# Latgalian phonology

Latgalian language is considered a Latvian language dialect by the Latvian government, others argue that it is an independent language.

## Vowels

Vowel phonemes of Latgalian :
| | Front | Front | Central | Central | Back | 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 | iɛ uɔ | iɛ uɔ | iɛ uɔ | iɛ uɔ | iɛ uɔ |
* [ɨ] occurs in complementary distribution with [i], so that they can be regarded as allophones of a single /i/ phoneme.
* Long /ɛː, ɔː/ are rare and occur only in interjections. The phonological long counterparts of the short /ɛ, ɔ/ are the diphthongs /iɛ, uɔ/.
* There are very few minimal pairs for the /ɛ–æ/ opposition. In some dialects, [æ] is simply an allophone of /ɛ/.
* /a, aː/ are phonetically central [ä, äː].
* Apart from [iɛ] and [uɔ], there are also vowel+glide sequences [ɛɪ̯, æɪ̯, aɪ̯, iu̯, ɨu̯, au̯], which are very common. Rarer sequences include [uɪ̯], [ɔɪ̯] and [ɔu̯], with the last one occurring only in onomatopoeias and loanwords. Phonemically, they are all sequences of two phonemes, rather than proper diphthongs. In some dialects, [iu̯] and [ɨu̯] fall together as [ɛu̯]. [au̯] can also merge with [ɔu̯] as [ɔu̯].

## Consonants

Consonant phonemes of Latgalian :
| | | Labial | Labial | Dental/ Alveolar | Dental/ Alveolar | Postalveolar/ Palatal | Postalveolar/ Palatal | Velar | Velar |
| | | hard | soft | hard | soft | hard | soft | hard | soft |
| Nasal | Nasal | m | mʲ | n | nʲ | | | | |
| Stop | voiceless | p | pʲ | t | tʲ | | | k | kʲ |
| Stop | voiced | b | bʲ | d | dʲ | | | ɡ | ɡʲ |
| Affricate | voiceless | | | t͡s | t͡sʲ | t͡ʃ | (t͡ɕ) | | |
| Affricate | voiced | | | d͡z | d͡zʲ | d͡ʒ | (d͡ʑ) | | |
| Fricative | voiceless | (f) | | s | sʲ | ