Kisi is a Bantu language of Tanzania. Though just over half of the Kisi people speak the language, use is vigorous where it is still spoken.
Phonology +Consonant phonemes in Kisi Labial Alveolar Post-alveolar Velar Glottal Nasal m n ɲ ŋ Plosive aspirated pʰ tʰ kʰ voiced b d ɟ ɡ prenasalised ᵐb ⁿd ᶮɟ ᵑɡ Fricative voiceless f s h voiced β ʝ ɣ Affricative tʃ Liquid l
+Consonant phonemes in Kisi that occur only through morphological interactionBilabialLabio-dentalAlveolarPost alveolar/ palatalVelarPrenasalised voiceless plosivesmphnthᵑkhPrenasalised voiceless fricativesᶬfnsPrenasalized voiceless affricativesntʃAspirated nasalsmhnhɲh
Other phonemes:
[ɾ] and [l] are in a free variation. [w] and [j] are not included in a phoneme chart in Kisi because they only occur as glide insertion between historically or morphologically adjacent vowels. [w] does not occur otherwise. For some speakers, [j] occurs as a free variant of [ʝ] which is considered incorrect by other speakers.
+Vowels phoneme in KisiFrontCentralBackHigh - degree 1i i:u u:High - degree 2ɪ ɪ:ʊ ʊ:Mide e:o o:Lowa a: Contrastive and obligatory length is marked with /:/. This does not necessarily reflect a difference in the length of production.
+Diphthongs in KisiSymbolExample wordsMeaning[e]-[i] [bei]Swahili: bei'price'[a]-[o] [ᵑɡao]Swahili: ngao'shield' Swahili: bei, and Swahili: ngao - These Swahili words have been borrowed into Kisi and pronounced with a diphthong in Kisi
References
Bibliography
Ngonyani, Deogratias S. "Aspects of Non-Concatenative Morphology in Kikisi." Arusha Working Papers in African Linguistics, 6(1): 40-59.