Editing Tuareg languages (section)

===Consonants===
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
|+ Tamasheq consonants{{sfn|Sudlow|2001|pp=26–28}}
! rowspan=2 colspan=2|
! rowspan=2|[[Labial consonant|Labial]]
! colspan=2|[[Alveolar consonant|Alveolar]]
! rowspan=2|[[Palatal consonant|Palatal]]
! rowspan=2|[[Velar consonant|Velar]]
! rowspan=2|[[Uvular consonant|Uvular]]
! rowspan=2|[[Pharyngeal consonant|Pharyngeal]]
! rowspan=2|[[Glottal consonant|Glottal]]
|-
! <small>plain</small> !! <small>[[Emphatic consonant|emphatic]]</small>
|-
!colspan=2| [[Nasal consonant|Nasal]]
| {{IPAlink|m}}
| {{IPAlink|n}}
| ||
| {{IPAlink|ŋ}}{{efn|{{IPA|/ŋ/}} is rare.}}
| || ||
|-
!rowspan=2| [[Plosive]]
! {{small|voiceless}}
|
| {{IPAlink|t}}
| {{IPAlink|tˤ}}
|
| {{IPAlink|k}}
| {{IPAlink|q}}
|
| ({{IPAlink|ʔ}})
|-
! {{small|voiced}}
|[[Voiced bilabial plosive|b]]
| {{IPAlink|d}}
| {{IPAlink|dˤ}}
| {{IPAlink|ɟ}}{{notetag|Sudlow (2001:26) does not make it clear whether this is a true [[palatal stop]] or something else, possibly a front [[velar stop]] or some sort of affricate.}}
| {{IPAlink|ɡ}}
|
|
|
|-
!rowspan=2| [[Fricative]]
! {{small|voiceless}}
| {{IPAlink|f}}
| {{IPAlink|s}}
| ({{IPAlink|sˤ}}){{efn|name=loanwords|{{IPA|/lˤ, sˤ/}} only occur in Arabic loans and {{IPAslink|lˤ}} only in the name of [[Allah]].}}
| {{IPAlink|ʃ}}
| colspan="2"| {{IPAlink|x}}{{efn|name=velar/uvular|Sudlow (2001:26) doesn't specify whether these are velar or uvular.}}
| ({{IPAlink|ħ}}){{efn|name=Tanəsləmt|{{IPA|/ħ, ʕ/}} are only used in Arabic words in the Tanəsləmt dialect (most Tamasheq replace them with {{IPA|/x, ɣ/}} respectively).{{sfn|Sudlow|2001|p=26-28}}}}
| {{IPAlink|h}}
|-
! {{small|voiced}}
|
| {{IPAlink|z}}
| {{IPAlink|zˤ}}
| {{IPAlink|ʒ}}{{efn|{{IPA|/ʒ/}} is rare in Tadɣaq.}}
| colspan="2"| {{IPAlink|ɣ}}{{efn|name=velar/uvular}}
| ({{IPAlink|ʕ}}){{efn|name=Tanəsləmt}}
|
|-
!colspan=2| [[Lateral consonant|Lateral]]
|
| {{IPAlink|l}}
| ({{IPAlink|lˤ}}){{efn|name=loanwords}}
| || || || ||
|}
{{notelist}}

The consonant inventory largely resembles Arabic: differentiated voicing; uvulars, pharyngeals (traditionally referred to as emphatics) {{IPA|/tˤ/, /lˤ/, /sˤ/, /dˤ/, /zˤ/}}; requiring the pharynx muscles to contract and influencing the pronunciation of the following vowel, and no [[voiceless bilabial plosive]].{{sfn|Sudlow|2001|pp=26–7}}

The [[glottal stop]] is non-phonemic. It occurs at the beginning of vowel-initial words to fill the place of the initial consonant in the syllable structure (see below), although if the words is preceded by a word ending in a consonant, it makes a [[Sandhi|liaison]] instead. Phrase-final /a/ is also followed by a phonetic [[glottal stop]].{{sfn|Sudlow|2001|p=27}}

Gemination is contrastive.{{sfn|Sudlow|2001|p=28}} Normally {{IPA|/ɣɣ/}} becomes {{IPA|[qː]}}, {{IPA|/ww/}} becomes {{IPA|[ɡː]}}, and {{IPA|/dˤdˤ/}} becomes {{IPA|[tˤː]}}.{{sfn|Sudlow|2001|p=28}} {{IPA|/q/}} and {{IPA|/tˤ/}} are predominantly geminate. In addition, in Tadɣaq {{IPA|/ɡ/}} is usually geminate, but in Tudalt singleton {{IPA|/ɡ/}} may occur.{{sfn|Sudlow|2001|p=28}}

Voicing assimilation occurs, with the first consonant taking the voicing of the second (e.g. {{IPA|/edˤkăr/}} > {{IPA|[etˤkăr]}}).{{sfn|Sudlow|2001|pp=28–29}}

[[Cluster reduction]] turns word/morpheme-final {{IPA|/-ɣt, -ɣk/}} into {{IPA|[-qː]}} and {{IPA|/-kt, -ɟt, -ɡt/}} into {{IPA|[-kː]}} (e.g. {{IPA|/tămaʃăɣt/}} > {{IPA|[tămaʃăq]}} 'Tamasheq'{{notetag|Note that the geminate is dropped if not followed by a vowel.}}).{{sfn|Sudlow|2001|p=29}}