Phonology of Poula lacks syllable coda and also disallow consonant clusters in onset position. There are 25 consonant phonemes in Poula.
Consonants[]
| Bilabial | Labiodental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Gottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stops | p pʰ b | t tʰ d | c cʰ | k kʰ g | ||
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ ŋ̊ʰ | |||
| Tap or flap | ɹ | |||||
| Fricative | s | ɕ ʑ | h | |||
| Affricate | tɕ dʑ | |||||
| Approx | ʋ | j | ||||
| Lateral | l |
Vowels[]
There are six vowel phonemes in Poula.
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i y | ||
| Mid | e | ə | o |
| Low | a |
In Poula, the phoneme /ə/ is written with the grapheme 'ü' (now, many use it as 'ii') in Bible and Hymns which was devised by Bible Society of India. In addition Poula lacks high back round vowel [u] as a monophthong, but [u] is present in nexus of diphthong; for example pou [pəu] `father'.
Tones[]
Poula is a tonal language, however tone is still not marked in the orthography. There are four tonemes in Poula.
| Word | Tone | Gloss |
|---|---|---|
| /na˥/ | High-falling | 'baby' |
| /na˦/ | Mid-Rising | 'later' |
| /na˧/ | Mid | 'things' |
| /na˩/ | Low | 'paint' |