Lingala phonology

Vowel harmony
Lingala words show vowel harmony to some extent. The close-mid vowels and  normally do not mix with the open-mid vowels  and  in words. For example, the words ' 'fishhook' and ' 'mouse trap' are found, but not ' or '.

Vowel shift
The Lingala spoken in Kinshasa shows a vowel shift from to, leading to the absence of the phoneme  in favor of. The same occurs with and, leading to just. So in Kinshasa, a native speaker will say  as, compared to the more traditional pronunciation of.

Consonants
(1) is allophonic with  depending on the dialect

Prenasalized consonants
The prenasalized stops formed with a nasal followed by a voiceless plosive are allophonic to the voiceless plosives alone in some variations of Lingala. The prenasalized voiced occlusives, do not vary.
 * : or
 * e.g.: is pronounced  but in some variations
 * : or
 * e.g.: is pronounced  but in some variations
 * : or
 * e.g.: (fork) is pronounced  but in some variations
 * : or  (inside a word)
 * e.g.: is pronounced  but in some variations

Tones
Lingala being a tonal language, tone is a distinguishing feature in minimal pairs, e.g.: moto (human being) and motó (head), or kokoma (to write) and kokóma (to arrive). There are two tones possible, the normal one is low and the second one is high. There is a third, less common tone – starting high, dipping low and then ending high – all within the same vowel sound, e.g.: bôngó (therefore).

Tonal morphology
Tense morphemes carry tones.
 * koma (komL-a : write) inflected gives
 * simple present L-aL :
 * nakoma naL-komL-aL (I write)
 * subjunctive H-aL :
 * nákoma naH-komL-aL (I would write)
 * present:
 * nakomí naL-komL-iH (I have been writing)
 * sepela (seLpel-a : enjoy) inflected gives
 * simple present L-aL :
 * osepela oL-seLpelL-aL (you-SG enjoy)
 * subjunctive H-aL :
 * ósepéla oH-seLpelH-aH (you-SG would enjoy)
 * present L-iH:
 * osepelí oL-seLpelL-iH (you-SG have been enjoying)