Editing Mongolian language (section)

=== Consonants ===
The following table lists the consonants of Khalkha Mongolian. The consonants enclosed in parentheses occur only in loanwords.<ref>Svantesson ''et al.'' 2005: 25–30.</ref> The occurrence of palatalized consonant phonemes, except {{IPA|/tʃ/}} {{IPA|/tʃʰ/}} {{IPA|/ʃ/}} {{IPA|/j/}}, is restricted to words with [−ATR] vowels.<ref>Svantesson ''et al.'' (2005): 20–21, where it is actually stated that they are phonemic only in such words; in Svantesson's analysis, [−ATR] corresponds to "pharyngeal" and [+ATR]—to "nonpharyngeal".</ref>

{| class="wikitable" style=text-align:center
! colspan=2 rowspan=2|
! colspan=2|[[labial consonant|Labial]]
! colspan=2|[[Dental consonant|Dental]]
! colspan=2|[[Velar consonant|Velar]]
! rowspan=2|[[Uvular consonant|Uvular]]
|- style="font-size: x-small;"
! plain || [[Palatalization (phonetics)|pal.]]
! plain || [[Palatalization (phonetics)|pal.]]
! plain || [[Palatalization (phonetics)|pal.]]
|-
! colspan=2| [[Nasal consonant|Nasal]]
| {{IPA link|m}} || {{IPA link|mʲ}}
| {{IPA link|n}} || {{IPA link|nʲ}}
| {{IPA link|ŋ}} ||
|
|-
! rowspan="2" |[[Plosive]]
!<small>unaspirated</small>
| {{IPA link|p}} || {{IPA link|pʲ}}
| {{IPA link|t}} || {{IPA link|tʲ}}
| {{IPA link|ɡ}} || {{IPA link|ɡʲ}}
| {{IPA link|ɢ}}
|-
! <small>[[Aspiration (phonetics)|aspirated]]</small>
| ({{IPA link|pʰ}}) || ({{IPA link|pʲʰ}})
| {{IPA link|tʰ}} || {{IPA link|tʲʰ}}
| ({{IPA link|kʰ}}) || ({{IPA link|kʲʰ}})
|
|-
! rowspan="2" |[[Affricate]]
!<small>unaspirated</small>
| ||
| {{IPA link|ts}} || {{IPA link|tʃ}}
| ||
|
|-
!<small>[[Aspiration (phonetics)|aspirated]]</small>
| ||
| {{IPA link|tsʰ}} || {{IPA link|tʃʰ}}
| ||
|
|-
! rowspan="2" |[[Fricative]]
!<small>[[Central consonant|central]]</small>
| ({{IPA link|f}}) ||
| {{IPA link|s}} || {{IPA link|ʃ}}
| {{IPA link|x}} || {{IPA link|xʲ}}
|
|-
!<small>[[Lateral consonant|lateral]]</small>
| ||
| {{IPA link|ɮ}} || {{IPA link|ɮʲ}}
| ||
|
|-
! colspan="2" |[[Trill consonant|Trill]]
| ||
| {{IPA link|r}} || {{IPA link|rʲ}}
| ||
|
|-
! colspan="2" | [[Approximant]]
| {{IPA link|w̜}} || {{IPA link|w̜ʲ}}
| || {{IPA link|j}}
| ||
|
|}

A rare feature among the world's languages, Mongolian has neither a voiced lateral approximant, such as {{IPA|[l]}}, nor the voiceless velar plosive {{IPA|[k]}}; instead, it has a [[voiced alveolar lateral fricative]], {{IPA|/ɮ/}}, which is often realized as voiceless {{IPA|[ɬ]}}.<ref>Karlsson (2005): 17</ref> In word-final position, {{IPA|/n/}} (if not followed by a vowel in historical forms) is realized as {{IPA|[ŋ]}}. Aspirated consonants are preaspirated in medial and word-final contexts, devoicing preceding consonants and vowels. Devoiced short vowels are often deleted.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://journals.lub.lu.se/index.php/LWPL/article/viewFile/2341/1916|title=Vowels in Mongolian speech: deletions and epenthesis |author=Anastasia Mukhanova Karlsson|access-date=2014-07-26}}</ref>