Latgalian language is considered a Latvian language dialect by the Latvian government, others argue that it is an independent language.
| Front | Central | Back | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| short | long | short | long | short | long | |
| Close | i ⟨i⟩ | iː ⟨ī⟩ | ( ɨ ) ⟨y⟩ | u ⟨u⟩ | uː ⟨ū⟩ | |
| Mid | ɛ ⟨e⟩ | ( ɛː ) ⟨ē⟩ | ɔ ⟨o⟩ | ( ɔː ) ⟨ō⟩ | ||
| Open | æ ⟨e⟩ | æː ⟨ē⟩ | a ⟨a⟩ | aː ⟨ā⟩ | ||
| Diphthongs | iɛ uɔ | |||||
| Labial [a] | Dental/ Alveolar | Postalveolar/ Palatal | Velar | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| hard | soft | hard | soft | hard | soft [b] | 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 | ( t͡ɕ ) | ||||
| voiced | d͡z | d͡zʲ | d͡ʒ | ( d͡ʑ ) | |||||
| Fricative | voiceless | ( f ) [c] | s | sʲ | ʃ | ( ɕ ) | ( x ) [d] | ||
| voiced | v [e] | vʲ [e] | z | zʲ | ʒ | ( ʑ ) | |||
| Approximant | l | lʲ | ɪ̯ | (i̯) [f] | ʊ̯ [g] | (u̯) [g] [f] | |||
| Trill | r | (rʲ) | |||||||
The stress is most often on the first syllable. [9]
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 [rɛ̀ɪ̯tʲ] 'swallow' and [rɛ̂ɪ̯t] '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]
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