a longer and shorter forms of the Continental "a", like "a" in far
as in fall
A as in "final"; a close approximation to "u" in cut
e longer and shorter forms of the Continental "e", like a in fate
as in bell
i longer and shorter forms of the Continental "i", like "ee" in street
as in hit
o longer and shorter forms of English "o", as in flow
as in rule
u as in put
u o barely formed "o" and "u" sounds; rather qualities of the preceding consonant sounds than independent vowels
q the velar "k", not found in English
g the velar "g" corresponding to the preceding, not found in English
y a sound similar to but deeper than the preceding, pronounced by the younger Indians almost like English y
x the velar spirant, pronounced like Spanish "j" or German ch
x the palatal spirant, often mistaken for h
c like English "sh" in short
dz as in adze
ts am in sits
dj like English "j" and "dg" in judge
tc like English "ch" in church
L not found in English, but resembling a rapid pronunciation of "t" and "l", or of "k" and l
L not found in English, but resembling a rapid pronunciation of "d" and l
l a spirant belonging to the same series as the preceding; not found in English though often represented by "thl" or hl
t, d, n, s, k, g, h, w, y approximate the sounds for which they stand in English though the agreement is by no means absolute
t!, s!, ts!, tc!, L!, k!, q! are similar to "t", "s", "ts", "tc", "L", "k", "q", but are accompanied by a catch in the breath which sometimes gives the impression of a pause, and sometimes sounds like a sharp click
k*! when "k!" is pronounced very far forward in the mouth it is sometimes set off in this way, but the distinction between the two sounds is by no means clear
Labials are found only in a few words of foreign origin