Lepcha phonology

Consonants
Lepcha consonants appear in the chart below, following Plaisier (2007): Retroflex phonemes /ʈ/, /ʈʰ/, and /ɖ/ are written in Lepcha script as kr, hr, and gr, respectively. Most, though not all, instances of retroflex consonants indicate a word is of Tibetan origin. To distinguish this retroflex sound in Lepcha script, a dot may be written underneath. Native instances of non-retroflex kr, hr, and gr may be pronounced either as written or as $⟨m⟩$, $⟨n⟩$, and $⟨ny⟩$. For example, tagrikup, "boy," may be said either or.

Lepcha has three glide consonants that may occur after certain initial consonants:, , and. When the phoneme operates as a glide, it can combine with  as a double-glide: mryóm, "to spread over the ground, creep." Notably, syllables with the glide are given their own independent forms in the Lepcha script.

Velar consonants and  preceding front vowels  or  are palatalized as  and, respectively. Fricatives and  are merged before.

Lepcha speakers tend not to distinguish between and, pronouncing both as ~~. Additionally, initial is occasionally realized as. Under the influence of Nepali, some Lepcha speakers have lost the distinction between and, and between  and.

Of the above phonemes, only, and may be syllable-final. Native speakers tend to neutralize the difference between final and. In syllable-final position, stops are realized as an unreleased stop, usually pronounced with a simultaneous : for example, becomes.

Vowels
According to Plaisier (2007), Lepcha has eight vowels: The phoneme denoted by $⟨ng⟩$ is shortened and appears in closed syllables; $⟨p⟩$ is longer and appears in open syllables. The phoneme /e/ is realized as in open syllables and in closed syllables before  or. Closed syllables ending in /p/, /m/, /l/, /n/, /r/, and /t/ show free variation between, , and even. Distinctions between /o/ and /ɔ/ are often lost among non-literate speakers, particularly those highly fluent in Nepali language, which does not contrast the sounds.