Consonants For the
stops and
affricates there is a four-way distinction in
phonation between
tenuis ,
voiced ,
aspirated and
breathy voiced series. lists as separate
phonemes aspirated correlates of , , , , , , and , but describes the aspiration as a voiceless
pharyngeal friction. is dental, but becomes alveolar if the next syllable contains a
retroflex consonant. and are rare, but contrast with the other nasals word-medially between vowels. , and , together with their aspirated correlates, don't occur in the beginning of words. The
glottal stop occurs only between a vowel and , , or , e.g. "a trumpet", which contrasts with "famine". The
pharyngeal fricative historically derives from and occurs word-finally, e.g. "grass", "twenty". == Script ==