Yanesha' has 22 consonants and 9 vowel phonemes. The consonants have a certain degree of allophonic variation while that of the vowels is more considerable.
Yanesha', similar to languages like Russian, Irish, and Marshallese, makes contrasts between certain pairs of palatalized and plain consonants:
anap̃ vs. anap
esho'ta netsorram̃o vs. esho'ta nenamo
ña vs. na
The remaining two palatalized consonants, and, don’t offer a one-to-one contrast with plain consonants; the former because it is the only lateral consonant and so contrasts with no other phoneme on the basis of just palatalization;, while contrasting with, also contrasts with,, and. The bilabial palatalized consonants have a more perceptible palatal offglide than the alveolar ones. Word-finally, this offglide is voiceless for and while being absent for. Another general feature of Yanesha' is devoicing in certain contexts. In addition to the devoicing of palatal offglides above, the retroflex fricative is voiceless when word final or before a voiceless consonant : arrpa →. The approximants and are voiceless before voiceless stops, as in huautena and neytarr ; is also voiceless before affricates and word-finally: ahuey . Similarly, the stops, , and are aspirated word-finally ellap → ; preceding another stop or an affricate, a stop may be aspirated or unreleased so that etquëll is realized as or. The velar fricative is debuccalized to before another consonant.
Vowels
Yanesha' has three basic vowel qualities,,, and . Each contrasts phonemically between short, long, and "laryngeal" or glottalized forms. Laryngealization generally consists of glottalization of the vowel in question, creating a kind of creaky voice. In pre-final contexts, a variation occurs—especially before voiced consonants—ranging from creaky phonation throughout the vowel to a sequence of a vowel, glottal stop, and a slightly rearticulated vowel: ma'ñorr →. Before a word-final nasal, this rearticulated vowel may be realized as a syllabic quality of said nasal. Also, although not as long as a phonemically long vowel, laryngeal vowels are generally longer than short ones. When absolutely word-final, laryngealized vowels differ from short ones only by the presence of a following glottal stop. Each vowel varies in its phonetic qualities, having contextual allophones as well as phones in free variation with each other: is the short phoneme consisting of phones that are front and close to close-mid. Generally, it is realized as close when following bilabial consonants. Otherwise, the phones and are in free variation with each other so that may be realized as either or. is the long counterpart to. It differs almost solely in its length, although when it follows it becomes a sort of diphthong with the first element being identical in vowel height while being more retracted so that quë' is realized as. Laryngeal consists of the same variation and allophony of the short phoneme with the minor exception that it is more likely to be realized as close following as in pe'sherr → 'parakeet' is the short phoneme consisting of phones that are central. Its most frequent realization is that of an open central unrounded vowel . Before, there is free variation between this and so that nanac may be realized as or. While the laryngeal counterpart is qualitatively identical to the short, the long counterpart,, differs only in that is not a potential realization. is the short phoneme consisting of phones that are back as well as rounded. Generally, and are in free variation so that oyua may be realized as or. The phone is another potential realization, although it most frequently occurs before stops so that not may be realized as. is not a potential realization of long but both the long and laryngeal counterparts are otherwise qualitatively identical to short.
Phonotactics
All consonants appear initially, medially, and finally with the exception that and do not occur word-finally. With two exceptions, initial clusters include at least one stop. The other possible initial clusters are:
,,,
,,,
Word final clusters consist of either a nasal or followed by a plosive or affricate:
,,,,,
Medial clusters may be of two or three consonants.
Stress
Although apparently phonemic, stress tends to occur on the penultimate syllable but also in the ultimate. Less frequently, it is antepenultimate. Some words, like oc̈hen , have stress in free variation.
