Appendix:Livonian pronunciation

A more detailed discussion with the relevant references in published literature can be found at :w:lv:Lībiešu valoda § Patskaņi (in the Latvian Wikipedia). Following is an outline of said discussion.

Terms "high" and "low" will be used instead of "close" and "open". Slashes /…/ will be used for a more general, phonemic representation, brackets […] for a more phonetic representation.

{{liv-p}} should be used for pronunciations unless there is some reason it cannot be used.

These notes apply primarily to the standard form of Livonian, which is based on the East Courland dialects.

Vowels

Vowels may be short or long; long vowels are marked with a macron. Unless otherwise specified, long vowels have the same quality as the corresponding short vowel.

• ⟨a⟩ is a low unrounded back vowel /ɑ/.
• ⟨ä⟩ is a low unrounded front vowel [a] ~ [æ] ~ [ä]. Considering the ambiguous nature of the symbol [a] it is conventionally given as /æ/.
• ⟨e⟩ is a mid unrounded front vowel [e̞] ~ [e]. For the sake of expediency it is usually given as /e/.
• ⟨i⟩ is a high unrounded front vowel [i] ~ [ɪ]. For the sake of expediency it is usually given as /i/.
• ⟨o⟩ according to Viitso is mid high rounded back [o], according to Moseley – mid rounded back [o̞]. It is usually given as /o/ in Livonian entries.
• Long ⟨ō⟩ is either a long version of the previously mentioned vowel – /oː/ or a low rounded back vowel /ɒː/ which is the result of historical rounding of an *ā, The latter is indicated (e.g. by {{R:liv:LEL}}) with an ogonek ⟨ǭ⟩ – mǭ for mō. This additional diacritical sign is not part of standard Livonian orthography but is indicated in IPA and the headword line.
• ⟨ȯ⟩ according to Viitso is a mid-high unrounded back vowel [ɤ], according to Moseley and Tuuli it is a mid unrounded back vowel [ɤ̞]. For the sake of expediency it is usually indicated as /ɤ/ in Livonian pronunciations.
• ⟨õ⟩ in a stressed (first) syllable is a high unrounded back vowel [ɯ] ~ [ɨ]. For the sake of expediency it is usually given as /ɯ/.
• ⟨õ⟩ in an unstressed syllable (other than the first) is a mid central vowel (schwa) – /ə/. This is sometimes spelled with ⟨ə⟩ in linguistic sources, but never in Livonian orthography. The schwa only occurs as a short vowel.
• ⟨u⟩ is a high rounded back vowel /u/.

Older Livonian also had ⟨ö⟩ /œ/ and ⟨ü⟩ /y/, but in modern Livonian, these have merged with other vowels - mostly ⟨e⟩ and ⟨i⟩, respectively.

All of these vowels may occur in stressed syllables, but in unstressed syllables, generally only the vowels ⟨a⟩, ⟨e⟩, ⟨i⟩, ⟨õ⟩ /ə/, ⟨ā⟩, ⟨ē⟩, ⟨ī⟩ and ⟨ū⟩ occur (in western Courland dialects, ⟨u⟩ as well), at least in native words or adapted borrowings.

Diphthongs and triphthongs

Livonian has a series of diphthongs and triphthongs. Diphthongs can be divided into falling diphthongs and rising diphthongs. All triphthongs are a combination of a falling and a rising diphthong, in that order.

The falling diphthongs are ⟨ie⟩, ⟨uo⟩, ⟨īe⟩ and ⟨ūo⟩. The first two are short and have a length equivalent to that of a short vowel/monophthong (possibly slightly longer in practice).

