Both palatalization and labialization [ʲ,ʷ] is said to occur in all consonants. Palatalized consonants only occur before back vowels, and labialized consonant sounds may occur before all vowels accept /u/.
/k/ is typically pronounced as uvular [q], but can also be heard as a velar [k] in free variation.
Gemination or length, may also occur among consonant sounds.
Sounds /b,ɡ/ are pronounced as voiced stops [b,ɡ], but are also heard as fricatives [β,ɣ] in intervocalic position.
/r/ may have variation between a trill [r], a tap [ɾ], or a voiced stop [d] within vocabulary.
Sounds /j,w/ are said to exist as a result of palatalization or labialization, but only in very few root words in word-initial position.
^Rath, Daniel D. (1993). Mengen phonology essentials. John M. Clifton (ed.), Phonologies of Austronesian languages 2: Ukarumpa: Summer Institute of Linguistics. pp. 71–98.{{
cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (
link)