The Afrikaans segment inventory consists of vowels and consonants. Most of these segments can both stand on their own and form complex segments with each other (under certain restrictions). This will be dealt with in the following sections:

• Overview of Afrikaans Vowels
  • The rounded and unrounded high front vowels /i/ and /y/
  • The diphthongised long vowels /e/, /ø/ and /o/
  • The unrounded mid-front vowel /ɛ/
  • The unrounded low-central vowel /ɑ/
  • The unrounded low-central vowel /a/
  • The rounded mid-high back vowel /ɔ/
  • The rounded high back vowel /u/
  • The unrounded and rounded central vowels /ə/ and /œ/
  • The diphthongs /əi/, /œy/ and /œu/
• Overview of Afrikaans Consonants
  • The bilabial plosives /p/ and /b/
  • The alveolar plosives /t/ and /d/
  • The velar plosives /k/ and /g/
  • The bilabial nasal /m/
  • The alveolar nasal /n/
  • The velar nasal /ŋ/
  • The trill /r/
  • The lateral liquid /l/
  • The labiodental fricatives /f/ and /v/
  • The alveolar fricatives /s/ and /z/
  • The velar fricative /x/
  • The approximants