Vowels[]
| Height | Backness | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Front | Central | Back | |||
| short | long | short | long | ||
| High | i [i] | ī [iː] | ɨ [ɨ], [ɨː] | u [u] | ū [uː] |
| Mid-high | ø [ɪ], [ɪː] | ʊ [ʊ], [ʊː] | |||
| Mid | e [e], [eː] | ə [ə] | o [o], [oː] | ||
| Mid-low | ɛ [ɛ] | ē [ɛː] | a [ɐ] | ɔ [ɔ] | ō [ɔː] |
| Low | æ [æ] | ǣ [æː] | ā [aː] | ɐ [ɑ], [ɑː] | |
Long and short vowels are only contrastive in open syllables; in closed syllables, all vowels are always short. Short and long e and o are in complementary distribution: the short variants occur only in closed syllables, the long variants occur only in open syllables. Short and long e and o are therefore not distinct phonemes.
A sound called anusvāra (Skt.; Pali: nigghahita), represented by the letter ṁ (ISO 15919) or ṃ (ALA-LC) in romanization, and by a raised dot in most traditional alphabets, originally marked the fact that the preceding vowel was nasalized. That is, aṁ, iṁ and uṁ represented [ã], [ĩ] and [ũ]. In many traditional pronunciations, however, the anusvāra is pronounced more strongly, like the velar nasal [ŋ], so that these sounds are pronounced instead [ãŋ], [ĩŋ] and [ũŋ]. However pronounced, ṁ never follows a long vowel; ā, ī and ū are converted to the corresponding short vowels when ṁ is added to a stem ending in a long vowel, e.g. kathā + ṁ becomes kathaṁ, not *kathāṁ, devī + ṁ becomes deviṁ, not *devīṁ.
Consonants[]
The table below lists the consonants of Pali. In bold is the transliteration of the letter in traditional romanization, and in square brackets its pronunciation transcribed in the IPA.
| Labial | Dental/ Alveolar |
Retroflex | Post- alveolar/ Palatal |
Velar | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | Nasal | m [m] | n [n] | ṇ [ɳ] | ñ [ɲ] | ṅ [ŋ] | ||
| voiceless | unaspirated | p [p] | t [t] | ṭ [ʈ] | c [tʃ] | k [k] | ||
| aspirated | ph [pʰ] | th [tʰ] | ṭh [ʈʰ] | ch [tʃʰ] | kh [kʰ] | |||
| voiced | unaspirated | b [b] | d [d] | ḍ [ɖ] | j [dʒ] | g [ɡ] | ||
| aspirated | bh [bʱ] | dh [dʱ] | ḍh [ɖʱ] | jh [dʒʱ] | gh [ɡʱ] | |||
| Fricative | voiceless | f [f] | s [s] | ṣ [ʂ] | ʃ [ʃ] | x [x] | h [h] | |
| voiced | ʋ [v] | z [z] | ẓ [ʐ] | ʒ [ʒ] | ɣ [ɣ] | |||
| Approximant | central | v [ʋ] | ṛ [ɹ] | r [ɻ] | y [j] | q [ɰ] | ||
| lateral | l [l] | ḷ [ɭ] | ł [ʎ] | w [ʟ] | ||||
| lateral aspirated | ḷh [ɭʱ] | |||||||
Among the labial consonants, [ʋ] is labiodental and the rest is bilabial. Among the dental/alveolar consonants, the majority is dental but [s] and [l] are alveolar.
Of the sounds listed above only the three consonants in parentheses, ṅ, ḷ, and ḷh, are not distinct phonemes in Pali: ṅ only occurs before velar stops, while ḷ and ḷh are allophones of single ḍ and ḍh occurring between vowels.