Xavante Language - Phonology - Consonants

Consonants

Xavante has ten consonants, /p t c ʔ b d j r w h/. They are realized as,

(Placement is approximate; /j/ varies between obstruent and sonorant, alveolar and palatal.)

Xavante is highly unusual in lacking velar consonants, except for the labio-velar approximant /w/. At a phonemic level, it arguably also lacks nasal consonants, which is less unusual in the Amazon. The language however has a high degree of allophony, and nasal stops appear before nasal vowels.