The rising diphthongs are:

• ⟨ei⟩, ⟨õi⟩, ⟨ȯi⟩, ⟨ai⟩, ⟨ui⟩, ⟨oi⟩
• ⟨ēi⟩, ⟨ȭi⟩, ⟨ȱi⟩, ⟨āi⟩, ⟨ūi⟩, ⟨ōi⟩ (⟨ǭi⟩)
• ⟨iu⟩, ⟨eu⟩, ⟨äu⟩, ⟨õu⟩, ⟨ou⟩
• ⟨īu⟩

The triphthongs are ⟨ieu⟩, ⟨uoi⟩ and ⟨ūoi⟩.

Tone

The broken tone is a characteristic feature of Livonian that has been interpreted in multiple different ways, including a rising-falling tone or falling tone (as opposed to a rising tone), pitch accent, glottalization and laryngealization. It is also sometimes called the stød in reference to the feature in Danish with which it is often compared. The broken tone is only distinguished in word-initial (or root-initial, i.e. including within words in compounds) syllables; such syllables without the broken tone have the so-called plain tone.

Livonian texts generally do not mark the broken tone, but an apostrophe ⟨’⟩ is used to mark it in reference works. When spelled, it is placed after the first vowel letter (except not within the short diphthongs ⟨ie⟩ and ⟨uo⟩; the apostrophe comes after them). The broken tone should be indicated in the headword line, e.g., {{head|liv|proper noun|head=Pū'ojme'r}} for Pūojmer. It should also be marked in {{liv-p}}, which takes the respelling in a format similar to the {{head}} template. {{liv-p}} currently marks the broken tone with the laryngealization diacritic /ˀ/.

Consonants

Livonian consonants (those whose IPA values are different from their orthographic value) should be transcribed thusly (see below for considerations):

• ⟨ḑ⟩ – /ɟ/
• ⟨h⟩ – /h/ (Viitso describes this non-native sound as voiceless velar fricative thus /x/, but Tuuli (2016) still calls it a "voiceless glottal fricative", i.e. /h/)
• ⟨ļ⟩ – /ʎ/
• ⟨n⟩ (before ⟨k⟩/⟨g⟩) – [ŋ]
• ⟨ņ⟩ – /ɲ/
• ⟨ŗ⟩ – /rʲ/
• ⟨š⟩ – /ʃ/
• ⟨ț⟩ – /c/
• ⟨ž⟩ – /ʒ/

As with many other languages, the usage of the terms 'palatal' and 'palatalized' in the pertaining literature is very ambiguous. Particularly in transcriptions that originate from Russia, it is not uncommon to see 'soft' Livonian consonants transcribed with /ʲ/ (e.g., /lʲ/ /nʲ/). However, 'soft' Livonian consonants are markedly phonemic (e.g., vel (“yet; more”) : veļ (“brother”)). The so-called assimilative palatalization (as it is called in Lithuanian) or the similar process in Russian and some varieties of Portuguese, among others, is not present in Livonian. Therefore, there might not necessarily be any practical difference in the quality between /lʲ/ and /ʎ/. Regardless, the former is very often used for some type of an assimilatory 'softening' and the latter for a strictly phonemic sound.

The character of ⟨ț⟩ and ⟨ḑ⟩ is even more ambiguous. They are often transcribed as /tʲ/ /dʲ/, even though to a Latvian speaker, they might sound identical to Latvian ⟨ķ⟩ and ⟨ģ⟩ (or Hungarian ⟨ty⟩ and ⟨gy⟩), and therefore be /c/ /ɟ/. Šuvcāne and Ernštreite in their book {{R:liv:LPB}} simply remark that ⟨ț⟩ and ⟨ḑ⟩ are identical to Latvian ⟨ķ⟩ and ⟨ģ⟩, respectively. This is perhaps one of the only instances where these Livonian sounds are expressly compared to an equivalent in another language, and thus they should be transcribed as /c/ /ɟ/.

The only 'soft' consonant where this ambiguity is not a concern is ⟨ŗ⟩. It is believed that a palatal rhotic is a sound that is impossible to produce, and it does not have its own discrete IPA symbol. Therefore, in both Latvian and Livonian, it is transcribed as a palatalized ⟨r⟩ – /rʲ/.