Choni language

Not to be confused with Hbrugchu language.

Choni
Thewo-Chone Cone Tibetan
tço.ne
Pronunciation	[tɕo.ne]
Native to	China
Region	Gansu, Sichuan
Native speakers	150,000 (2004)
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Tibeto-Kanauri ? Bodish Tibetic (Amdo Tibetan) Choni
Dialects	Thewo Hbrugchu
Language codes
ISO 639-3	cda
Glottolog	chon1285
ELP	Choni

Choni (Jonê) and Thewo are dialects of a Tibetic language spoken in western China in the vicinity of Jonê County.

Choni has four contrastive aspirated fricatives: /sʰ/ /ɕʰ/, /ʂʰ/, /xʰ/.

Phonology

Consonant phonemes of Nyinpa Choni

		Bilabial	Alveolar	Retroflex	(Alveolo-) palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal		m	n		ɲ	ŋ
Plosive	tenuis	p	t			k
	aspirated	pʰ	tʰ			kʰ
	voiced	b	d			ɡ
	prenasalized	ᵐb	ⁿd			ᵑɡ
Affricate	tenuis		t͡s	t͡ʂ	t͡ɕ
	aspirated		t͡sʰ	t͡ʂʰ	t͡ɕʰ
	voiced		d͡z	d͡ʐ	d͡ʑ
	prenasalized		ⁿd͡z	ⁿd͡ʐ	ⁿd͡ʑ
Fricative	tenuis		s	ʂ	ɕ	x		h
	aspirated		sʰ	ʂʰ	ɕʰ	xʰ
	voiced		z	(ʐ)	ʑ	ɣ	(ʁ)
Sonorant			r		j	w
Lateral	fricative		ɬ
	approximant		l

• /r/ is phonetically a fricativized alveolar trill [r̝], and may be heard as [ʐ] as an allophone.
• A syllable-initial /k/ can be heard as a uvular fricative [χ] before voiceless consonants and as a voiced [ʁ] before voiced consonants. A syllable-final /k/ can be heard as a uvular stop [q] after /æ/ or /ɔ/ vowel sounds.
• [ʁ] can also be heard as an allophone of /ɣ/ between /æ/ or /ɔ/ and another vowel.

Vowel phonemes

	Front		Central		Back
	short	long	short	long	short	long
Close	i	iː	ʉ	ʉː	u	uː
	ɪ	ɪː
Close-mid	e	eː			o	oː
Mid			ə
Open-mid	ɛ				ɔ
Open	æ				ɑ	ɑː

Nasal vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	ĩː		(ũː)
Close-mid	ẽː		õː
Open		ã ãː

• [ũː] rarely exists as a phoneme, and is only attested in a few words with a palatal or alveolo-palatal initial.

External links

• A phonological profile of Chone