Tsimulh languages/Lexicon

Phonology

Consonants

Tsimulh languages/Lexicon changes the voiced series of Proto-Quihum into the aspirated series and loses the velar-uvular distinction in dorsal stops.

Tsimulh languages/Lexicon uses about 30 consonant phonemes. The null initial is pronounced [h]. Two vowels that come in hiatus with each other may be separated by [ɦ].

Consonants
		Labial	Coronal		Palatal	Velar		Glottal
			central	lateral		plain	labialized	plain	labialized
Nasal		m	n
Plosive	tenuis	p	t			k	kʷ	ʔ	ʔʷ
	breathy voiced	bʰ	dʰ			(gʰ)	gʷʰ
	ejective	pʼ	tʼ			kʼ	kʷʼ
Fricative			s	ł	ś			[h~ɦ]
Affricate	tenuis		c	ƛ	ć
	breathy voiced		ʒʰ	λʰ	ʒ́ʰ
	ejective		cʼ	ƛʼ	ćʼ
Approximant				l	y		w

Notes

• g /kʰ/ is quite rare.

Phonotactics

A word may not end in a consonant cluster; usually an epenthetic vowel i is inserted to resolve a consonant cluster. Word-final aspirated plosives are also disallowed.

Word-initial b, p or ph is only found in loanwords - in word initial position these phonemes were converted respectively to u /w/, u /w/ and hu /ʔʷ/.

Vowels

Tsimulh languages/Lexicon has five short and long monophthongs. There are no diphthongs.

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i /i/ ī /iː/		u /u/ ū /uː/
Mid	e /e/ ē /eː/		o /o/ ō /oː/
Open		a /a/ ā /aː/

Stress

Tsimulh languages/Lexicon has penultimate stress like Classical Nahuatl.