Old Adpihi

The Consonants of Adpihi
If languages are ranked by the sizes of their consonantal inventories into "small", "medium", and "large", then Adpihi has a medium-sized inventory of consonants. However, Adpihi's consonant inventory is almost as large as it can be and still be considered "medium" instead of "large".

Proto-Adpihi's Consonants
Proto-Adpihi apparently had 33 (thirty-three) consonants. By place-of-articulation, Proto-Adpihi has 7 alveolars, 6 velars, 5 labials, 4 dentals, 3 palatals, 2 post-alveolars, 2 labio-dentals, 2 glottals, 1 retroflex, and 1 palato-alveolar. By manner-of-articulation, Proto-Adpihi had 6 mute fricatives, 6 mute stops, 5 nasals, 4 voiced stops, 2 voiced fricatives, 2 mute aspirated plosives, 2 voiced rhotics, 2 approximants, 1 mute affricate, 1 voiced affricate, 1 mute ejective stop, and 1 lateral.

The following table presents the consonants of Proto-Adpihi in SAMPA.

In descending order by frequency of occurrence, the manners of articulation were; Voiceless Stops Nasals Mute Fricatives Voiced Stops Voiced Fricatives Mute Affricates Laterals Mute Apirated Plosives Voiced Rhotics Approximants Mute Ejective Stops Voiced Affricates

In descending order by frequency of occurrence, the places of articulation were; Labials Velars Alveolars Dentals Post-Alveolars Palatals Labio-Dentals Palato-Alveolars Retroflexes Glottals

In descending order by frequency of occurrence, the consonant segments were; m, k, p, b, g, N, tS, S, rr, ?, f, j, s, J, n, t, l, dZ, p_h, k_h, r`, w, x, t_d, d, v, n_d, d_d, k_>, c, T, z, h 

Adpihi's Consonants
By the time of Old Adpihi, five of these (tS, dZ, p_h, k_h, and k_>) were lost. Old Adpihi has no affricates, no aspirated stops, and no ejective stops. So it has 28 (twenty-eight) consonant phonemes.

They are;

Alveolars and Dentals
The distinction between the alveolar place-of-articulation and the dental place-of-articulation is difficult for some foreigners to make. In Adpihi there are four pairs of consonants that differ just this way.

Rhotics
Adpihi is unusual in having two rhotics rather than only one.

Palatals
Usually if a language has a nasal at a particular point of articulation, it will have more than just a voiceless stop and an approximant at that same P.o.A.

The Vowels of Adpihi
If languages are ranked by the sizes of their vowel inventories into "small", "medium", and "large", then Adpihi has a medium-sized inventory of vowels. However, Adpihi's vowel inventory is almost as small as it can be and still be considered "medium" instead of "small".