Consonants[]
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Post- alveolar |
Palatal | Velar | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| oral | nasal | ||||||
| Stop | voiceless | p | t | t̠ | c | k | |
| voiced | b | d | d̠ | ɟ | ɡ | ||
| implosive | ɓ | ɗ | ʄ | ɠ | |||
| Affricate | voiceless | t͡s | t͡ʃ | ||||
| voiced | d͡z | d͡ʒ | |||||
| Fricative | voiceless | ɸ | s | ʃ | ç | x | |
| voiced | β | z | ʒ | ʝ | ɣ | ||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | |||
| Approximant | central | ɹ | j | ȷ̃ | w | ||
| lateral | l | ʎ | ʟ | ||||
| Trill | ʙ | r | |||||
| Flap | central | ⱱ̟ | ɾ | ||||
| lateral | ɺ | ʎ̆ | ʟ̆ | ||||
/x/ is limited to a few verb forms, ‿where it occurs before /ĩ/. /ts/ is highly variable, [ts tʃ s ʃ], with the affricates being the more common, [ʃ] rare, and [tʃ ʃ] most common before /i u/. /r/ is [ɾ] between vowels, [d] after [n] and occasionally initially. /ɲ/ varies as [ȷ̃]. /n/ is [ŋ] before /k/, a pattern which occurs during metathesis. /p/ is very rarely realized as [ɓ]. /w/ /j/ are nasalized after nasal vowels.
Vowels[]
| Front | Central | Back | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| oral | nasal | oral | nasal | oral | nasal | ||
| Close | i | ĩ | ɨ | ɨ̃ | u | ũ | |
| Close-mid | e | ẽ | ə | ə̃ | o | õ | |
| Open-mid | unrounded | ɛ | ɛ̃ | ɜ | ɜ̃ | ʌ | ʌ̃ |
| rounded | œ | œ̃ | ɞ | ɞ̃ | ɔ | ɔ̃ | |
| Open | unrounded | æ | æ̃ | a | ã | ɑ | ɑ̃ |
| rounded | ɶ | ɶ̃ | ɒ | ɒ̃ | |||
Vowel qualities are /i ɛ æ ɨ a u ɔ/, all oral and nasal; the nasal vowels have slightly different or variable pronunciations: [ĩ], [ɛ̃]~[ẽ], [æ̃], [ɨ̃], [ã]~[ʌ̃], [ɔ̃]~[õ], [ũ].
Oral vowels are optionally nasalized next to nasal stops, with the variation of phonemically nasal vowels. /ɛ/ varies as [ɛ]~[e] after /ts/ and next to an approximant. /ɨ/ varies as [ɨ]~[ə] after voiceless consonants. /ɔ/ varies as [ɔ]~[o] after /p, m/. Vowels may have a voiceless offglide (effectively [h]) when not followed by a voiced sound.
Vowels are long when they constitute a morpheme of their own. Stress is on the last syllable of a word. Maximally complex syllable is CGVG, where G is a glide /j w/, or, due to epenthesis in certain morphological situations or to elision, the final consonant may be /m n/. One of the more syllabically complex words is /kwivɛjkaw/ 'to shave'. Vowel sequences occur, as in /eaere/ 'chief'.