Vowels Nukunu has three different vowels with contrastive long and short lengths (a, i, u, a:, i:, u:).
Consonants The Nukunu consonantal inventory is typical for a
Pama–Nyungan language, with six places of articulation for stops and nasals. There are three
rhotics in the language. A phonemic voicing contrast exists in Nukunu, but it has only been observed in the retroflex stop series. An example demonstrating such a contrast intervocalically is
kurdi (
phlegm, IPA ['kuɖi]) and
kurti (
quandong, IPA ['kuʈi]).
History In contrast with other
Thura–Yura languages, Nukunu did not partake in either the initial th- lenition before vowels or the lenition of initial k- before vowels. ==Notes==