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

Consonants [ edit ]

Table adopted from Nau (1998 :6)

• /n t d t?s d?z 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 /?/ .
• Latvian plosives are not aspirated (unlike in English).
• Voiced and unvoiced consonants assimilate to the subsequent consonant , e.g. a p gabals [?a b ?abals] or la b s [?la p s] . At the same time single voiced consonants ( d , z , g , dz etc.) are not devoiced word-finally : dzied [?d?zie?d] , dedz [dæd?z] .
• Doubled consonants are pronounced longer: mamma [?mamːa] . The same occurs with plosives and fricatives located between two short vowels, as in upe [?upːe] , and with zs that is pronounced as /sː/ , and ?s and ?s as /?ː/ .
• A palatalized dental trill /r?/ is still used in some dialects (mainly outside Latvia) but quite rarely, and hence the corresponding letter ⟨? ?⟩ was removed from the alphabet.

Vowels [ edit ]

Latvian has six vowels, with length as distinctive feature:

/? ?ː/ , and the diphthongs involving it other than /u?/ , 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 [?ku?ka] means 'made of wood', kok? [?ku?kaː] means 'on the tree'; pile [?pile] means 'a drop', and p?le [?piːle] means 'a duck'.

Latvian also has 10 diphthongs ( /ai ui ?i au i? u? iu (?i) ?u (?u)/ ), although some diphthongs are mostly limited to proper names and interjections.

Pitch accent [ edit ]

Standard Latvian and, with a few minor exceptions, all of the Latvian dialects, have fixed initial stress. ^[1] Long vowels and diphthongs have a tone, regardless of their position in the word. This includes the so-called "mixed diphthongs", composed of a short vowel followed by a sonorant . There are three types of tones:

level (also drawling, sustained) tone ( stiept? inton?cija )

high throughout the syllable

e.g., loks [l???ks] ('spring onion')

falling tone ( kr?to?? inton?cija )

brief rise followed by a long fall

e.g., loks [lu??ks] ('arch') (pronounced luoks )

broken tone ( lauzt? inton?cija )

rising tone followed by falling tone with interruption in the middle or some creakiness in the voice

e.g., logs [lu??ks] ('window')

Besides the three-tone system of the standard variety, there are also Latvian dialects with only two tones: in western parts of Latvia , the falling tone has merged with the broken tone, while in eastern parts of Latvia the level tone has merged with the falling tone. Hence, the Central Latvian tra?ks , draugs , raugs correspond to Western Latvian tra?ks , draugs , raugs , and to Eastern Latvian trauks , draugs , raugs . ^[2]

This system is phonetically more or less similar to the ones found in Lithuanian , Swedish , Norwegian and Serbo-Croatian . The broken tone has some similarity to the Danish stød .

Alternations [ edit ]

Latvian roots may alternate between [v] and [u] depending on whether the following segment is a vowel or a consonant. For example, the root Dauga v - (' Daugava River ') in the nominative case is [dau?a v ?] , but is pronounced [dau?a u pils] in the city name Daugavpils . In this example, the vocalic alternant [u] is realized as the off-glide of the diphthong /au/ . However, when following a vowel that does not form an attested Latvian diphthong (for example, [iu] ), [u] is pronounced as a monophthong, as in [zi u s] ('fish- NOM.SG. '; cf. [zi v is] 'fish- NOM.PL. ').

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]