Afrikaans has a similar phonology to other West Germanic languages, especially Dutch.
Vowels[]
Afrikaans has an extensive vowel inventory consisting of 17 vowel phonemes, among which there are 10 monophthongs and 7 diphthongs. There are also 7 marginal monophthongs.
Monophthongs[]
| Front | Central | Back | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| unrounded | rounded | unrounded | rounded | ||||||
| short | long | short | short | long | short | long | short | long | |
| Close | i | (iː) | y | u | (uː) | ||||
| Mid | ɛ | ɛː | ə | (əː) | œ | (œː) | ɔ | (ɔː) | |
| Near-open | (æ) | (æː) | |||||||
| Open | a | ɑː | |||||||
Consonants[]
| Labial | Alveolar | Post- alveolar |
Dorsal | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | |||
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t | t͡ʃ | k | |
| voiced | b | d | (d͡ʒ) | (ɡ) | ||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | ʃ | χ | |
| voiced | v | (z) | ʒ | ɦ | ||
| Approximant | l | j | ||||
| Rhotic | r | |||||