Latgalian phonology

This article is about the phonology of the Latgalian language.

Vowels

Monophthongs

Monophthong phonemes of Latgalian

	Front		Central		Back
	unrounded		unrounded		rounded
	short	long	short	long	short	long
Close	i	iː	(ɨ)		u	uː
Mid	ɛ	(ɛː)			ɔ	(ɔː)
Open	æ	æː	a	aː

• Phonologically, /ɨ/ is a back counterpart of /i/. As they occur in complementary distribution, they can be regarded as allophones of a single /i/ phoneme.
• Long /ɛː, ɔː/ are rare and occur only in interjections. The phonological long counterparts of the short /ɛ, ɔ/ are the diphthongs /iɛ, uɔ/.
• There are very few minimal pairs for the /ɛ–æ/ opposition. In some dialects, [æ] is simply an allophone of /ɛ/.
• /a, aː/ are phonetically central [ä, äː].

Diphthongs

Diphthong phonemes of Latgalian

	Ending point
	Front	Back
Close	iɛ (ui)	iu ɨu uɔ
Mid	ɛi (ɔi)	(ɔu)
Open	æi ai	au

• In contrast to other diphthongs, /iɛ, uɔ/ are monophonemic.
• /ui, ɔi/ occur only in some words.
• /iu, ɨu, ɛi, æi, ai, au/ are very common.
  • Some dialects merge /iu/ and /ɨu/ into [ɛu].
  • Some dialects merge /au/ and /ɔu/ into [ɔu].
• /ɔu/ occurs only in onomatopoeias and loanwords.

Consonants

Consonant phonemes of Latgalian

		Labial		Dental		Alveolar		Palatal		Velar
		hard	soft	hard	soft	hard	soft	hard	soft	hard	soft
Nasal		m	mʲ	n	nʲ
Stop	voiceless	p	pʲ	t	tʲ					k	kʲ
	voiced	b	bʲ	d	dʲ					ɡ	ɡʲ
Affricate	voiceless			t͡s	t͡sʲ	t͡ʃ	(t͡ʃʲ)
	voiced			d͡z	d͡zʲ	d͡ʒ	(d͡ʒʲ)
Fricative	voiceless	(f)	(fʲ)	s	sʲ	ʃ	(ʃʲ)			(x)
	voiced	v	vʲ	z	zʲ	ʒ	(ʒʲ)
Approximant				l	lʲ			j	(jʲ)	w	(wʲ)
Trill						r	(rʲ)

• /m, mʲ, p, pʲ, b, bʲ/ are bilabial, whereas /f, fʲ, v, vʲ/ are labiodental.
  • /f, fʲ/ occurs only in some loanwords, such as ortografeja 'orthography'. In other loanwords, it is replaced by /p/, as in kopejs 'coffee'.
  • /v, vʲ/ are traditionally classified as approximants [ʋ, ʋʲ] which phonetically may be fricatives [v, vʲ].
• /t͡ʃʲ, d͡ʒʲ, ʃʲ, ʒʲ/ occur only in some non-standard dialects, with the fricatives /ʃʲ, ʒʲ/ being more common than the affricates /t͡ʃʲ, d͡ʒʲ/.
• /x/ occurs only in some loanwords, such as tehnologeja 'technology'. In other loanwords, it is replaced by /k/, as in kokejs 'hockey'.
• /w, wʲ/ are labialized velar.
• The phonemic status of /wʲ/ and especially /jʲ/ is questionable.
• /rʲ/ occurs only in a minority of non-standard dialects.

Accent

Stress

The stress is most often on the first syllable.

Tonal accents

There are two phonemic tonal accents in Latgalian, which appear only on long syllables, i.e. those with a long vowel, a diphthong, or a sequence of a short vowel and a sonorant. These are falling (also called level) and broken (also called sharp). However, there are only a handful of minimal (or near-minimal) pairs, such as [rɛ̀itʲ] 'swallow' and [rɛ̂it] 'tomorrow', both written reit.

Phonetically, both of the tonal accents are falling; the falling accent is realized as an even decrease in intensity and pitch, whereas the broken accent is realized as a sudden decrease in intensity and pitch.

External links

• Latgalian phonology