u, ʉ/
  Like oo in moon.

• ⟨e⟩ /e̞, ɛ, e/
  Like e in bed.

• ⟨o⟩ /ɔ, o̞, o/
  Like o in or.

• /ǝ/
  This is the "weak vowel", or ho ming nicai, which is not written. It may be pronounced to break up consonant clusters in proper nouns. For example:

  • tbilisi /tǝbiliˈsi/, "Tbilisi"

  • keln /ˈke̞lnǝ/, "Cologne".

These are the diphthongs:

• ⟨ai⟩ /ai̯, ɑi̯/
  Like y in "sky", or like a sequence of ⟨a⟩ and ⟨y⟩.

• ⟨au⟩ /au̯, ɑu̯/
  Like ow in "how", or like a sequence of ⟨a⟩ and ⟨u⟩.

• ⟨ei⟩ /ei̯, ɛi̯/
  Like ay in "say", or like a sequence of ⟨e⟩ and ⟨i⟩.

• ⟨ou⟩ /ou̯, ɔu̯/
  Like o in "home", or like a sequence of ⟨o⟩ and ⟨u⟩.

One should be careful to distinguish e and o from ei and ou.
E and o are always open, pure vowels, even when they come at the end of a word.
Thus, po ("can, may") sounds like "pore", while pou ("fight") sounds like "Poe"; he ("face") sounds like "hair", while hei ("respect") sounds like "hay".

Alternatively, one can pronounce e and o as /ɛ/ and /ɔ/, and ei and ou as /e(ː)/ and /o(ː)/.

• ⟨ui⟩ /ui̯, o̞i̯/
  Like ooey in "phooey", or like a sequence of ⟨u⟩ and ⟨i⟩.
  May also be like oy in "boy", or like a sequence of ⟨o⟩ and ⟨i⟩.
  The second component may be a front-rounded vowel, as in Cantonese ui [uy̯] and German eu [ɔʏ̯].

• ⟨iu⟩ /iu̯/
  Like the exclamation "ew", or like a sequence of ⟨i⟩ and ⟨u⟩.

• ⟨m⟩ /m/
  Like m in me.

• ⟨n⟩ /n/
  Like n in new.

• ⟨ng⟩ /ŋ/
  Like ng in song.
  This is one sound, not a sequence of two like the ng in finger.

• ⟨p⟩ /p, pʰ/
  Like p in pin, or p in spin.

• ⟨t⟩ /t/
  Like t in take, or t in steak.

• ⟨c⟩ /tʃ, tɕ, ʈʂ/
  Like ch in chin.

• ⟨k⟩ /k/
  Like k in key, or k in ski.

The English sounds in "key", "take", and "pin" have a small puff of air called “aspiration”. The sounds in "ski", "steak", and "spin" lack this aspiration.
The Ba Kom sounds ⟨k⟩, ⟨t⟩, ⟨c⟩, ⟨p⟩ may be pronounced with or without aspiration.

/p/, /t/, and /k/ may also be unreleased at the end of a syllable—[p̚], [t̚], [k̚]—as in Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, Cantonese, Malay, and Khmer.

• ⟨b⟩ /b, ɓ/
  Like b in by.

• ⟨d⟩ /d, ɗ/
  Like d in day.

• ⟨j⟩ /dʒ, dʑ, ɖʐ/
  Like j in Jane.

• ⟨g⟩ /g, ɣ, ʁ, ɠ/
  Like g in go.
  May also be like the Arabic letter ghayn as in مغرب maghrib, or like the French r in raison.

In many languages—especially in sub-Saharan Africa, south-east Asia, Mesoamerica, and the Caribbean—voiced stops are pronounced as "implosives" (/ɓ/, /ɗ/, and /ɠ/).
Ba Kom ⟨b⟩, ⟨d⟩, ⟨g⟩ may also be pronounced as such.

• ⟨f⟩ /f, ɸ, ʍ/
  Like f in find.
  May also be like wh in why, or the Japanese f in fuji.

• ⟨s⟩ /s/
  Like s in say.

• ⟨x⟩ /ʃ, ɕ, ʂ/
  Like sh in show.

• ⟨h⟩ /h, x, χ/
  Like h in hope.
  May also be like the Spanish j in juego, or like the German ch in Bach.

• ⟨w⟩ /w, v, ʋ/
  Like w in well.
  May also be like v in vow, or like a Dutch w or Hindustani v.

• ⟨l⟩ /l, ɫ, ɾ, ɺ/
  Like l in leaf.
  May also be like the tt in butter, or the Japanese r in sakura.

• ⟨y⟩ /j, ɟʝ/
  Like y in yes.
  May also be like the Spanish y in playa.

• /ʔ/
  Like the catch in the throat in "uh-oh".
  This sound is unwritten. It may be pronounced before a vowel, such as at the beginning of a word or between vowels within a word.

Rhymes (56):