Consonants
Peripheral | Laminal | Apical | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Bilabial | Velar | Palatal | Alveolar | Retroflex | |
Stop | p | k | tj | t | rt |
Nasal | m | ng | ny | n | rn |
Trill | rr | ||||
Lateral | ly | l | rl | ||
Approximant | w | y | r |
As shown in the chart, the WDL distinguishes five positions of articulation, and has oral and nasal occlusives at each position. The stops have no phonemic voice distinction, but display voiced and unvoiced allophones; stops are usually unvoiced at the beginning of a word, and voiced elsewhere. In both positions they are usually unaspirated. There are no fricative consonants.
Read more about this topic: Western Desert Language, Language, Phonology