Consonants
Jaffad has a large size consonant inventory. Except where indicated by brackets listing the IPA, the romanization given is identical to the IPA.
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Pharyngeal | |
| Stops | p [pʰ], b | t [tʰ], d | ty [cʰ], dy [ɟ] | k [kʰ], g | kg [qʰ] | |
| Fricatives | f [ɸ], v [β] | s, z | ç [ç], j [ʝ] | kh [x], gh [ɣ] | h [ħ] | |
| Rhotics | ŕ [r], r[ɹ] | wŕ [ʀ], wr [ʁ] | ||||
| Laterals | l | ly [ʎ] | ɫ [ʟ] | |||
| Nasals | m | n | ny [ɳ] | ng [ŋ] |
Unusual for most languages, Jaffad has a series of four rhotics and three laterals. The rhotics are alveolar and uvular, trilled and untrilled in both places of articulation. Although [ʁ] is a fricative, it is not treated as a fricative within the language, but is acted on by sound changes that affect other rhotics. The laterals vary between alveolar, palatal, and velar.
The voiceless stops are aspirated. Unlike English, they retain their aspiration even following another consonant. Stops may also be glottalized, resulting in either an ejective or an implosive, and many stops can be pharyngealized as well, as show in the following table. The romanization is given first, followed by the IPA in brackets where it differs.
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | |
| Glottalized | ɓ | tʼ ɗ | tyʼ [cʼ], ɗy [ʄ] | kʼ ɠ |
| Pharyngealized | ph [pˀ], bh [bˀ] | th [tˀ], dh [dˀ] | ky [cˀ], gy [ɟˀ] |
Jaffad also has three series of clicks, dental, lateral, and palatal, which may be voiceless, aspirated, pharyngealized, or nasal. The romanization is given first, followed by the IPA in brackets.
| Dental | Lateral | Palatal | |
| Voiceless | c [kǀ] | x [kǁ] | q [kǂ] |
| Aspirated | cʼ [kǀʰ] | xʼ [kǁʰ] | qʼ [kǂʰ] |
| Pharyngealized | ch [kǀˀ] | xh [kǁˀ] | qh [kǂˀ] |
| Nasal | nc [kǀⁿ] | nx [kǁⁿ] | nq [kǂⁿ] |
Vowels
Jaffad has a four vowel system. Except where indicated by brackets listing the IPA, the romanization given is identical to the IPA.
| Front | Back | |
| High | u | |
| Mid | e | o |
| Low | a |
There are ten diphthongs: ue, ua, oe, oa, eu, eo, ea, au, ae, ao.
Syllable Structure
The fundamental syllable structure in Jaffad is CV(C). That is all syllables begin with a consonants and have a vowel, which may be either a pure vowel or a diphthong as listed above. A coda may occur, and may include any consonant except a click.
Geminate consonants may occur at syllable boundaries, but never at the beginning or end of a word.
Stress Accent
Words in Jaffad exhibits stress accent. Stress is always found on the rightmost closed syllable. If a word contains no closed syllables, the final syllable of the word is stressed.
| qhukhoaɫ [kǂˀu.ˈxoaʟ] | çunɗya [ˈçuɳ.ʄa] | moçunɗya [mo.ˈçun.ʄa] |
| nyagha [ɳa.ˈɣa] | fe [ˈɸe] | lyoɓen [ʎo.ˈɓen] |
Phonotactics
There are a number of processes that can change the way a sound is pronounced depending on the context in which the sound occurs.
Allophony
The following allophonic variations are observed in what was largely considered the standard dialect.
- ʎ → lʲ / _C
- ʎ → j / V_V
- a, e, o, u → æ, ɜ, ɔ, ʊ / [+unstress], [+pharyngeal] _
- r, ʀ → ɾ, ʁ / V_V
- [+stop] → [-voice] / _ #
Sandhi
In addition to sound changes that may occur within a word, some changes may occur across word boundaries.
- u → w / _# V
- [+stop] → [αvoice] / _# [+cons αvoice]
Phonological Processes
There are also some sound changes that occur regularly when an affix is applied to a word, these arise out of the historical changes that have taken place. These changes may then be applied even in newly coined derivation by a levelling process.
- [obs] + [obs]α → [obs]αː
Reduplication
Two types of reduplication occur in Jaffad. Full reduplication is a complete repetition of the original word, with no phonological difference. The second is the repetition of the first sound with an epenthetic /a/ before the word itself.
| lyauħe lyauħe [ʎau.ˈħe ʎau.ˈħe] | xha-xhotto [kǁˀæ.ˈkǁˀot.to] |
| tyatʼu tyatʼu [ca.ˈtʼu ca.ˈtʼu] | ka-kue [ka.ˈkue] |