The following tables show the phonological consonants and vowels without phonetic variations and without more recent Arabic loans.
Vowels[]
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | y /i, ii/ | ŵ /u, uu/ | |
| Close-mid | i /e, ee/ | ĵ /ə, əə/ | u /o, oo/ |
| Open-mid | e /ɛ, ɛɛ/ | o /ɔ, ɔɔ/ | |
| Open | a, aa | ɑ, ɑɑ |
Note: All vowels occur long and short. The mid central vowel ə only appears in Midob, not in other Nubian languages.
Consonants[]
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Post- alveolar |
Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | voiceless | p | t | tx /t͡ʃ/ | ċ /c/ | c /k/ | k /ʔ/ |
| voiced | b | d | dʒ /d͡ʒ/ | ġ /ɟ/ | g | ||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | x /ʃ/ | h /x/ | ' /h/ | |
| voiced | v | z | ʒ | j /ɣ/ | |||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | |||
| Approximant | w | l | y /j/ | ||||
| Trill | r | ||||||
Tone[]
Midob is a tonal language with two registers: High and Low. Tone is both lexical and grammatical.
| àadí | we (exclusive) |
| áadí | stick |
| àadì | light |
| ná | you (sgl obj) |
| nà | him, her |