Phonology
Guaraní only allows syllables consisting of a consonant or a consonant plus a vowel; syllables ending in a consonant or two or more consonants together are not possible. This is represented (C)V.
- Vowels: /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/ correspond more or less to the Spanish and IPA equivalents, although sometimes the allophones, are used more frequently; y is the common South American vowel /ɨ/.
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | /i/, /ĩ/ | /ɨ/, /ɨ̃/ | /u/, /ũ/ |
| Mid | /e/, /ẽ/ | /o/, /õ/ | |
| Open | /a/, /ã/ |
Consonants:
IPA value is shown. The orthography is shown in angle brackets below, if different.
| Bilabial | Labio- dental |
Alveolar | (Alveolo-) Palatal |
Velar | Lab. Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Voiceless occlusive | p | t | k | kʷ ⟨ku⟩ |
ʔ ⟨'⟩ |
||
| Voiceless fricative | s | ɕ ⟨ch⟩ |
x ~ h ⟨h⟩ |
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| Voiced occlusive | ᵐb ~ m ⟨mb⟩ ~ ⟨m⟩ |
ⁿd ~ n ⟨nd⟩ ~ ⟨n⟩ |
ᵈj ~ ɲ ⟨j⟩ ~ ⟨ñ⟩ |
ᵑɡ ~ ŋ ⟨ng⟩ |
ᵑɡʷ ~ ŋʷ ⟨ngu⟩ |
||
| Voiced approximant | ʋ ~ ʋ̃ ⟨v⟩ |
ɰ ~ ɰ̃ ⟨g⟩ ~ ⟨g̃⟩ |
w ~ w̃ ⟨gu⟩ ~ ⟨g̃u⟩ |
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| Flap | ɾ ~ ɾ̃ ⟨r⟩ |
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The voiced consonants have oral allophones (left) before oral vowels, and nasal allophones (right) before nasal vowels. The oral allophones of the voiced stops are prenasalized.
There is also a sequence /t/ (written ⟨nt⟩). A trill /r/ (written ⟨rr⟩) and the consonants /l/, /f/, and /j/ (written ⟨ll⟩) are not native to Guarani, but come from Spanish.
Oral is often pronounced, depending on the dialect, but the nasal allophone is always .
The dorsal fricative is in free variation between and .
The glottal stop is only written between vowels, but occurs phonetically before vowel-initial words.
⟨g⟩, ⟨gu⟩ are approximants, not fricatives, but are sometimes transcribed, as is conventional for Spanish. ⟨gu⟩ is also transcribed, which is essentially identical to .
All syllables are open, viz. CV or V, ending in a vowel.
Read more about this topic: Guarani Language