I was reading this interesting article:
And a couple details caught my attention. First, couldn’t find any other instances of the variant name Dënedédlı ̨́né Yëtı (which I presume has an erroneous space in there, read Dënedédlį́né Yëtı?) on the web, which is interesting (any folks around here familiar with this language?). Second, the article mentions the “48 tonal vowel sounds” — wow!
Being the data-obsessed person I am, I thought it would be fun to try to generate all the possibilities. The article mentions that Dënedédlį́né Yëtı is a variant of Chipweyan (which Wikipedia calls Chipewyan), and there is a vowel table there:
So that’s 24, but it also mentions that there is a high/low tone distinction, so
2 
24 
48 vowel sounds.
Generating a data structure
This is kind of an interesting data structure, because when you’re looking at anything above a couple dozen, hand-inputting data gets to be an error-prone pain. So I thought it might be fun to share how I would go about generating a JSON structure that encodes this information. (If you would like to port the code to another language or even re-write it in JS here, please share!)
Basically, we’ve got four variables, and we want to generate all the possible combinations of those variables. One way to do this is to use a bunch of nested maps, like so:
let phones = [ "i", "ë", "e", "a", "u", "o" ]
let nasalities = [ "oral", "nasal" ]
let lengths = [ "long", "short" ]
let heights = [ "high", "low" ]
let vowels = phones.map(phone =>
nasalities.map(nasality =>
lengths.map(length =>
heights.map(height => ({
phone,
nasality,
length,
height
})
)
)
)
.map(vowel => { // the bit below generates an appropriate orthographic representation
let orthographic = vowel.phone
if(vowel.nasality == 'nasal'){ orthographic += '\u0303' }
if(vowel.tone == 'high'){ orthographic += '\u0301' }
if(vowel.length == 'long'){ orthographic += orthographic }
vowel.phone = orthographic
return vowel
})
)
Which gives us data that looks like this:
Generated vowel data as JSON
[
{
"nasality": "oral",
"tone": "high",
"length": "long",
"phone": "íí"
},
{
"nasality": "oral",
"tone": "low",
"length": "long",
"phone": "ii"
},
{
"nasality": "oral",
"tone": "high",
"length": "short",
"phone": "í"
},
{
"nasality": "oral",
"tone": "low",
"length": "short",
"phone": "i"
},
{
"nasality": "nasal",
"tone": "high",
"length": "long",
"phone": "ĩ́ĩ́"
},
{
"nasality": "nasal",
"tone": "low",
"length": "long",
"phone": "ĩĩ"
},
{
"nasality": "nasal",
"tone": "high",
"length": "short",
"phone": "ĩ́"
},
{
"nasality": "nasal",
"tone": "low",
"length": "short",
"phone": "ĩ"
},
{
"nasality": "oral",
"tone": "high",
"length": "long",
"phone": "ë́ë́"
},
{
"nasality": "oral",
"tone": "low",
"length": "long",
"phone": "ëë"
},
{
"nasality": "oral",
"tone": "high",
"length": "short",
"phone": "ë́"
},
{
"nasality": "oral",
"tone": "low",
"length": "short",
"phone": "ë"
},
{
"nasality": "nasal",
"tone": "high",
"length": "long",
"phone": "ë̃́ë̃́"
},
{
"nasality": "nasal",
"tone": "low",
"length": "long",
"phone": "ë̃ë̃"
},
{
"nasality": "nasal",
"tone": "high",
"length": "short",
"phone": "ë̃́"
},
{
"nasality": "nasal",
"tone": "low",
"length": "short",
"phone": "ë̃"
},
{
"nasality": "oral",
"tone": "high",
"length": "long",
"phone": "éé"
},
{
"nasality": "oral",
"tone": "low",
"length": "long",
"phone": "ee"
},
{
"nasality": "oral",
"tone": "high",
"length": "short",
"phone": "é"
},
{
"nasality": "oral",
"tone": "low",
"length": "short",
"phone": "e"
},
{
"nasality": "nasal",
"tone": "high",
"length": "long",
