- 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.
- Sounds /a, o/ are raised to [ʌ, o̝] within the environment of consonant length.[2]
- ^ Mengen at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ Rath, Daniel D. (1993). Mengen phonology essentials. John M. Clifton (ed.), Phonologies of Austronesian languages 2: Ukarumpa: Summer Institute of Linguistics. pp. 71–98.
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