Chichewa: Pronounciation  Chichewa is spelled phonetically. There are only five vowel sounds: A   as in father E as in weigh I as in ski O as in only U as in glue Y and W are called semi-vowels in Chichewa but are used only as consonants. The bilabial fricative w^ appears to be optional in many cases. The northern and central dialects are more likely to make a distinction. It is formed between both lips and sounds like a cross between v and w. B and D are called implosive consonants because they tend to be pronounced by sucking air into the mouth when spoken. H is called an aspirant and hives a sharper more explosive quality to various consonants: TH is never sounded like the th in thistle, but rather takes our regular sharp t sound and is used in contrast to the plain t which in Chichewa sounds softer and more like an English d. H has the same sharpening effect when it follows K and P. Thus a plain k sounds almost like a g and plain p like a b. C is always followed by h and is used only for the ch sound. In older printed Chichewa test you may find c by itself but it still is prounounced as the ch sound. S is rarely followed by h but when it is it takes the usual sh sound. The combination of -ps- also creates the sh sound. G is always hard g as in gone, and never take the j sound which is used only by the letter J as in John. R is rolled so that it sounds like a bounced L. In fact, l and r are generally used interchangably in speech. However, when written, r always follows the vowels e and i, l should be used after a, o, u. Of course there are always exceptions: L is used after e and i: 1. at the beginning of words    eg: lemba, lirime, -landa, -lemekeza 2. after the noun prefix chi- chilonda, chilombo, chilungamo 3. for the verb -li tili, ndilibe, chilichonse, alipo 4. in pronouns dzikoli, phirili, banja ili 5. and in plurals of mu-mi nouns milandu, milambe, milomo, milungu M and N are often used before another consonant. In this instance they should be sounded in combination with the second consonant and not emphasized with an introductory vowel. For example, Mpando (chair) is MPA-ndo, not im-PAN-do. NG' takes the ng sound as in sing on, whereas NG without the apostrophe begins with the same ng sound but then ends with a hard g as in sing gone. Chichewa does not use the letters q or x. All syllables end in vowels and pitch tones make a very important distinction.