Vowels Each vowel can also be
glottalized, a phenomenon manifested as either
creaky voice throughout the vowel or, more commonly, as a sequence of a vowel and a
glottal stop optionally followed by an echo of the vowel.
Consonants As with other Zapotec languages, the primary distinction between consonant pairs like and is not of
voicing but between
fortis and lenis (measured in length), respectively, with voicing being a phonetic correlate. There are two exceptions to this in Tilquiapan: • The contrast between fortis and lenis • The contrast between fortis and lenis Neither is voiceless, but is pronounced a little longer and replaces in certain causative verbs in ways similar to other fortis/lenis consonantal changes (e.g. 'get loose' vs. 'let loose'). is not differentiated from in orthography. Word-final lenis is realized as . and have fricative allophones and intervocalically. before a consonant is . varies between ~ ~ , and between ~ . have retroflex allophones occurring before , while are typically occurring before . ==Notes==