Latvian phonology

This article is about the phonology of the Latvian language. It deals with synchronic phonology as well as phonetics.

Consonants

		Labial		Dental/Alveolar		Post-alveolarPalatal		Velar
Nasal			m		n		ɲ		[ŋ]
Stop		p	b	t	d	c	ɟ	k	ɡ
Affricate				t͡s	d͡z	t͡ʃ	d͡ʒ
Fricative		(f)	v	s	z	ʃ	ʒ	(x)
Approximant	central						j
	lateral				l		ʎ
Trill					r

/n t d t͡s d͡z s z/ are denti-alveolar, while /l r/ are alveolar. The consonant sounds /f x/ are only found in loanwords. [ŋ] is only an allophone of nasals before velars /k/ and /ɡ/. Latvian plosives are not aspirated (unlike in English).

Voiced and unvoiced consonants assimilate to the next-standing consonant, e.g. apgabals [ˈabɡabals] or labs [ˈlaps]. At the same time single voiced consonants (d, z, g, dz etc.) are not devoiced word-finally: dzied [ˈdzie̯d], dedz [dæd͡z].

Doubled consonants are pronounced longer: mamma [ˈmamːa]. The same occurs with plosives and fricatives located between two short vowels, as in upe [ˈupːe], and with zs that is pronounced as /sː/, and šs and žs as /ʃː/.

A palatalized dental trill /rʲ/ is still used in some dialects (mainly outside Latvia) but quite rarely, and hence the corresponding letter ⟨Ŗ ŗ⟩ was removed from the alphabet.

Vowels

Latvian has six vowels, with length as distinctive feature:

Latvian vowels

	Front		Central		Back
	short	long	short	long	short	long
Close	i	iː			u	uː
Mid	e	eː			(ɔ)	(ɔː)
Open	æ	æː	a	aː

/ɔ ɔː/, and the diphthongs involving it other than /uɔ/, are confined to loanwords.

The vowel length ratio is about 1:2.5. Vowel length is phonemic and plays an important role in the language. For example, koka [ˈkuɔka] means 'made of wood', kokā [ˈkuɔkaː] means 'on the tree'; pile [ˈpile] means 'a drop', and pīle [ˈpiːle] means 'a duck'.

Latvian also has 10 diphthongs (/ai ui ɛi au iɛ uɔ iu (ɔi) ɛu (ɔu)/), although some diphthongs are mostly limited to proper names and interjections.

External links

• Latvian phonology