Guiqiong phonology

• Older speakers retain the distinction between the alveolo-palatal and retroflex series; younger speakers do not.
• Older speakers retain the distinction between the velar and uvular series; younger speakers have both series in free variation.
• The zero-initial is realized as [÷].
• In clusters,
  • The language has a very complex initial consonant system.
• The following table is the phonological consonant inventory of Guiqiong.

Consonants
Simple Initials
p	t	ts	tʂ	tʃ	tɕ	k	q
pʰ	tʰ	tsʰ	tʂʰ	tʃʰ	tɕʰ	kʰ	qʰ
b	d	dz	dʐ	dɜ	dʑ	ɡ
f		s	ʂ	ʃ	ɕ	x
v		z	ʐ	ɜ	ʑ	ɣ
m	n				ɳ	ɲ
w	l				j
	ɬ
Initial Clusters
mp	nt	nts	ntʂ	ntʃ	ntɕ	ŋk
mpʰ	ntʰ	ntsʰ	ntʂʰ	ntʃʰ	ntɕʰ	ŋkʰ
mb	nd	ndz	ndʐ	ndɜ	ndʑ	ŋɡ

Vowels

Guiqiong distinguishes eight different vowel qualities.

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i y		u
Close-mid			o
Mid		ə
Open-mid	ɛ		ɔ
Near-open		ɐ

Nasalization and diphthongs are also used to distinguish words.

External links

• Guiqiong language