Navajo has a fairly large consonant inventory. Its stop consonants exist in three laryngeal forms: aspirated, unaspirated, and ejective – for example, /tʃʰ/, /tʃ/, and /tʃʼ/.[43] Ejective consonants are those that are pronounced with a glottalic initiation. Navajo also has a simple glottal stop used after vowels,[44] and every word that would otherwise begin with a vowel is pronounced with an initial glottal stop.[45] Consonant clusters are uncommon, aside from frequent placing /d/ or /t/ before fricatives.[46]
The language has four vowel qualities: /a/, /e/, /i/, and /o/.[46] Each exists in both oral and nasalized forms, and can be either short or long.[47] Navajo also distinguishes for tone between high and low, with the low tone typically regarded as the default. However, some linguists have suggested that Navajo does not possess true tones, but only a pitch accent system similar to that of Japanese.[48] In general, Navajo speech also has a slower speech tempo than English does.[44]
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