Phonology
Phonology is the study of speech sounds in a particular language or languages in general.
The phonology of a language encompasses the rules about the structure and sequence of sounds.
Here's a brief phonological overview of Lango:
Consonants:
Is a basic speech sound in which the breadth is atleast partly obstructed and which can be combined with a vowel to form a syllable.
There are 21 consonants in the English alphabet, which are;- B, C, D, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, Q, R, S, T, V, W, X, Y, Z.
NB: Letter ‘y’ can sometimes sound as a vowel known as semivowel.
Consonants are all the non-vowel sounds.
Voiceless stops are consonant sounds aspirated when they appear at the beginning of a word or stressed syllables. Speech sounds without vocal cord vibration.
Nasal is a consonant in which air only escapes through the nose.
Fricative is a consonant speech sound produced by forcing air through a narrow channel forcing friction.
Approximants are consonants that sound in some way like vowels.
Voiced stops are consonants made by blocking part of the mouth so that no air can pass through. A speech sound generated when the vocal cord vibrates.
For example;-
| Consonants | Sounds | Such as;- | Lango |
| Voiceless stops | p, t, k. | Pat, pot, top, teeth, keen, etc. | Paco, tingo, keto, kito, etc. |
| Nasals | m, n, ng. | Think, sing, mine, bank, jump, when, etc. | Mino, mit, nwongo, nino, ngo, ngatoro. |
| Fricatives | f, v, s, z | Fish, vase, sand, said, zoo, zera, etc. | These letters don't exist in Lango vocabulary but are represented by p, b, c, j, respectively.. |
| Approximants | l, r, y, w. | like, right, yes, war, west, wrong, wet, etc. | Limo, lego, ringo, rec, yeco, yik, waro, wito. |
| Voiced stops | b, d, g. | Bag,bath, dog, door, go, goat, etc. | Bulo, bito, dago, dini, gamo, golo. |
Vowels:
Is a speech sound in which the mouth is open and tongue is not touching the top of the mouth and teeth.
Lango has five vowel qualities, which can be short or long, which are;-
a, e, i, o, u.
This is how they are pronounced, for example;-
| Vowel | Pronunciation | Not as | Lango |
| a | app, apply, agro, afro, etc | apple, as, ago, aeroplane, etc | alulu, awobi, akello, awot, etc. |
| e | eggs, education, end, etc | eat, ego, equal, etc | etau, emir, ento, eka, etc. |
| i | in, it, initiate, etc | idle, item, idea, etc | icawa, idyere, ipone, icenere, etc. |
| o | oak, odd, old, ok, on, o'clock, oxen, etc | out, ours, outside, others, outcome, etc | otoka, otwo, otum, otoo, etc. |
| u | uganda, unity, usually, utensils, useless, etc | us, untie, unripe, upto, ulcer, under, etc | uganda, uma, unga, udi, ulo, ura, etc. |
Tone:
Is a quality in the voice that expresses the speaker's feelings or thoughts.
Lango, like many African languages, is a tonal language. That means pitch (high or low tone) can change the meaning of a word.
For example;-
| Lango | English |
| Tong | Spear, cut, egg. |
| Bit | Lure, sharp, split, hull. |
| Kwan | Count, study, read. |
| Otoo | Name of a male person, pillow, cushion. |
| Cul | Payment, retaliation, revenge, fee. |
Syllable structure:
Is the admissible/acceptable/valid arrangement of sounds in words.
The syllable structure in Lango is usually CVC, where C is consonants and V is vowels. This means that syllables in Lango often consist of a vowel alone or a consonant followed by a vowel.
For example;-
| Lango | English |
| aa | no |
| ee | yes |
| i | in |
| oo | fire side, disagreement, okay. |
| uci | thread |
| adwong | big, elder, important. |
| bun | boxing. |
| bung | forest |
| cot | Broken, bad taste, adultery, snap. |
| dwogo | came back, bring back. |
Word Stress:
When a word has two or more syllables, one of them is pronounced with an additional emphasis.
Stress in Lango, typically falls on the penultimate (second to last) or last but one syllable of a word.
For example;-
| Lango | Syllables | English |
| Polo | Po-lo | Heaven |
| Aguragura | A-gu-ra-gu-ra | Horse |
| Cwinyo | Cwi-nyo | Lighting |
| Cika | Ci-ka | Wife |
| Tipu | Ti-pu | Shade, spirit |
Phonotactics:
Phonotactics refers to the rules governing the permissible combinations of phonemes(sounds) in a language.
Is the rules about what sounds can or cannot go together in a language.
For example;- In Lango, words generally cannot begin with certain consonants like F, H, Q, S, V, X, Z, but these sounds can appear in other parts of words. Because these letters don't exist in the Lango vocabulary.
For example of use of letter R instead of letter T;-
| Sounds in Lango | Instead of | English |
| Buru | Butu | Sleep |
| Obaro | Obato | Yam |
| Kire | Kite | Behaviour |
| Ngerra | Ngetta | My side |
| Yero | Yeto | Abusing |
| Ctella | Stella | Stella |
| Prancic | Francis | Francis |
| Aouse | House | House |
| Come | Some | Some |
| Bicky | Vicky | Vicky |
| Otel | Hotel | Hotel |
| Arriet | Harriet | Harriet |
| Kuality | Quality | Quality |
| Ektremely | Extremely | Extremely |
| Jero | Zero | Zero |
| Characterictic | Characteristics | Characteristics |
Examples of use of letter U instead of letter O;-
| Lango(U) | O | English |
| Kuru | Kuro | Wait, combing, scattering. |
| Kutu | Kuto | Blowing |
| Tuku | Tuko | Playing |
| Tudu | Tudo | Tying. |
| Tubu | Tubo | Confusing |
| Tipu | Tipo | Shade, spirit. |
| Tadu | Tado | Tying, assembling. |
| Tingu | Tingo | Carrying |
| Wucu | Wuco | Throwing |
| Ngulu | Ngulo | Spitting |
Remember, phonological rules can be quite complex and vary between different dialects of the same language. This is a basic introduction to Lango phonology, and a more detailed understanding would require in-depth linguistic study.