Kare has the following consonantal phonemes[1]:
| Bilabial | Labio- dental |
Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Labio- velar |
Glottal | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Implosive | ɓ | ɗ | ʄ | ɠ | ||||||||||
| Stop | p | b | t | d | c | ɟ | k | ɡ | kp | ɡb | ||||
| Prenasalized stop | ᵐb | ⁿd | ᵑg | ᵑɡb | ||||||||||
| Fricative | ɸ | β | f | v | s | z | ç | ʝ | x | ɣ | h | ɦ | ||
| Prenasalized fricative | ⁿz | |||||||||||||
| Approximant | ʋ | l | j | ɰ | w | |||||||||
| Flap/Trill | ʙ | ⱱ | r | ʟ̆ | ||||||||||
It has the following vowel phonemes[2]:
| Oral vowels | Nasal vowels | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Front | Back | Front | Back | |
| Close | i | u | ĩ | ũ |
| Near-close | ɪ | ʊ | ||
| Close-mid | e | o | ||
| Open-mid | ɛ | ɔ | ɛ̃ | ɔ̃ |
| Near-open | æ | ɑ | ||
| Open | a | ã | ||
There is a phonological contrast between high and low tone (eg sá "say" vs. sà "laugh"), and a rarer phonetic mid tone whose phonological status is not established. Only monosyllabic words may bear rising or falling tone.[3]