Xavante phonology

The phonology of Xavante is described by McLeod (1974).

Vowels
Xavante has nine vowel qualities, long and short. Four occur nasalized, long and short.

is when long and  when short. is raised after in a non-initial syllable. is a central vowel. It is a rounded in certain stylistic conventions. is a mid vowel when long, and a more open  when short. is when long and  or  when short. and do not vary much. is written $\langleë\rangle$ in the orthography.

Consonants
Xavante has ten consonants,. They are realized as,

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

Xavante is highly unusual in lacking velar consonants, except for the labio-velar approximant. 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.

Allophony
With so few phonemic contrasts, Xavante allows wide latitude in allophones of its consonants.
 * P and T: are aspirated  as syllable onsets (at the beginning of a word, between vowels, or before /r/), and unreleased  as syllable codas (at the end of a word or before a consonant other than /r/).
 * C: freely varies among  as an onset, and  as a coda (only preceding another, as ).
 * ’: is a glottal stop.
 * B: In a C or CC syllable onset before an oral vowel, is pronounced as a plain voiced stop  at the beginning of a phonological word, and as either  or as a prenasalized voiced stop  in the middle of a word. Before nasal vowels, as C or CC, it is pronounced.


 * As a syllable coda, is pronounced  before  regardless of the following vowel's nasality, and optionally also as  before the oral allophones of the other voiced obstruents,  and :  or . It is  before.


 * D: In a syllable onset before an oral vowel, is pronounced either as a plain voiced stop  or as prenasalized voiced stop . Unlike, it may be prenasalized at the beginning of a phonological word, not just as a syllable onset. Before a nasal vowel, it is pronounced.


 * As a syllable coda, is pronounced  before the oral allophone of a consonant, and as  before a nasal consonant.


 * J: In a syllable onset before an oral vowel, is pronounced, in free variation. Before a nasal vowel, it is pronounced.


 * As a syllable coda, is generally pronounced, and is nasalized to  or  after a nasal vowel. It is also nasalized to  before a prenasalized stop allophone. Between oral vowels, the sequence  optionally takes an epenthetic :  or . When  is followed by an , a nasalized epenthetic schwa separates them.


 * R: is an alveolar flap,, which is nasalized  between nasal vowels.
 * W: is similar to English w, but not rounded before the vowel.


 * H: has no place of articulation, but is a voiceless transition between vowels.

Vowels do not become nasalized because of nasalized consonants, so the only consonants that become nasal are those in a cluster preceding a nasal vowel (and coda after a nasal vowel); a preceding oral vowel blocks the nasality from spreading to preceding syllables.

Phonotactics
Xavante syllables are of the forms CV, CCV, CVC, CCVC, CV:, and CCV:; that is, all syllables begin with a consonant, sometimes two; they may optionally either end with a consonant or have a long vowel. Although a syllable may end in a consonant, a phonological word may not, apart from a few cases of word-final.

The attested initial CC consonant clusters are:

All seven obstruents occur in final position, but in a maximal CCVC syllable only are attested. Across two syllables, the following CC sequences are attested:

There are also CCC sequences such as (coda  followed by onset ).

The vowels and  are rare, and not attested in maximal CCVC syllables.