Table of phonetic symbols

The phonetic system used to render taki-taki and the speech of the Bush-Negroes employs, with a few modifications, the symbols given in the Memorandum of the International Institute of African Languages and Cultures on ‘Practical Orthography of African Languages,’ and in the American Anthropological Association's memorandum ‘Phonetic Transcription of Indian Languages.’ For convenience, an outline of this system is given here.

Vowels

a, e, i, o, and u, have the so-called continental values.

ą, ę, į, ǫ, and ų, represent nasalisation of the above.

ɑ is English ‘a’ in ‘hat’; nasalised, ą.

ɛ is English ‘e’ in ‘met’; nasalised, ɛ̨.

ɩ is English ‘i’ in ‘hit’; nasalised, ɩ̨.

ɔ, open ‘o’, has the sound of ‘au’ in English ‘caught’; nasalised, ɔ̨.

ō, close ‘o’, is intermediate between ‘o’ and ‘u’; nasalised ǭ.

ü, is German ‘ü’ as in ‘spüren’.

Vowels are short unless followed by a dot (a‧), in which case a doubling is indicated.

Diphthongs

ai̯, au̯, ei̯, oi̯, ɔi̯; all of these may be nasalised.

Consonants

b, ch (as in English ‘church’), d, dj, dy, f, g, gb, gy, h (as in English ‘house’), k, l, m, mb, n, ŋ, (as English ‘ng’ in ‘hang’), ny, p, r, s, sh, sy, t, ty, v, w, x, (as German ‘ch’ in ‘ach’), z.

Tone (for Saramaka tɔ̨ŋgo only) is indicated as follows:

á, high, a, middle, à, low, â, high to low, ǎ, low to high, ǎ, middle to high, â, middle to low, â, high to middle, ǎ, low to middle.

In the texts, the apostrophe is not a phonetic symbol, but indicates the elision of a letter or a syllable.