Choni (Jonê) and Thewo are dialects of a Tibetic language spoken in western China in the vicinity of Jonê County.
Phonology
Consonants + Consonant phonemes of Nyinpa Choni Bilabial Alveolar Retroflex (Alveolo-)palatal Velar Uvular Glottal Nasal Plosive tenuis aspirated voiced prenasalized Affricate tenuis aspirated voiced prenasalized Fricative tenuis aspirated voiced Sonorant Lateral fricative approximant
Choni has four contrastive aspirated fricatives: , , .
is phonetically a fricativized alveolar trill , and may be heard as as an allophone. A syllable-initial can be heard as a uvular fricative before voiceless consonants and as a voiced before voiced consonants. A syllable-final can be heard as a uvular stop after or vowel sounds. can also be heard as an allophone of between or and another vowel.
Vowels +Vowel phonemesFrontCentralBackshortlongshortlongshortlongCloseClose-midMidOpen-midOpen +Nasal vowelsFrontCentralBackClose()Close-midOpen
rarely exists as a phoneme, and is only attested in a few words with a palatal or alveolo-palatal initial.
Tone Choni has two contrasting tones, which are realized differently on long and short vowels. They are word tones, with predictable realizations on the second syllable of a morpheme.
References
External links A phonological profile of Chone