Consonants[]
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | lab. | |||||
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | ŋʷ | ||
| Stop | voiceless | t | tʃ | k | kʷ | |
| voiced | b | d | dʒ | ɡ | ɡʷ | |
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | ʃ | χ | χʷ |
| voiced | v | z | ɣ | ɣʷ | ||
| Tap | ʙ | r | ||||
| Approximant | ʋ | l | j | ɰ | w | |
Continuants can be geminated word-medially.
Vowels[]
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | ɨ | u |
| Mid | ə | o | |
| Open | æ | a | ɒ |
Phonotactics[]
The maximum syllable structure in Qimant is CVC, which implies that consonant clusters are only allowed word-medially.[2] In loanwords from Amharic there may also be consonant-clusters within a syllable. Vowel clusters are not allowed.
Phonological processes[]
Consonant clusters with more than two consonants are broken up by inserting the epenthetic vowel /ɨ/. Other phonological processes are nasal assimilation and devoicing of /ɡ/ at word boundaries.[3]
Prosody[]
The prosodic features of Qimant have not been studied yet.