Editing Fur language (section)

==Phonology==

The consonantal [[Phoneme|phonemes]] are:
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
!
![[bilabial consonant|Labial]]
![[alveolar consonant|Alveolar]]
![[palatal consonant|Palatal]]
![[velar consonant|Velar]]
![[Labialized velar consonant|Labiovelar]]
![[glottal consonant|Glottal]]
|-
![[Plosive consonant|Plosive]]
|{{IPAlink|p}}{{r|footnote1|group=decimal}} {{IPAlink|b}}
|{{IPAlink|t}} {{IPAlink|d}}
|{{IPAlink|ɟ}}{{r|footnote4|group=decimal}} 
|{{IPAlink|k}} {{IPAlink|ɡ}}
|
|
|-
![[Fricative consonant|Fricative]]
|{{IPAlink|f}}{{r|footnote1|group=decimal}}
|{{IPAlink|s}} ({{IPAlink|z}}){{r|footnote2|group=decimal}}
|
|
|
|{{IPAlink|h}}{{r|footnote3|group=decimal}}
|-
![[Nasal stop|Nasal]]
|{{IPAlink|m}}
|{{IPAlink|n}}
|{{IPAlink|ɲ}}
|{{IPAlink|ŋ}}
|
|
|-
![[Approximant consonant|Approximant]]
|
|{{IPAlink|l}}
|{{IPAlink|j}}
|
|{{IPAlink|w}}
|
|-
![[Trill consonant|Trill]]
|
|{{IPAlink|r}}
|
|
|
|
|}

{{reflist |group=decimal |refs=
<ref name=footnote1>{{IPA|/f/}} is in free variation among a series of sounds ranging between {{IPA|[p]}} and {{IPA|[f]}}; thus some sources give the name of the language as ''{{IPA|pɔɔr}}''.</ref>
<ref name=footnote2>{{IPA|[z]}} occurs only as an [[allophone]] of {{IPA|/j/}}.</ref>
<ref name=footnote3>{{IPA|/h/}} is very rare.</ref>
<ref name=footnote4>{{IPA|/ɟ/}} can also be pronounced as {{IPA|[dʒ]}}.</ref>
}}

The vowels are: ''a e i o u''. There is dispute whether the –ATR vowels {{IPA|[ɛ], [ɔ], [ɪ], [ʊ]}} are phonetic variants or separate phonemes.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Kutsch-Lojenga |first=Constance|title=The Sounds and Tones of Fur|last2=Christine|first2=Waag |publisher=Entebbe: SIL-Sudan|year=2004|location=Occasional Papers in the Study of Sudanese Languages No. 9}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable" style=text-align:center
! colspan="2" |
![[Front vowel|Front]]
![[Central vowel|Central]]
![[Back vowel|Back]]
|-
![[Close vowel|Close]]
![+ATR]
|{{IPAlink|i}}
|
|{{IPAlink|u}}
|-
![[Near-close vowel|Near-close]]
![-ATR]
|{{IPAlink|ɪ}}
|
|{{IPAlink|ʊ}}
|-
![[Mid vowel|Mid]]
![+ATR]
|{{IPAblink|e}}
|{{IPAlink|ə}}
|{{IPAblink|o}}
|-
![[Open-mid vowel|Open-mid]]
! rowspan="2" |[-ATR]
|{{IPAlink|ɛ}}
|
|{{IPAlink|ɔ}}
|-
![[Open vowel|Open]]
|
|{{IPAlink|a}}
|
|}

There are two underlying tonemes, ''L'' (low) and ''H'' (high); phonetically, ''L'', ''H'', ''mid'', ''HL'', and ''LH'' are all found.

[[Metathesis (linguistics)|Metathesis]] is an extremely common and regular grammatical phenomenon in Fur: when a consonant pronoun prefix is prefixed to a verb that begins with a consonant, either the verb's first consonant is deleted or it changes places with the following vowel; e.g.:
{{interlinear|indent=2|lem- → -elm-|"lick" {} {}|}}
{{interlinear|indent=2|ba- → -ab-|"drink" {} {}|}}
{{interlinear|indent=2|tuum- → -utum-|"build" {} {}|}}

There are also various assimilation rules.