Puinave phonology

Vowels
Syllable structure is (C)V(C); nasal syllablic nuclei cause allophonic variation of consonantal segments in the same syllable. The phonemes have oral, non-sonorant allophones  in the onsets of syllables with oral nuclei.

The high vowel, when occurring in onset or coda position, is realized as a glide. When the high vowel is in coda position, it is also realized as a  glide, but in onset position, it is realized as a palatal stop matching in nasality with the nucleus, either  or , in the same way that  match the following vowel's nasality. Any glides occurring before or  occurring after a nasalized nucleus are also realized as nasal.

Tone
Puinave distinguishes four surface (phonetic) tones: two simple (H and L) and two contour (HL and LH); these are analyzed as being composed of two phonemic tone values, H and L. Girón Higuita and Wetzels (2007) note that speakers seem to associate H with prominence, rather than increased duration or intensity (the typical correlates of prominence in languages like English).