Editing Sotho language (section)

==Phonology==
{{main|Sesotho phonology}}
The sound system of Sesotho is unusual in many respects. It has [[ejective consonant]]s, [[click consonant]]s, a [[uvular trill]], a relatively large number of [[affricate consonant]]s, no [[prenasalised consonant]]s, and a rare form of vowel-height (alternatively, [[advanced tongue root]]) harmony. In total, the language contains some 39 consonantal{{efn|75 if you include the [[Sesotho phonology#pp labialization|labialized]] consonants.}} and 9 vowel [[phonemes]].

It also has a large number of complex sound transformations which often change the phones of words due to the influence of other (sometimes invisible) sounds.

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|-
!rowspan="2" colspan="2"|
!rowspan="2"|[[Labial consonant|Labial]]
!colspan="2"|[[Alveolar consonant|Alveolar]]
!rowspan="2"|[[Postalveolar consonant|Post-<br>alveolar]]
!rowspan="2"|[[Palatal consonant|Palatal]]
!rowspan="2"|[[Velar consonant|Velar]]
!rowspan="2"|[[Uvular consonant|Uvular]]
!rowspan="2"|[[Glottal consonant|Glottal]]
|-
!style="font-size:80%"|[[central consonant|central]]
!style="font-size:80%"|[[Lateral consonant|lateral]]
|-
!rowspan="3"|[[Click consonant|Click]]
!style="font-size:80%"|[[glottalization|glottalized]]
| || || ||{{IPAlink|ᵏǃʼ}}|| || || || 
|-
!style="font-size:80%"|[[aspiration (linguistics)|aspirated]]
| || || ||{{IPAlink|ᵏǃʰ}}|| || || || 
|-
!style="font-size:80%"|nasal
| || || ||{{IPAlink|ᵑǃ}}|| || || || 
|-
!colspan="2"|[[Nasal consonant|Nasal]]
|{{IPAlink|m}}||{{IPAlink|n}}|| ||colspan=2|{{IPAlink|ɲ}}||{{IPAlink|ŋ}}|| || 
|-
!rowspan="3"|[[Plosive]]
!style="font-size:80%"|[[ejective consonant|ejective]]
|{{IPAlink|pʼ}}||{{IPAlink|tʼ}}|| || || ||{{IPAlink|kʼ}}|| || 
|-
!style="font-size:80%"|[[aspiration (linguistics)|aspirated]]
|{{IPAlink|pʰ}}||{{IPAlink|tʰ}}|| || || ||{{IPAlink|kʰ}}|| || 
|-
!style="font-size:80%"|[[voiced consonant|voiced]]
|{{IPAlink|b}}||({{IPAlink|d}})<sup>1</sup>|| || || || || || 
|-
!rowspan="2"|[[Affricate]]
!style="font-size:80%" |[[ejective consonant|ejective]]
| ||{{IPAlink|tsʼ}}||{{IPAlink|tɬʼ}}||{{IPAlink|tʃʼ}}|| || || || 
|-
!style="font-size:80%"|[[aspiration (linguistics)|aspirated]]
| ||{{IPAlink|tsʰ}}||{{IPAlink|tɬʰ}}||{{IPAlink|tʃʰ}}|| ||rowspan="2"|{{IPAlink|kxʰ}} ~ {{IPAlink|x}}|| || 
|-
!rowspan="2"|[[Fricative]]
!style="font-size:80%"|voiceless
|{{IPAlink|f}}||{{IPAlink|s}}||{{IPAlink|ɬ}}||{{IPAlink|ʃ}}|| || ||rowspan="2"|{{IPAlink|h}} ~ {{IPAlink|ɦ}}
|-
!style="font-size:80%"|voiced
| || || ||{{IPAlink|ʒ}} ~ {{IPAlink|dʒ}}|| || || 
|-
!colspan="2" |[[Approximant]]
| || ||{{IPAlink|l}}|| ||{{IPAlink|j}}||{{IPAlink|w}}|| || 
|-
!colspan="2" |[[Trill consonant|Trill]]
| || ||{{IPAlink|r}} || || || ||{{IPAlink|ʀ}}|| 
|}

# {{IPA|[d]}} is an [[allophone]] of {{IPA|/l/}}, occurring only before the close vowels ({{IPA|/i/}} and {{IPA|/u/}}). Dialectical evidence shows that in the Sotho–Tswana languages {{IPA|/l/}} was originally pronounced as a [[retroflex flap]] {{IPA|[ɽ]}}<!-- the Wikipedia articles on flaps and taps seem awfully confused, so I won't link to the topic --> before the two close vowels.

Sesotho makes a three-way distinction between lightly [[ejective consonant|ejective]], [[aspiration (phonetics)|aspirated]] and [[voiced consonant|voiced]] [[stop consonant|stops]] in several [[place of articulation|places of articulation]].

The standard Sesotho clicks tend to be substituted with dental clicks in regular speech.