Vowels[]
Timbisha also has a typical Numic vowel inventory of five vowels. In addition, there is the common diphthong ai, which varies rather freely with e, although certain morphemes always contain ai and others always contain e. (The official orthography is shown in parentheses)
| front | back unrounded |
back rounded | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i | ɨ (ü) | u |
| Near-high | ɪ (ï) | ʊ | |
| Mid | æ | ʌ | o |
| Low | a | ɑ (ä) | ɒ (ö) |
| Diphthong | ai (ai, e) | ɑi (äi, ë) |
Consonants[]
Timbisha has a typical Numic consonant inventory. (The official orthography is shown in parentheses):
| Bilabial | Coronal | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | Labial. | ||||||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ (ng) | ŋʷ (ngw) | ||
| Stop | voiceless | p | t | c | k | kʷ | ʔ |
| voiced | b | d | ɟ (ç) | ɡ (j) | ɡʷ (jw) | ||
| Affricate | ts | ||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | ɸ (f) | s | ç (ĉ) | x | h | |
| voiced | β (v) | z | ç (ŷ) | ɣ | ɣʷ | ||
| Semivowel/Trill | ʙ (g) | r | j (y) | ɰ (l) | w | ||
Phonology[]
Timbisha stops (including the affricate) and nasals are voiced and lenited between vowels, are voiced in nasal-stop clusters, and are lenited (but not voiced) following h.
Voiceless vowels are not as common in Timbisha as they are in Shoshoni and Comanche.