Phonemes of Kora Updated

Phonemes of Kora Updated

Notes: (s) = some; (r) = rare; (b) = borrowed; ~ alternates. Nasalised vowels are always long, and because of this predictability, it would be redundant to indicate the feature in the spelling. Use of a doubled consonant (as in the word ‘torro’ ‘scatter, sow, strew’) was intended to reflect a shortened preceding vowel.  As a basic rule of thumb, the vowel in a word (other than a grammatical morpheme) that consists of just a consonant followed by a vowel (such as bī  ‘suckle’) is typically long, while the first vowel in a word that either has a medial consonant (such as koba ‘speak’), or ends in a nasal (such as xon ‘grind’), is most often short. There are many exceptions to this basic principle). 8.5.2025.

Menán du Plessis in Kora p.66.