Language/Afar/Pronunciation/Alphabet-and-Pronunciation

Following the completion of this lesson, consider taking a look at these associated topics: Days of the Week, How to Use "Have".

Letters

Letter	Name	IPA
A a	a	[ʌ]
B b	ba	[b]
T t	ta	[t]
S s	sa	[s]
E e	e	[e]
C c	ca	[ħ]
K k	ka	[k]
X x	xa	[ɖ]
I i	i	[i]
D d	da	[d]
Q q	qa	[ʕ]
R r	ra	[r]
F f	fa	[f]
G g	ga	[g]
O o	o	[o]
L l	la	[l]
M m	ma	[m]
N n	na	[n]
U u	u	[u]
W w	wa	[w]
H h	ha	[h]
Y y	ya	[j]

Consonants

The consonants of the Afar language in the standard orthography are listed below (with IPA notation in brackets):

		Labial	Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Pharyngeal	Glottal
Stops	voiceless		t  [t]			k  [k]
	voiced	b  [b]	d  [d]			g  [ɡ]
Fricatives	voiceless	f  [f]	s  [s]				c  [ħ]	h  [h]
	voiced						q  [ʕ]
Nasals		m  [m]	n  [n]
Approximants		w  [w]	l  [l]		y  [j]
Tap			r  [ɾ]	x  [ɖ]

Voiceless stop consonants which close syllables are released, e.g., [ʌkʰˈme].

Vowels

Long Vowels

Long vowel	aa	ee	ii	oo	uu
IPA	[aː]	[eː]	[iː]	[oː]	[uː]

stress

short

• a [ʌ]
• e [e]
• i [i]
• o [o]
• u [u]

long

• aa [aː]
• ee [eː]
• ii [iː]
• oo [oː]
• uu [uː]

Sentence final vowels of affirmative verbs are aspirated (and stressed), e.g. abeh = /aˈbeʰ/ 'He did.' Sentence final vowels of negative verbs are not aspirated (nor stressed), e.g. maabinna = /ˈmaabinna/ 'He did not do.' Sentence final vowels of interrogative verbs are lengthened (and stressed), e.g. abee? = /aˈbeː/ 'Did he do?' Otherwise, stress in word-final.

Sources

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afar_language