Lojban Grammar - Phonology - Allophones

Allophones

The vowels can be either rounded or unrounded and the consonants can be either aspirated or unaspirated, but not palatalized in general. The voiceless stops /p/, /t/ and /k/ are usually aspirated, but need not be. The affricates /d͡ʒ/ (the voiced postalveolar affricate), /d͡z/ (the voiced alveolar affricate), /tʃ/ (the voiceless postalveolar affricate) and /t͡s/ (the voiceless alveolar affricate) also occur in Lojban, but are each considered to be a combination of the appropriate phonemes in the language (being the realization of , , and , respectively). The rhotic sounds are all equally acceptable as an identical phoneme. , , , and may be syllabic.