Shipibo language

Dialects

• Shipibo and Konibo, which have merged
• Kapanawa of the Tapiche River, which is obsolescent

Phonology

Vowels

• is near-close front unrounded.
• is close near-back unrounded.
• Before coronal consonants it can be realized as close central unrounded.
• is mid near-back unrounded.
• tend to be more central in closed syllables.
• is near-open central unrounded.
• In connected speech, two adjacent vowels may be realized as a rising diphthong.

  Nasal

• The oral vowels are phonetically nasalized after a nasal consonant, but the phonological behaviour of these allophones is different from the nasal vowel phonemes.
• Oral vowels in syllables preceding syllables with nasal vowels are realized as nasal, but not when a consonant other than intervenes.

  Unstressed

• The second one of the two adjacent unstressed vowels is often deleted.
• Unstressed vowels may be devoiced or even elided between two voiceless obstruents.

  Consonants

• are bilabial, whereas is labialized velar.
• * is most typically a fricative, but other realizations also appear. The stop realization is most likely to appear in word-initial stressed syllables, whereas the approximant realization appears most often as onsets to non-initial unstressed syllables.
• are alveolar, whereas is dental.
• The distinction can be described as an apical–laminal one.
• are palato-alveolar, whereas is palatal.
• Before nasal vowels, are nasalized and may be even realized close to nasal stops.
• is realized as before, as before and as before. It does not occur before.
• is a very variable sound:
• * Intervocalically, it is realized either as an approximant, or sometimes as a fricative.
• * Sometimes it can be realized as a postalveolar affricate, or a stop-appproximant sequence.
• * It can also be realized as a postalveolar flap.