Latgalian phonology
This article is about the phonology of the Latgalian language.
Vowels
Monophthongs
| 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.[2]
- Long /ɛː, ɔː/ are rare and occur only in interjections. The phonological long counterparts of the short /ɛ, ɔ/ are the diphthongs /iɛ, uɔ/.[1]
- There are very few minimal pairs for the /ɛ–æ/ opposition. In some dialects, [æ] is simply an allophone of /ɛ/.[3]
- /a, aː/ are phonetically central [ä, äː].[1]
Diphthongs
| 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.[2]
- /ui, ɔi/ occur only in some words.[3]
- /iu, ɨu, ɛi, æi, ai, au/ are very common.[5]
- /ɔu/ occurs only in onomatopoeias and loanwords.[6]
Consonants
| 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) | 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, v, vʲ/ are labiodental.
- /t͡ʃʲ, d͡ʒʲ, ʃʲ, ʒʲ/ occur only in some non-standard dialects, with the fricatives /ʃʲ, ʒʲ/ being more common than the affricates /t͡ʃʲ, d͡ʒʲ/.[6]
- /x/ occurs only in some loanwords, such as tehnologeja 'technology'. In other loanwords, it is replaced by /k/, as in kokejs 'hockey'.[8]
- /w, wʲ/ are labialized velar.[9]
- The phonemic status of /wʲ/ and especially /jʲ/ is questionable.[9]
- /rʲ/ occurs only in a minority of non-standard dialects.[6]
Accent
Stress
The stress is most often on the first syllable.[9]
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.[9]
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.[9]
References
- 1 2 3 Nau (2011), p. 9.
- 1 2 Nau (2011), pp. 9–10.
- 1 2 Nau (2011), p. 10.
- ↑ Nau (2011), pp. 9–11.
- ↑ Nau (2011), pp. 10–11.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Nau (2011), p. 11.
- ↑ Nau (2011), pp. 11–13.
- 1 2 3 Nau (2011), p. 12.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Nau (2011), p. 13.
Bibliography
- Nau, Nicole (2011), A short grammar of Latgalian, Munich: Lincom Europa, ISBN 978-3-86288-055-3
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