vowels, they are nasalized: . Consonant alternations The stem-initial consonant in many verb stems has alternates (i.e. shows consonantal ablaut) between two different forms in what Trager calls the "basic" stem and the "stative" stem. The "basic" stem is used for the preterit active verb form while the "stative" stem is used for the resultative stative verb-forms and deverbal nouns. {| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center; line-height: 1.2em;" ! Basic Initial !! Stative Initial !! Example |- | || | style='text-align: left;' | ('he lost it') ('it is lost') |- | || | style='text-align: left;' | ('he helped him') ('he was helped') |- | || | style='text-align: left;' | ('he tied it') ('it is tied') |- | || | style='text-align: left;' | ('he ate it') ('it was eaten') |- | || | style='text-align: left;' | ('he did') ('it is done') |- | || | style='text-align: left;' | ('he took it') ('it has been taken') |- | || | style='text-align: left;' | ('he brought it') ('it has been brought') |- | || | style='text-align: left;' | ('he arrived') ('arrival') |- | || | style='text-align: left;' | ('he took it off') ('it has been taken off') |- | || | style='text-align: left;' | ('he walked') ('walk' [noun]) |} A different set of alternations are what Trager calls "internal" ablaut. The last consonant of the verb stem alternates between two different consonants in the basic stem form and the negative stem form. {| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center; line-height: 1.2em;" ! Basic Consonant !! Negative Consonant !! Example |- | || | style="text-align: left;" | ('he kicked') ('he didn't kick') |- | || | style="text-align: left;" | ('he lost it') ('he didn't lose it') |- | || | style="text-align: left;" | ('he accepted') ('he didn't accept') |- | || | style="text-align: left;" | ('he sat down') ('he didn't sit down') |- | || | style="text-align: left;" | ('he hit') ('he didn't hit') |- | || | style="text-align: left;" | ('he beat') ('he didn't beat') |} Vowels Monophthongs Taos has six vowels with three contrastive vowel heights and two degrees of vowel backness. {| class="IPA wikitable" style="text-align: center;" |+ Phonemic vowels ! rowspan="2" | ! colspan="2" | Front ! colspan="2" | Back |- ! oral ! nasal ! oral ! nasal |- ! Close | i || ĩ || u || ũ |- ! Mid | e || ẽ || ɤ | style="background-color: lightGrey;" | |- ! Open