Inventory

/pʰ tʰ tsʰ tʃʰ kʰ qʰ/ <ph th tsx chx kh qh>
/p t ts tʃ k q/ <p t ts ch k q>
/b d dz dʒ g/ <b d dz j g>
/s ʃ x h/ <s sh x h>
/z ʒ/ <z zh>
/m n l ɫ r j/ <m n l r y>
/a e o i u/ <a e o i u>

Plosives

There are 17 plosives, appearing at six places of articulation: bilabial, dental, alveolar, postalveolar, velar, and uvular. The unaspirated uvular plosive is unmarked for voice.

Aspiration

Aspirated consonants do not contrast with clusters of stop and /x/ (one of their diachronic sources) and are pronounced with strong velar aspiration, heightening their contrast with the unvoiced plosives, which may have weak glottal aspiration. They may only appear in the onset, and only in the stress-bearing or immediately post-stress syllable of a word.

The causative affix -lux- causes a preceding /x/ to delete and aspirate a stop in the onset of its syllable, which would suggest that aspirates should be analyzed as Px clusters; however, that would require that PxR onset clusters be allowed, when no other PFR clusters are. For example, the root prox 'be created' causativizes to phrolux; this is not analyzed as /pxroɫux/ because */psr/ is not a valid onset cluster.

Labial plosives

The labial plosives are produced with no rounding or velarization, except optionally immediately preceding the rounded vowels /o u/. This is more common in emphasized speech.

/b/ may optionally be lenited to an approximant between vowels or resonants; this is less likely to be present for speakers who have the oral approximant allophone of /m/.

Both /p/ and /b/ may lenite to bilabial or labiodental fricatives word-finally preceding hiatus or a consonant.

Coronal plosives

There are three coronal places of articulation for plosives, of which two are affricated.

The unaffricated place of articulation varies between apical and laminal, but is always dental; it may be interdental in particularly emphasized speech. The voiced plosive at that place of articulation may be lenited to a dental approximant between vowels or resonants, but no other coronal plosives lenite.

The postalveolar consonants, both affricates and fricatives, may be rounded. This is most noticeable before /o/.

/d/ rarely occurs intervocalically.

Velar plosives

There is little to say about velar plosives other than that /g/, like all voiced plosives, may lenite between vowels or resonants.

Uvular plosives

The aspirated uvular plosive /qʰ/ is pronounced with strong uvular aspiration, as [qχ].

The modal uvular plosive /q/ is unmarked for both voice and method of articulation: it is regularly pronounced as a voiceless uvular or uvulo-pharyngeal fricative after a voiceless plosive, and as a voiced uvular or uvulo-pharyngeal fricative or approximant after a voiced plosive. It may be realized as any of the three in other environments. The voiced uvular plosive allophone may occur in emphasized speech.

Fricatives

There are five fricatives, and they never lenite.

Resonants

Labial nasal

/m/ assimilates to the POA of following non-alveolar stops. It may be dropped between [n] and a consonant or word boundary.

Alveolar nasal

/n/ mostly appears before stops and around /m/. There is a regular rule that transforms /l/ to /n/ when there is an /m/ not separated by a consonant from it. It does not assimilate in place.

Laterals

The distinction between /l/ and /ɫ/ is marginal, but there is still a contrast: /ɫ/ appears after non-front vowels morpheme-finally, /l/ otherwise. /ɫ/ does not appear before /e i/, except across morpheme boundaries. Unpredictable /l/ is written <ly>, and could be analyzed as /lj/. Minimal pairs can be found: [magɫis] /magla-is/ 'snails.ACC' vs. [maglis] /ma-geli-s/ 'he likes you'.

Rhotic

There is a rhotic. It becomes [n] when adjacent to /m/.

Phonotactics

Word-final consonant clusters are rare in roots.

Voicing assimilation is regressive.