Nisenan phonology

The phonology of Nisenan is similar to both Konkow and Maidu. Taking into account the various dialects, there appears to be a fair amount of allophones across the dialects.

Consonants
The single affricate consonant has been most commonly described as alveolar, though some sources describe it as postalveolar. According to the Nisenan Workbook by Alan Wallace, and  appear in complementary distribution. For example, the word for 'ten' is transcribed as 'maacam' (/c/ being realized as ) in Workbook #1 and 'maatsam' in Workbook #2. Similar allophony occurs between and.

have been listed as ejectives (lenis ejectives according to "Central Hill Nisenan Texts with Grammatical Sketch" by Andrew Eatough) while other sources have labeled them simply as emphatic not specifying further as to how they contrast with the plain plosives. The Nisenan Workbooks depict these in transcription, though the sound guides have yet to distinguish them from the plain plosives.

One source noted an audible click with /b/ and /d/ among some older speakers of at least one dialect of one of the Maiduan languages. The sound guides in the Nisenan Workbooks hold /b/ and /d/ as voiced plosives as in English.

Some words have a double consonant (i.e. wyttee [one], dappe [coyote], konna [girl]) but it has not been made clear as to whether this is due to gemination as the double consonants in Japanese, or just simply the same consonant being on the end of one syllable and the start of the next.

Vowels
All vowels come in long/short pairs

Long vowels are indicated by a doubling of the vowel.

is a bit lower, level with, somewhere between cardinal and

is sometimes further back, closer to cardinal

and are a bit lower and more centralized than the cardinal forms transcribed.