Cawyaŋ Zarma Sanni

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Pronunciation guide

Consonants, doubled and digraphs

Doubled consonants
Doubled consonants, such as 'll', 'kk', and 'rr', are distinctly pronounced in Zarma.

Consonant digraphs
Consonant digraphs are rare in Zarma. Digraphs are two consonants to be pronounced together at the beginning or end of a syllable and a different one to begin the next one.

Examples
Double consonants
Digraphs

Doubled consonants

When a consonant is doubled in Zarma, both of them are distinctly pronounced. The first consonant with the preceding syllable, the second to begin the following one. When two 'r' occur, this makes a distinctly 'trilled' r, like the Scotch 'burr'.

consonants	bb	kk	mm	rr	tt	yy
examples	sabbu	lakkal	amma	hiiriyaŋ	fatta	bayyaŋ

Digraphs

Consonant digraphs are rare in Zarma. A digraph is two consonants to be pronounced together at the beginning or end of a syllable and a different one to begin the next one. Most 'closed' syllables (those ending in a consonant), use either 'nasal' or 'liquid' consonants, i.e. m, n, ŋ, or l, r, though there are a few rare exceptions to this. There is, however, one class of nouns which begins with an 'n' plus some other consonant, where the 'n' represents a barely audible hum preceding the first syllable.