This page is a tentative guide on the phonology of three living varieties of Nheengatu: Alto Rio Negro, Médio Amazonas and Médio Solimões.
| IPA | Representation | Example |
|---|
| (Rio Negro) | (Middle Amazon) | (Solimões) |
|---|
| Consonants |
|---|
| p | p | p | paya |
| b | b | babasú |
| ᵐb | b, mb | membira |
| t | t | t | tukana |
| d | d | dedu |
| ⁿd | d, nd | endira |
| k | c, k | kapiĩ |
| ɡ | ɡ | g | igara |
| ᵑɡ | g, ng | nheengatú |
| ʒ[n 1] | j | jí |
| m | m | manha |
| n | n | ukena |
| ɲ | ñ, nh, ỹ | kastanha |
| ɾ | r | papera |
| s | s | kupuasú |
| ʃ | ch, x | tukuxí |
| j[n 2] | i, y | yepé |
| w[n 2] | u, w | wawirú |
| ʔ[n 3] | ∅ | ka[ʔ]á |
| h[n 4] | ∅, h | [h]asú |
| Vowels |
|---|
| a | a | arara |
| ɐ[n 5] | sasá |
| e | e | tapetí |
| ɛ[n 6] | e | ɛ[n 6] | peteka |
| i | i[n 7] | wasaí |
| i | ɨ | i | kisé |
| u | o | o, u[n 7] | ? |
| ɔ[n 8] | oka |
| u | u | pisirú |
| ã | ã[n 9] | a, ã, am, an | karapanã |
| ẽ | ẽ[n 9] | e, ẽ, em, en | penhẽ |
| ĩ | ĩ[n 9] | i, ĩ, im, in | aintá |
| ũ | õ[n 9] | o, õ, om, on, ũ, um, un[n 7] | ? |
| ũ | ũ[n 9] | u, ũ, um, un | piũ |
Sounds that are not present in any phonological study and thus can only be inferred by the spelling. They are usually restricted to borrowings.
- ⟨f⟩[f]:farulu,faúru,fuduri,kafé
- ⟨l⟩[l]:gagaluna,lambiki,lapiri,laranja
- ⟨rr⟩[r]:Barra,sigarru
- ⟨v⟩[v]:valeri,venderi,viáji,
- ⟨z⟩[z]:benzeri,Braziu,meza,prezu,uzari
- In Middle Amazon and Solimões,/t/ and/d/ are realized respectively as/tʃ/ and/dʒ/ before/i/. It can sometimes be heard in Rio Negro, too.
- Initial syllables withouth an onset are usually reduced:apigawa[a.piˈɡa.wɐ] >[piˈɡa.wɐ]
- The Rio Negro variety has a minimal metrical foot of two morae. Monosyllables have their final vowel duplicated, with an/ʔ/ added between them, making a word liketĩ[ˈtĩ] to be actually realised as[tiˈʔĩ].
- This applies to monosyllabic verbs even after conjugation:mã[mãˈʔã] >umã(3SG)[u.mãˈʔã]
- This doesn't apply to unstressed monosyllables, liketi andne.
- Unstressed final syllables are sometimes reduced:tupana/tuˈpana/ >[tuˈpã]
- An intrusive/j/ can appear between a vowel and/u/:piũ[piˈũ] >[piˈjũ]
- ^Considered nonphonemic in Rio Negro's variety by some authors.
- ↑2.02.1Considered onset allophones of/i/ and/u/ in Rio Negro's variety.
- ^Not considered a phoneme in modern Nheengatu, but can occur between duplicate vowels. Its presence varies between varieties.
- ^Nonphonemic, occurs at the end or beginning of some words. Its presence varies between varieties.
- ^Unstressed allophone of/a/, at the end of the word.
- ↑6.06.1Stressed allophone of/e/, in any position.
- ↑7.07.17.2Modern ortographies are mostly based on Rio Negro's variety and usually don't show this difference.
- ^Stressed allophone of/o/, in any position.
- ↑9.09.19.29.39.4Nonphonemic, only occurs before a nasal consonant.
- Avila, Marcel Twardowsky (2021),Proposta de dicionário nheengatu-português [Nheengatu–Portuguese dictionary proposal][1] (in Portuguese), São Paulo: USP,→DOI
- Cruz, Aline da (2011),Fonologia e gramática do nheengatu: a língua geral falada pelos povos baré, warekena e baniwa [Phonology and grammar of Nheengatu: the general language spoken by the Baré, Warekena and Baniwa peoples][2] (in Portuguese), Amsterdam: LOT,→ISBN
- D'Angelis, Wilmar da Rocha (2023), “A língua Nheengatu e suas ortografias: questões técnicas e de política linguística [The Nheengatu language and its orthographies: technical and language policy issues]”, inLIAMES: Línguas Indígenas Americanas[3] (in Portuguese), volume23, Campinas: Unicamp,→DOI, pagee023004
- Silva, Raynice Geraldine Pereira da (May 2019), “Documentação fonológica da variedade do Nheengatu da região do Médio e Alto Solimões/AM [Phonological documentation of the Nheengatu variety spoken in the Middle and Upper Solimões regions/[Amazonas]]”, inWeb-Revista SOCIODIALETO[4] (in Portuguese), volume 9, number27, Dourados: UEMS
- Silva, Raynice Geraldine Pereira da; Cruz, Aline da; Schwade, Michéli de Deus Lima (November 2020), “Descrição e documentação fonológica das variedades do nheengatu no Amazonas [Phonological description and documentation of Nheengatu varieties in Amazonas]”, inRevista De Letras Norte@mentos (in Portuguese), volume13, number33, Sinop: Unemat,→DOI, pages148–171
- Schwade, Michéli Carolíni de Deus Lima (2014),Descrição fonético-fonológica do Nheengatu falado no Médio Rio Amazonas [Phonetic and phonological description of the Nheengatu spoken in the Middle Amazon River[region]][5] (in Portuguese), Manaus: UFAM
