This article is about the

phonology Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...

of the

Latvian language Latvian ( ), also known as Lettish, is an Eastern Baltic language belonging to the Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family, spoken in the Baltic region. It is the language of Latvians and the official language of Latvia as well ...

. It deals with synchronic phonology as well as phonetics.

Consonants

Table adopted from * are denti-alveolar, while are alveolar. * The consonant sounds are only found in loanwords. * is only an allophone of nasals before velars and . * Latvian plosives are not aspirated (unlike in English). * Voiced and unvoiced consonants assimilate to the subsequent consonant, e.g. or . At the same time single voiced consonants (, , , etc.) are not devoiced word-finally: , . * Doubled consonants are pronounced longer: . The same occurs with plosives and fricatives located between two short vowels, as in , and with that is pronounced as , and and as . * A palatalized dental trill is still used in some dialects (mainly outside Latvia) but quite rarely, and hence the corresponding letter was removed from the alphabet.

Vowels

Latvian has six vowels, with length as distinctive feature: , and the diphthongs involving it other than , 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, means 'made of wood', means 'on the tree'; means 'a drop', and means 'a duck'. Latvian also has 10 diphthongs (), although some diphthongs are mostly limited to proper names and interjections.

Pitch accent

Standard Latvian and, with a few minor exceptions, all of the Latvian dialects, have fixed initial stress. 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 () : high throughout the syllable : e.g., ('spring onion') ; falling tone () : brief rise followed by a long fall : e.g., ('arch') (pronounced ''lùoks'') ; broken tone (''lauztā intonācija'') : rising tone followed by falling tone with interruption in the middle or some creakiness in the voice : e.g., ('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 , , correspond to Western Latvian , , , and to Eastern Latvian , , . This system is phonetically more or less similar to the ones found in Lithuanian,

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

and

Serbo-Croatian Serbo-Croatian () – also called Serbo-Croat (), Serbo-Croat-Bosnian (SCB), Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BCS), and Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS) – is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia an ...

. The broken tone has some similarity to the

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...

stød.

Alternations

Latvian roots may alternate between and depending on whether the following segment is a vowel or a consonant. For example, the root ('

Daugava River , be, Заходняя Дзвіна (), liv, Vēna, et, Väina, german: Düna , image = Fluss-lv-Düna.png , image_caption = The drainage basin of the Daugava , source1_location = Valdai Hills, Russia , mouth_location = Gulf of Riga, Baltic S ...

') in the nominative case is , but is pronounced in the city name . In this example, the vocalic alternant is realized as the off-glide of the diphthong . However, when following a vowel that does not form an attested Latvian diphthong (for example, ), is pronounced as a monophthong, as in ('fish-NOM.SG.'; cf. 'fish-NOM.PL.').

Notes

References

* * {{Authority control Latvian language Baltic phonologies