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§ 494. Lip-articulation in the case of the vowels is not well-marked. There is slight pro­trusion in the case of p, b, m, re­traction in p′, b′, m′. Rounded front vowels are entirely absent. The tongue is advanced and artic­ulates forcibly against the top teeth (L, N, t, d). In the case of the palatal sounds the tongue rests against the lower teeth, also in the case of s. l occurs in four varieties, r in three, the latter is generally slightly rolled. The con­sonants, par­ticular­ly the stops, seem to be much tenser than the vowels. All consonants occur both voiced and unvoiced except s, ʃ and ɲ. b, d, g are voiced; p, t, k, s are aspirated; un­aspirated p, t, k and p′, t′, k′ occur with lax articu­lation after s, ʃ, χ. Nasal resonance is par­ticular­ly strong. The glottal catch is al­together wanting. Palatal and non-palatal con­sonants are con­trasted, the quality of the con­sonants being apparent­ly of greater relative im­portance than vowel-quality. Whilst the numerous consonant-types are well articu­lated, many of the vowels are remark­ably ill defined, two vowels being frequent­ly inter­change­able. The back vowels are much better represent­ed than the front and include peculiar high-back-unrounded sounds. Low vowels are also represent­ed and every vowel may occur nasalised. The quality of the vowels often depends on the environ­ment. There is a tendency to make all short vowels wide and lowered and all long vowels narrow. Long vowels in stressed mono­syllables are apt to become overlong and diph­thongisation occurs in the case of ɛ꞉ and i꞉. Long vowels appear chiefly in syllables with strong stress. In weak syllables the vowel is generally ə but α is not rare and long vowels due to con­traction are often found. Close stress after short vowels. As­simila­tion is frequent par­ticular­ly in sandhi. Most con­sonants tend to be long or half-long but l, r, n, l′, r′, n′, ç, w̥ are always short and at the end of stressed mono­syllables are clipped or over-short. There is a great dif­ference between strong and weak stress. The tradition­al stress always falls on the first syllable. Unity stress plays a great part. Pitch much as in English and German.