Livonian, like Estonian, has lost vowel harmony, but unlike Estonian, it has also lost consonant gradation.
Vowels[]
Livonian has 8 vowels (2 vowels, marked in parentheses, were present in earlier generations but merged with other vowels in later generations; These were present as late as 1997):
| Front | Central | Back | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| unrounded | rounded | unrounded | rounded | unrounded | rounded | |
| Close | i /i/ | y /y/ | õ /ɨ/ | u /u/ | ||
| Near-close | ė /ɪ/ | ë /ɘ/ | ø /ɵ/ | ȯ /ʊ/ | ||
| Mid | ê /e/ | [ə]1 | ǒ /ɤ/ | o /o/ | ||
| Open-mid | e /ɛ/ | ö /œ/ | è /ɜ/ | ò /ɞ/ | ʌ /ʌ/ | ɔ /ɔ/ |
| Open | ä /æ/ | â /a/ | à /ɶ/ | a /ɑ/ | ɐ /ɒ/ | |
- Unstressed /ɨ/ is realized as [ə].
All vowels can be long or short. Short vowels are written as indicated in the table; long vowels are written with an additional macron ("ˉ") over the letter, so, for example, [æː] = ǟ. The Livonian vowel system is notable for having a stød similar to Danish. As in other languages with this feature, it is thought to be a vestige of an earlier pitch accent.
Livonian has also a large number of diphthongs, as well as a number of triphthongs. These can also occur short or long.
The two opening diphthongs /ie/ and /uo/ vary in their stress placement depending on length: short ie, uo are realized as rising [i̯e], [u̯o], while long īe, ūo are realized as falling [iˑe̯], [uˑo̯]. The same applies to the triphthongs uoi : ūoi.
Consonants[]
Livonian has 23 consonants:
| Labial | Dental | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m /m/ | n /n/ | ņ /ɲ/ | ŋ /ŋ/ | |||
| Plosive | voiceless | p /p/ | t /t̪/ | ț /c/ | k /k/ | q /ʔ/ | |
| voiced | b /b/ | d /d̪/ | ḑ /ɟ/ | g /ɡ/ | |||
| Fricative | central | voiceless | f /f/ | s /s/ | š /ʃ/ | x /x/ | h /h/ |
| voiced | v /v/ | z /z/ | ž /ʒ/ | ɣ /ɣ/ | ħ /ɦ/ | ||
| lateral | voiceless | ʃ /ɬ/ | |||||
| voiced | ʒ /ɮ/ | ||||||
| Trill | ř /ʙ/ | r /r/ | ŗ /rʲ/ | ||||
| Flap | c /ɺ/ | ||||||
| Approximant | central | ŵ /ʋ/ | ż /ɹ/ | j /j/ | w /ɰ/ | ||
| lateral | l /l/ | ļ /ʎ/ | ł /ʟ/ | ||||
/n/ becomes [ŋ] preceding /k/ or /ɡ/.