Totonacan phonology

There is some variation is the sound systems of the different varieties of Totonac and Tepehua, but the following phoneme inventory can be considered a typical Totonacan inventory.

Consonants

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! rowspan=2 | ! rowspan=2 | Labial ! colspan=2 | Alveolar ! rowspan=2 | Palatal ! rowspan=2 | Velar ! rowspan=2 | Uvular ! rowspan=2 | Glottal ! central ! lateral ! Nasal ! Plosive ! Affricate ! Fricative ! Approximant This consonant inventory is essentially equivalent to that reconstructed for proto-Totonacan by, with the exception of the two back fricatives, /x/ and /h/. Most modern languages phonemically have only one of these, but show some allomorphic variation between the two, with one or the other being considered basic. However, Coatepec Totonac is reported to have both phonemes, and more recent reconstructions of the proto-Totonacan consonant inventory have proposed that both were present in that language. The glottal stop is a marginal phoneme in most of the languages and is posited primarily for morphological reasons. Apart from the lateral obstruents, which are not found in any other Mesoamerican languages, the phonological system is fairly typical of Mesoamerica.
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Vowels
Most Totonacan languages have a three-vowel system with each quality making distinctions of length and laryngealization. The following is the "typical" Totonacan vocalic inventory.
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!  ! colspan="2" | Front ! colspan="2" | Central ! colspan="2" | Back !  || creaky || plain|| creaky || plain|| creaky || plain ! Close ! Open
 * + Totonacan vowels
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Tepehua has lost the phonemic laryngealization of vowels and has ejective stops where Totonac has creaky vowels preceded by stops. Some Totonac languages have five-vowel systems, having developed /e/ and /o/ phonemes, whereas in others /e/ and /o/ are clearly allomorphs of /i/ and /u/, respectively, conditioned by proximity to uvular stops or fricatives.