All ideophones on this site are from a dialect of Quechua known as Quichua (sometimes written as Kichwa), spoken in Eastern Ecuador, in the provinces of Pastaza and Napo. However, there are repors of ideophones in many other dialects of this large family of languages.

The written forms of our ideophones use letters that are mostly easy to pronounce. One interesting feature of consonants used for ideophones, however, is that many are palatalized, which means that they are co-articulated with a y-like sound. If an ideophone is written with a consonant followed by a y, then the consonant and the immediately following y should be pronounced at the same time.

Quechua languages are notable for the small size of their vowel inventories:

a – ah, as in “father”
i – ee, as in “ski”; sometimes ih, as in “skip”
u – ooh, as in “flu”
o – oh, as in “only” (Most native Quechua words do not use this vowel, although a good number of ideophones do.)

Consonants
p – [p], as in “pat”
b – [b], as in “bat”
t – [t̪], as in “toy,” but more interdental than in English
d – [d̪], as in “day,” but more interdental than in English
k – [k], as in “kite”
g – [g], as in “goat”
kw – [kw], like English qu as in “quick”
py – [pj], like p followed by y, like first sound in “puny”
ty – [tj], like t followed by y, like first sound in “tiara”
ky – [kj], like k followed by y, like first sound in “cute”
s – [s], as in “sun”
z~dz [z]~[dz], like final sound in “heads”; the d is unstable and easily lost
sh – [ɕ], like English sh, as in “she”
h – [h~Ɂ], as in “hat”; often replaced with glottal stop word-initially
ts – [ts], like final sound in “lets”
ch – [tɕ], like English ch, as in “church”
dzh – [dʑ], like English j, as in “jump”
m – [m], as in “mother”
m̩ – [m̩], like mm in the negative “mm-mm”
n – [n], as in “note,” but more interdental than in English
n̩ – [n̩], similar to m̩, but alveolar/interdental
ng – [ŋ], like final sound in “sing”
ñ – [ɲ], like ny in “canyon”
l – [ɫ], “dark” l, as in “dull”
ll – [ʎ], like l followed by y, like the sound between “call you”
r – [ɾ], like Spanish r, as in “rosa”
w – [w~β], as in “want”; or a more fricativized version (often before i)
y – [j], as in “yet”

Unusual symbols and sounds only found in ideophones
[ə], like first a in “again”
[ʔ], glottal stop, like the pause between the syllables of “uh-oh”
[ʙ], trilled b, similar to blowing a raspberry but with only the lips
[r], trilled r, like Spanish rr, as in “perro”
[ɸ], like the fricativized w ([β]) but voiceless
[ç], like h followed by y, like first sound in “Hugh”
[x], like Spanish x, as in “Xavier”
[ɧ], simultaneous sh and x
[j], superscript j indicates palatalization, preceding consonant pronounced with a y sound
[h], superscript h indicates aspiration, preceding consonant pronounced with a puff of air
[w], superscript w indicates labialization, preceding consonant pronounced with rounded lips
[ḁ], small circle under a segment indicates voicelessness
[a̰], tilda under a vowel or syllabic nasal indicates creaky voice
[ã], tilda above a vowel or consonant indicates nasalization (airflow diverted to the nasal cavity)
[a̤], diaeresis under a vowel or syllabic nasal indicates breathy voice
[t:], two dots following a consonant indicates a long consonant
[t̚], the upper right angle following a consonant indicates an unreleased consonant