Mlabri distinguishes rounding in its
back vowels. It does not have the
register systems of some other Austroasiatic languages. All vowels occur
long and short. /a/ is fronted after palato-alveolar consonants, and may approach . There is also a very short vowel that has limited distribution. Schwas occur in pre-tonic syllables, but may be
epenthetic. There are several diphthongs. Consonants include the two implosive stops /ɓ/ and /ɗ/, attested in words such as
ɓuʔ 'slow' and
ɗɤŋ 'can'. These apparent implosive stops could be analyzed as pre-glottalized stops, as pre-glottalization is also a used for sonorants. Consonants also include voiceless sonorants, as in
m̥ɛʔ 'new',
n̥taʔ 'tail',
ŋ̊uh 'sit',
l̥ak '(there is) none', or
w̥ep 'shoulder'. Arguably, these could be analyzed as a sequence of /h/ and a sonorant. is only attested in
minor syllables. Mlabri has a different set of consonants which occur at the ends of syllables, including aspirated sonorants . The second is a trill, and the third more post-alveolar than palatal. Other final consonants are ==References==