Editing Swahili language (section)

===Consonants===
{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 0 auto; text-align:center"
|+Swahili consonant phonemes<ref name=":1" /><ref>Modern Swahili Grammar East African Publishers, 2001 Mohamed Abdulla Mohamed p. 4</ref>
|-
! colspan=2 |
! [[Labial consonant|Labial]]
! [[Dental consonant|Dental]]
! [[Alveolar consonant|Alveolar]]
! [[Postalveolar consonant|Postalveolar]]<br/>/ [[Palatal consonant|Palatal]]
! [[Velar consonant|Velar]]
! [[Glottal consonant|Glottal]]
|-
! colspan=2 | [[Nasal stop|Nasal]]
| {{IPA link|m}} 
|
| {{IPA link|n}}
| {{IPA link|ɲ}} {{angbr|ny}}
| {{IPA link|ŋ}} {{angbr|ng'}}
|
|-
! rowspan=4 | [[Stop consonant|Stop]]
! [[Prenasalized consonant|prenasalized]]
| {{IPA link|ᵐb̥}} {{angbr|mb}}
| 
| {{IPA link|ⁿd̥}} {{angbr|nd}}
| {{IPA link|ⁿd̥ʒ̊}} {{angbr|nj}}
| {{IPA link|ᵑɡ̊}} {{angbr|ng}}
|
|-
! [[Implosive consonant|implosive]]<br/>/ [[Voiced plosive|voiced]]
| {{IPA link|ɓ}} ~ {{IPA link|b}} {{angbr|b}}
|
| {{IPA link|ɗ}} ~ {{IPA link|d}} {{angbr|d}}
| {{IPA link|ʄ}} ~ {{IPA link|dʒ}} {{angbr|j}}
| {{IPA link|ɠ}} ~ {{IPA link|ɡ}} {{angbr|g}}
|
|-
! [[Voiceless plosive|voiceless]]
| {{IPA link|p}}
|
| {{IPA link|t}}
| {{IPA link|tʃ}} {{angbr|ch}}
| {{IPA link|k}} 
|
|-
! [[Aspirated consonant|aspirated]]
| ({{IPA link|pʰ}} {{angbr|p}})
|
| ({{IPA link|tʰ}} {{angbr|t}})
| ({{IPA link|tʃʰ}} {{angbr|ch}})
| ({{IPA link|kʰ}} {{angbr|k}})
| 
|-
! rowspan=3 | [[Fricative consonant|Fricative]]
! [[Prenasalized consonant|prenasalized]]
| {{IPA link|ᶬv̥}} {{angbr|mv}}
|
| {{IPA link|ⁿz̥}} {{angbr|nz}}
|
|
|
|-
! [[Voiced fricative|voiced]]
| {{IPA link|v}}
| ({{IPA link|ð}} {{angbr|dh}})
| {{IPA link|z}}
|
| ({{IPA link|ɣ}} {{angbr|gh}})
|
|-
! [[Voiceless fricative|voiceless]]
| {{IPA link|f}}
| ({{IPA link|θ}} {{angbr|th}})
| {{IPA link|s}}
| {{IPA link|ʃ}} {{angbr|sh}}
| ({{IPA link|x}} {{angbr|kh}})
| {{IPA link|h}}
|-
! colspan=2 | [[Approximant consonant|Approximant]]
|
|
| {{IPA link|l}}
| {{IPA link|j}} {{angbr|y}}
| {{IPA link|w}}
|
|-
! colspan=2 | [[Rhotic consonant|Rhotic]]
|
|
| {{IPA link|r}}
|
|
|
|}

Where not shown, the orthography is the same as IPA.

Some dialects of Swahili may also have the aspirated phonemes {{IPA|/pʰ tʰ tʃʰ kʰ bʱ dʱ dʒʱ ɡʱ/}} though they are unmarked in Swahili's orthography.<ref name="Lodhi">{{Cite journal |last=Lodhi |first=Abdulaziz Y. |date=2003 |title=Aspiration in Swahili Adjectives and Verbs |url=https://sprak.gu.se/digitalAssets/1324/1324063_aspiration-in-swahili.pdf |url-status=dead |journal=Africa & Asia |language=en |volume=3 |page=157 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200715041859/https://sprak.gu.se/digitalAssets/1324/1324063_aspiration-in-swahili.pdf |archive-date=2020-07-15}}</ref> Multiple studies favour classifying prenasalization as consonant clusters, not as separate phonemes. Historically, nasalization has been lost before voiceless consonants, and subsequently the voiced consonants have devoiced,{{Citation needed|date=December 2021}} though they are still written ''mb, nd'' etc. The {{IPA|/r/}} phoneme is realised as either a short trill {{IPA blink|r}} or more commonly as a single tap {{IPA blink|ɾ}} by most speakers. {{IPA|[x]}} exists in free variation with h, and is only distinguished by some speakers.<ref name="files.eric.ed.gov" /> In some Arabic loans (nouns, verbs, adjectives), emphasis or intensity is expressed by reproducing the original emphatic consonants {{IPA|/dˤ, sˤ, tˤ, ðˤ/}} and the uvular {{IPA|/q/}}, or lengthening a vowel, where aspiration would be used in inherited Bantu words.<ref name="Lodhi" />