User:IknowNothing/Sotho pronunciation

Vowels
Sesotho has a large inventory of vowels compared with many other Bantu languages. However, the nine phonemic vowels are collapsed into only five letters in the Sesotho orthography. The two close vowels i and u (sometimes called "superclose" or "first-degree" by Bantuists) are very high (with ATR) and are better approximated by French vowels than English vowels.



Consonants
The Sotho-Tswana languages are peculiar among the Bantu family in that most do not have any prenasalized consonants and have a rather large number of heterorganic compounds. Sesotho, uniquely among the recognised and standardised Sotho-Tswana languages, also has click consonants inherited from the Khoisan and Nguni languages.


 * 1)  is an allophone of, occurring only before the close vowels ( and ). Dialectical evidence shows that in the Sotho-Tswana languages  was originally pronounced as a retroflex flap  before the two close vowels.

Sesotho makes a three-way distinction between lightly ejective, aspirated and voiced stops in two many places of articulation.