Vowels s of Shipibo, from • and are lower than their cardinal counterparts (in addition to being more front in the latter case): , , is more front than cardinal : , whereas is more close and more central than cardinal . The first three vowels tend to be somewhat more central in closed syllables, whereas before coronal consonants (especially ) can be as central as . • In connected speech, two adjacent vowels may be realized as a rising diphthong.
Nasal • The oral vowels are phonetically nasalized after a nasal consonant, but the phonological behaviour of these allophones is different from the nasal vowel phonemes . • Oral vowels in syllables preceding syllables with nasal vowels are realized as nasal, but not when a consonant other than intervenes.
Unstressed • The second one of the two adjacent unstressed vowels is often deleted. • Unstressed vowels may be devoiced or even elided between two voiceless obstruents.
Consonants • are
bilabial, whereas is
labial–velar. • is most typically a fricative , but other realizations (such as an approximant , a stop and an affricate ) also appear. The stop realization is most likely to appear in word-initial stressed syllables, whereas the approximant realization appears most often as onsets to non-initial unstressed syllables. • are alveolar , whereas is dental . • The distinction can be described as an apical–laminal one. • is
velar, whereas is
palatal. • Before nasal vowels, are
nasalized and may be even realized close to nasal stops . • is realized as before , as before and as before . It does not occur before . • is a very variable sound: • Intervocalically, it is realized either as continuant, with or without weak frication ( or ). • Sometimes (especially in the beginning of a stressed syllable) it can be realized as a postalveolar affricate , or a stop-approximant sequence . • It can also be realized as a postalveolar flap . ==References==