The Jianchuan dialect has the following consonants, all of which are restricted to syllable-initial position:
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | voiced | b | d | ɟ | ɡ |
| unaspirated | p | t | c | k | |
| aspirated | pʰ | tʰ | cʰ | kʰ | |
| Affricate | unaspirated | ts | tɕ | ||
| aspirated | tsʰ | tɕʰ | |||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | ɕ | x |
| voiced | v | ɣ | |||
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | ||
| Approximant | ʋ | l | j | ɰ | |
| Trill | ʙ | ||||
The Gongxing and Tuolou dialects retain an older 3-way distinction for stop and affricate initials between voiceless unaspirated, voiceless aspirated and voiced. In the core eastern group, including the standard form of Dali, the voiced initials have become voiceless unaspirated, while other dialects show partial loss of voicing, conditioned by tone in different ways.
| Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | unrounded | i | ɨ | ɯ |
| rounded | y | ʉ | u | |
| Close-mid | unrounded | e | ɘ | ɤ |
| rounded | ø | ɵ | o | |
| Open-mid | unrounded | ɛ | ɜ | ʌ |
| rounded | œ | ɞ | ɔ | |
| Near-open | æ | ɐ | ||
| Open | unrounded | a | ä | ɑ |
| rounded | ɶ | ɒ̈ | ɒ | |
Jianchuan finals comprise:
- pure vowels: i e ɛ ɑ o u v̩ ɯ
- diphthongs: ɑo iɛ iɑ io iɯ ui uɛ uɑ
- triphthong: iɑo
All but u, ɑo and iɑo have contrasting nasalized variants. Dali Bai lacks nasal vowels. Some other varieties retain nasal codas instead of nasalization, though only the Gongxing and Tuolou dialects have a contrast between -n and -ŋ.
Jianchuan has eight tones, divided between those with modal and non-modal phonation. Some of the western varieties have fewer tones.