Editing Nauruan language (section)

===Consonants===
Nauruan has 16–17 [[consonant]] [[phoneme]]s.  Nauruan makes phonemic contrasts between velarized and palatalized labial consonants.  Velarization is not apparent before long back vowels and palatalization is not apparent before non-low front vowels.<ref name="Nathan">{{Harvcoltxt|Nathan|1974|p=481}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
|-
|+Consonant phonemes<ref name="Nathan_a">{{Harvcoltxt|Nathan|1974|p=483}}</ref><ref>{{Harvp|Hughes|2020|p=15}}</ref>
! rowspan=2 colspan=2|
! colspan=2|[[Bilabial consonant|Bilabial]]
! rowspan=2|[[Dental consonant|Dental]]
! colspan=3|[[Dorsal consonant|Dorsal]]
|-
!<small>[[Palatalization (phonetics)|palatalized]]</small>
!<small>[[velarization|velarized]]</small>
!<small>[[Palatal consonant|Palatal]]</small>
!<small>post-velar</small>
!<small>[[labialization|labial]]</small>
|-
!colspan=2| [[Nasal stop|Nasal]]
|{{IPA link|mʲ}} || {{IPA link|mˠ}} || {{IPA link|n}} || || {{IPA link|ŋ}} || {{IPA link|(ŋʷ)}}
|-
!rowspan=2|[[Stop consonant|Stop]] ||<small>voiceless</small>
|{{IPA link|pʲ}} || {{IPA link|pˠ}} || {{IPA link|t}} || || {{IPA link|k}} || {{IPA link|kʷ}}
|-
!<small>voiced</small>
|{{IPA link|bʲ}} || {{IPA link|bˠ}} || {{IPA link|d}} || || {{IPA link|ɡ}} || {{IPA link|ɡʷ}}
|-
!colspan=2|[[Fricative]]
| || || || {{IPA link|ʝ}} || ||({{IPA link|ɣʷ}})
|-
!colspan=2|[[Approximant consonant|Approximant]]
|
|
|
|{{IPA link|j}}
|
|{{IPA link|w}}
|-
!colspan=2|[[Rhotic consonant|Rhotic]]
| || ||{{IPA link|r}} {{IPA link|rʲ}} || || ||
|}

Voiceless stops are [[geminate]]d and nasals also contrast in length.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Nathan|1974|pp=481–483}}</ref> Dental stops {{IPAslink|t}} and {{IPAslink|d}} become {{IPAblink|tʃ}} and {{IPAblink|dʒ}} respectively before high front vowels.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Nathan|1974|pp=481–482}}</ref>

The approximants become fricatives in "emphatic pronunciation." {{Harvcoltxt|Nathan|1974}} transcribes them as {{angbr IPA|j}} and {{angbr IPA|w}} but also remarks that they contrast with the non-syllabic allophones of the high vowels. {{IPAslink|w}} can also be heard as a fricative {{IPAblink|ɣʷ}}.

Depending on stress, {{IPAslink|r}} may be a flap or a trill. The precise phonetic nature of {{IPAslink|rʲ}} is unknown.  {{Harvcoltxt|Nathan|1974}} transcribes it as {{angbr IPA|r̵}} and speculates that it may pattern like palatalized consonants and be partially devoiced.

Between a vowel and word-final {{IPAslink|mˠ}}, an epenthetic {{IPAblink|b}} appears.<ref name="Nathan" />