There are three lexically contrastive
contour tones in Konyak – rising (marked in writing by an acute accent – á), falling (marked by a grave accent – à) and level (unmarked).
Vowels The vowels , and are lengthened before
approximants. does not occur finally.
Consonants The
stops and contrast with the
aspirated and . and become voiced intervocalically across
morpheme boundaries. The dental is realised as an
alveolar if preceded by a vowel with a rising tone. The
approximants and are pronounced
laxer and shorter after vowels; becomes tenser initially before high vowels. If morpheme-initial or intervocalic, is pronounced with audible friction. , , , , , and do not occur morpheme-finally, while does not appear morpheme-initially. Except for morpheme-initial and , consonant clusters occur only medially. == References ==