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The phonological inventories of the world’s languages are diverse because each language uses different functional sounds for communication. A significant group within these phonological inventories consists of complex consonants, as defined by Sagey (1986), which are found in some indigenous Peruvian languages, but not in all. These consonants are not commonly found in the phonological inventories of the world’s languages. Therefore, the objective of this study is to describe the distribution of complex consonants in Peruvian languages, considering secondary articulation (labialized, palatalized, and labiopalatalized) and primary articulation (mode, place, and voicing). This study is quantitative in nature and has a descriptive and comparative scope; the data were obtained from the SAPhon database (Lev et al., 2024). Twenty-four Peruvian languages with complex consonants were identified, comprising seventeen different types. The Arabela and Bora languages have the highest number of complex consonants, while the Arawak and Záparo language families have the most languages with these sounds. The consonants /kʷ/ and /tʲ/ were the most common in inventories. Regarding secondary articulation, palatalized consonants were more frequent, whereas, about primary articulation, plosives, bilabials, and voiceless consonants predominate.
