m n ň ŋ
p t c tl č k q
f s ł š x ḥ h
w r l y
/i u iː uː/
i u ii uu
e o ee oo
ɛ ʌ ɛɛ ʌʌ
æ a ææ aa
There used to be a more productive +/- ATR vowel system but much of that collapsed leaving only the mid vowels to differentiate. Mid-close /e/ for instance cannot co-occur in the same (non-compound) word as /ɛ/ or /ʌ/. The acquisition of the uvular stop and fricative is the result of areal affects of the substrate languages. This also helped the collapse of the +/- ATR harmony system as uvulars tend to erase distinctions and make all nearby sounds -ATR.
There are two tones, High Tone (marked with an acute accent á) and Low Tone (which is unmarked). The combination of a low and a high tone in long vowels results in basic contour tones of Rising Tone and Falling Tone indicated (aá for Rising and áa for Falling tone, for high level tone áá and low level tone aa)
Basic syllable structure is (C(w,j))V(C)(C)
More specifically at onset, any bilabial consonant can form a cluster with /j/ - /mj, pj, fj, wj/ and any velar or uvular consonant can take a /w/, /ŋw, kw, xw, qw, χw/.
For any single consonant in the coda -C, any sound can occur save for /j w/ which, do however form geminates if only intervocalically. Coda /h/ is quite common and is currently messing around with some allotony but I'll get to that in another post that's more suited to that.
Allowable coda-clusters -CC:
- l+C clusters: /lm ln lŋ lp lt lts ltʃ lk lf lx/
- r+C clusters: /rp rt rts rtɬ rtʃ rk rs rɬ rʃ rx/
- FC clusters: /fʃ/
The /fʃ/ cluster is rare and is from a borrowing from a neighboring language which does a lot of trading and a fairly sizeable amount of intermarrying.
Lastly, though it does happen, it is important to note that though the theoretical syllable maximum is indeed CwVCC or CjVCC, these syllables are exceedingly rare though the words /pjɑːrʃ/ "dock; wharf; shipyard" and /kwʌlx/ "phlegm; bile; disrespect" exist, they are no common, typically a syllable will have V, CV, VC, CVC, CCV, CVCC structure instead.