Consonants:
T: [t]
P: [p]
K: [k]
D: [d]
B: [ b]
- When initial or after a vowel, pronounce as [v].
G: [g]
W: [w]
L: [l]
Y: [j] (English consonant ‘y’)
X: [x] (Soft ‘kh’)
S:
R: [ɹ] (English r)
- [r] (Spanish rr) if initial or after stop
- [ɾ] (Spanish r) between vowels
- [ɹ] (English r) acting as vowel
M: [m]
N: [n]
Vowels:
E: [ɛ], [ɪ]
- [ɛ] (Met) if initial
- [ɛ] after liquid, nasal, or fricative
- [ɪ] (Chip) after stop
A: [a], [oʊ]
- [a] (Father) if initial
- [a] after liquid or fricative
- [oʊ] (Goat) after stop or nasal
U: [ u], [ʊ]
- [ u] (Rude) if initial
- [ u] after nasal, or fricative
- [ʊ] (Put) after stop or liquid
Ē: [ i], [eɪ]
- [ i] (Meet) if initial
- [ i] after liquid or fricative
- [eɪ] (They) after stop or nasal
Diphthongs:
Uē: [eI] Oil
Ue: [wɛ] Wet
Ua: [wa] Watch
Ae: [eI] Face
Aē: [aI] Cairo
Au: [au] Out
Stress:
Stress in polysyllabic words is generally placed on the second-to-last syllable. However, if the word’s second to last syllable has no vowel the stress moves to the first syllable with a vowel.