This paper is an analysis of the segmental phonological system of Maleku (Guatuso) on the basis of previously published phonological and phonetic descriptions. It has a particular focus on the distinctive features that contrast the phonemes, since no other publication has addressed this topic in detail before. In the patrimonial consonantal system, a total equivalence is established between the values of the features [sonorant] and [voice] if the phoneme classified as a voiced palatal fricative is considered a “sonorant fricative”. On the other hand, in the innovative system, which incorporates four phonemes borrowed from Spanish, the contrastivity of the feature [voice] is activated due to the introduction of voiced stop phonemes that contrast with the unvoiced stops.

This paper is an analysis of the segmental phonological system of Maleku (Guatuso) on the basis of previously published phonological and phonetic descriptions. It has a particular focus on the distinctive features that contrast the phonemes, since no other publication has addressed this topic in detail before. In the patrimonial consonantal system, a total equivalence is established between the values of the features [sonorant] and [voice] if the phoneme classified as a voiced palatal fricative is considered a “sonorant fricative”. On the other hand, in the innovative system, which incorporates four phonemes borrowed from Spanish, the contrastivity of the feature [voice] is activated due to the introduction of voiced stop phonemes that contrast with the unvoiced stops.

This paper is an analysis of the segmental phonological system of Maleku (Guatuso) on the basis of previously published phonological and phonetic descriptions. It has a particular focus on the distinctive features that contrast the phonemes, since no other publication has addressed this topic in detail before. In the patrimonial consonantal system, a total equivalence is established between the values of the features [sonorant] and [voice] if the phoneme classified as a voiced palatal fricative is considered a “sonorant fricative”. On the other hand, in the innovative system, which incorporates four phonemes borrowed from Spanish, the contrastivity of the feature [voice] is activated due to the introduction of voiced stop phonemes that contrast with the unvoiced stops.