Naro has the following consonant inventory (in the
IPA) as described by Miller (2011), whereas the orthographic symbols were proposed by Visser (2001): The phonemes and (spelt ⟨kg⟩ and ⟨kgʼ⟩) only contrast for some speakers:
kgʼám ‘mouth’ vs.
kgʼáù ‘male’. The flap /ɾ/ only occurs word-medially except in loan words. The lateral /l/ is only found in loans, and is generally substituted by medially, and by initially. Medial and may be and ; they occur initially only in
wèé ‘all, both’ and in
yèè (an interjection).
Vowels Naro has five vowel qualities, /a e i o u/
, which may occur long (/aː eː iː oː uː/ spelt ⟨aa ee ii oo uu⟩)
, nasalized
(/ã ẽ ĩ õ ũ/
), pharyngealized (/aˤ eˤ iˤ oˤ uˤ/ , spelt ⟨a̱ e̱ i̱ o̱ u̱⟩, and combinations of these (/ãˤ ẽː/ ⟨ã̱ ẽe⟩ etc.). There are three
tones: high, mid, and low
Syllable structure Syllables are in general simple in Naro, with the maximal shape CV(V)C
, where VV is a long vowel or diphthong. The only consonant that occurs in coda position is , as in
xám̀ ‘to smell’. However, long nasal vowels such as may occur with an
excrescent as in .
Syllabic also occur, as in
nna. Nasals such as can also form syllable nuclei, as in . == Orthography ==