Select languages to compare:

Use base consonants only
Labial
Coronal
Dorsal
Radical
Laryngeal
Bilabial
Labio-dental
Dental
Alveolar
Palato-alveolar
Retroflex
Palatal
Velar
Uvular
Pharyngeal
Epi-glottal
Glottal
Plosive
p b         t d             k ɡ    
 
 
 
 
ʔ
 
Ejective stops
                             
 
 
 
 
 
 
Clicks
        |k |kʰ |kˀ |g     !̠k !̠kʰ !̠kˀ !̠g !̠ŋ                
 
 
 
 
 
 
Lateral clicks
            ǁk ǁkʰ ǁkˀ ǁg ǁŋ                    
 
 
 
 
 
 
Affricates
            ts tsʰ dz                    
 
 
 
 
 
 
Lateral affricates
                               
 
 
 
 
 
 
Ejective affricates
            tsʼ tɬʼ                      
 
 
 
 
 
 
Nasal
  m           n               ŋ    
 
 
 
 
 
 
Trill
                           
 
 
   
 
 
   
 
 
Tap, Flap
              ɾ                                
Lateral flap
 
 
 
 
                   
 
 
   
 
 
 
 
 
 
Fricative
    f       s               x               h  
Lateral fricative
 
 
 
 
    ɬ                      
 
 
 
 
 
 
Approximant
                          j   w                
Lateral approximant
 
 
 
 
      l                    
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Front
Near-front
Central
Near-back
Back
 
Close
Near-close
Close-mid
Mid
Open-mid
Near-open
Open
Selected languages: Sandawe
UPSID number: 4902
Alternate name(s): N/A
Classification: Khoisan, Sandawe
The languages has 54 segments
Frequency index: N/A
Sounds:
Comments: Sandawe is spoken around Sanzawa and Mtoro in north-central Tanzania. The language has two level tones plus a falling tone combining these two tones. Voiceless vowels occur only in final syllables after a limited set of consonan ts and are almost always low-toned, however not all occurrences are predictgable. Velar nasal occurs syllable finally; -nasal homorganic to a medial stop or affricate is analyzed as an allophone of the velar nasal. Clusters of /w/ with most other consonants apart from labials are frequent.
Sources: Dempwolff, O. 1916. Die Sandawe: Linguistisches und ethnographisches Material aus Deutsch-Ostafrika. (Abhandlungen des Hamburgischen Kolonialinstituts vol. 34.) L. Friederichsen & Co., Hamburg. Elderkin, E.D. 1982. Tanzanian and Ugandan isolates. Nilotic Studies. Proceedings of the International Symposium on Languages and History of the Nilotic Peoples, Cologne, R. Vossen and M. Bechhaus-Gerst, editors. (Kolner Beitrage zur Afrikanistik, vol. 10): 499-521. Tucker, A.N., Bryan, M.A. and Woodburn, J. 1977. The East African click languages: a phonetic comparison. From: Zur Sprachgeschichte und Ethnohistorie in Afrika. (Neue Beitrage afrikanistischer forschungen, ed. W. Mohlig, F. Rottland, B. Heine) Dietrich Reimer Verlag, Berlin.