"phone": "ẽ́ẽ́"
},
{
"nasality": "nasal",
"tone": "low",
"length": "long",
"phone": "ẽẽ"
},
{
"nasality": "nasal",
"tone": "high",
"length": "short",
"phone": "ẽ́"
},
{
"nasality": "nasal",
"tone": "low",
"length": "short",
"phone": "ẽ"
},
{
"nasality": "oral",
"tone": "high",
"length": "long",
"phone": "áá"
},
{
"nasality": "oral",
"tone": "low",
"length": "long",
"phone": "aa"
},
{
"nasality": "oral",
"tone": "high",
"length": "short",
"phone": "á"
},
{
"nasality": "oral",
"tone": "low",
"length": "short",
"phone": "a"
},
{
"nasality": "nasal",
"tone": "high",
"length": "long",
"phone": "ã́ã́"
},
{
"nasality": "nasal",
"tone": "low",
"length": "long",
"phone": "ãã"
},
{
"nasality": "nasal",
"tone": "high",
"length": "short",
"phone": "ã́"
},
{
"nasality": "nasal",
"tone": "low",
"length": "short",
"phone": "ã"
},
{
"nasality": "oral",
"tone": "high",
"length": "long",
"phone": "úú"
},
{
"nasality": "oral",
"tone": "low",
"length": "long",
"phone": "uu"
},
{
"nasality": "oral",
"tone": "high",
"length": "short",
"phone": "ú"
},
{
"nasality": "oral",
"tone": "low",
"length": "short",
"phone": "u"
},
{
"nasality": "nasal",
"tone": "high",
"length": "long",
"phone": "ṹṹ"
},
{
"nasality": "nasal",
"tone": "low",
"length": "long",
"phone": "ũũ"
},
{
"nasality": "nasal",
"tone": "high",
"length": "short",
"phone": "ṹ"
},
{
"nasality": "nasal",
"tone": "low",
"length": "short",
"phone": "ũ"
},
{
"nasality": "oral",
"tone": "high",
"length": "long",
"phone": "óó"
},
{
"nasality": "oral",
"tone": "low",
"length": "long",
"phone": "oo"
},
{
"nasality": "oral",
"tone": "high",
"length": "short",
"phone": "ó"
},
{
"nasality": "oral",
"tone": "low",
"length": "short",
"phone": "o"
},
{
"nasality": "nasal",
"tone": "high",
"length": "long",
"phone": "ṍṍ"
},
{
"nasality": "nasal",
"tone": "low",
"length": "long",
"phone": "õõ"
},
{
"nasality": "nasal",
"tone": "high",
"length": "short",
"phone": "ṍ"
},
{
"nasality": "nasal",
"tone": "low",
"length": "short",
"phone": "õ"
}
]
| nasal? | tone | length | vowel |
|---|---|---|---|
| oral | high | long | íí |
| oral | low | long | ii |
| oral | high | short | í |
| oral | low | short | i |
| nasal | high | long | ĩ́ĩ́ |
| nasal | low | long | ĩĩ |
| nasal | high | short | ĩ́ |
| nasal | low | short | ĩ |
| oral | high | long | ë́ë́ |
| oral | low | long | ëë |
| oral | high | short | ë́ |
| oral | low | short | ë |
| nasal | high | long | ë̃́ë̃́ |
| nasal | low | long | ë̃ë̃ |
| nasal | high | short | ë̃́ |
| nasal | low | short | ë̃ |
| oral | high | long | éé |
| oral | low | long | ee |
| oral | high | short | é |
| oral | low | short | e |
| nasal | high | long | ẽ́ẽ́ |
| nasal | low | long | ẽẽ |
| nasal | high | short | ẽ́ |
| nasal | low | short | ẽ |
| oral | high | long | áá |
| oral | low | long | aa |
| oral | high | short | á |
| oral | low | short | a |
| nasal | high | long | ã́ã́ |
| nasal | low | long | ãã |
| nasal | high | short | ã́ |
| nasal | low | short | ã |
| oral | high | long | úú |
| oral | low | long | uu |
| oral | high | short | ú |
| oral | low | short | u |
| nasal | high | long | ṹṹ |
| nasal | low | long | ũũ |
| nasal | high | short | ṹ |
| nasal | low | short | ũ |
| oral | high | long | óó |
| oral | low | long | oo |
| oral | high | short | ó |
| oral | low | short | o |
| nasal | high | long | ṍṍ |
| nasal | low | long | õõ |
| nasal | high | short | ṍ |
| nasal | low | short | õ |
There you go, a representation of 48 vowels in Dënedédlį́né Yëtı.
Now what you can do with data like that is another post!