Editing Taa language (section)

===Vowels===
Taa has five vowel qualities, {{IPA|[a e i o u]}}. The Traill and DoBeS descriptions differ in the [[Phonation|phonations]] of these vowels; it's not clear if this reflects a dialectal difference or a difference of analysis.

====East ǃXoon (Traill)====
Traill describes the phonations of the East ǃXoon dialect as plain {{angbr|a}}, [[Breathy voice|murmured]] {{angbr|ah}}, or [[Glottalization|glottalized]] {{angbr|aʼ}}. {{IPA|[a o u]}} may also be both glottalized and murmured {{angbr|aʼh}}, as well as [[Pharyngealization|pharyngealized]] {{angbr|a̰}}/{{angbr|aq}} or [[Strident vowel|strident]] ('sphincteric') {{angbr|a̰h}}/{{angbr|aqh}}. {{IPA|[a u]}} may be both pharyngealized and glottalized {{angbr|a̰ʼ}}, for 26 vowels not counting nasalization or length.

Murmured vowels after plain consonants contrast with plain vowels after aspirated consonants, and likewise glottalized vowels with ejective consonants, so these are phonations of the vowels and not assimilation with consonant phonation.

Vowels may be long or short, but long vowels may be sequences rather than distinct [[Phoneme|phonemes]]. The other vowel quality sequences—better known as [[Diphthong|diphthongs]]—disregarding the added complexity of [[phonation]], are {{IPA|[ai, ae, ao, au, oi, oe, oa, ou, ui, ue, ua]}}.

All plain vowels may be nasalized. No other phonation may be nasalized, but nasalization occurs in combination with other phonations as the second vowel of a sequence ("long vowel" or "diphthong"). These sequences alternate dialectally with vowel plus [[velar nasal]]. That is, the name ǃXóõ may be dialectally {{IPA|[kǃxóŋ]}}, and this in turn may be phonemically {{IPA|/kǃxóɲ/}}, since {{IPA|[ɲ]}} does not occur word-finally. However, this cannot explain the short nasal vowels, so Taa has at least 31 vowels.

A long, glottalized, murmured, nasalized ''o'' with falling tone is written {{angbr|ôʼhõ}}. A long, strident nasalized ''o'' with low tone is written {{angbr|òqhõ}}, since Traill analyzes stridency as phonemically pharyngealized murmur. (Note that phonetically these are distinct phonations.)

====West ǃXoon (DoBeS)====
DoBeS describes the phonations of the West ǃXoon dialect as plain, ''a e i o u;'' nasalized, ''an en in on un;'' epiglottalized or pharyngealized, ''aq eq iq oq uq;'' strident, ''aqh eqh iqh oqh uqh;'' and glottalized or 'tense', ''aʼ eʼ iʼ oʼ uʼ.''