The Calašan vowels are almost entirely identical to those of Spanish or Italian. (All English examples use American English pronunciation).
| a | Spanish a, a as in father, o as in top, ah. Pronounced as uh after another vowel. |
| e | Spanish e, e as in elm, eh. | i | Spanish i, ee as in seen, i as in sing, ee. | o | Spanish o, o as in hope, oh. | u | Spanish u, ou as in soup, oo. |
As should be obvious from the descriptions above, if you pronounce the vowels as you would in Spanish you will be pronouncing them correctly.
Diphthongs are similar to those in English and Spanish.
| ai | Spanish ay, English eye |
| ei | Spanish/English ey (Sp. rey, Eng. hey) |
| oi | Spanish/English oy, (Sp. hoy, Eng. boy) |
| au | Spanish au, English ow |
| eu | Spanish eu |
| ia, ya | Spanish ia, English ya |
| ie, ye | Spanish ie, English ye |
| io, yo | Spanish io, yo, English yo |
| iu, yu | Spanish iu, English yu |
| wa, ua | Spanish ua, English wa |
| we, ue | Spanish ue, English we |
| wi, ui | Spanish ui (üi), English wi |
| wo | Spanish uo, English wo |
The vowel combinations above that begin with i are (according to all dictionaries and pronunciation guides) supposed to be distinctly pronounced. However, it is common among Calašan speakers to pronounce both vowels as a diphthong - i.e., ia begins to be pronounced the same as ya. At the end of words, ua, ue, ui are not pronounced as diphthongs but as separate vowels (ua = oo-uh).
There are four triphthongs in Calašan.
| wai, uai | English why? |
| wei, uei | English way |
| woi, uoi | Closest English equivalent: woy |
| wau, uau | English wow |
The large majority of Calašan consonants are very similar to those of English.
| b | As in English. |
| c | As in English: k sound before a, o, or u; s sound before e or i |
| č | Like English ch in church. |
| d | As in English. |
| f | As in English. |
| g | As in English go, never as in George. |
| h | As in English. |
| j | As in English judge or George. |
| k | As in English. |
| l | As in English. |
| m | As in English. |
| n | As in English. |
| p | As in English. |
| q | Like k. |
| r | As in American English (not British English). However, among the educated a Spanish r (I believe this is called an alveolar tap). NEVER use a French r. |
| s | As in English. |
| š | Like English sh. |
| t | As in English. |
| ts | As in English, but the t isn't silent when ts begins a word. |
| ť | As in English th. There is no distinction between the sounds in this and there. |
| v | As in English. |
| w | As in English. |
| x | As in English (ks), and never is used as the first letter in a word |
| y | As in English - but not as a vowel. |
| z | As in English. |
| ž | Like French j, or the s in pleasure. |
Stress typically falls on the second-to-last syllable (i.e. cevitso - seh-VEE-tsoh). If š, ž, č, or ť are in the word, the stress falls on that syllable. If more than one of the above letters (š, ž, č, or ť) is in the same word, stress falls on the syllable with the š. If there is no š, then it falls on the syllable with the ž, then č, then ť.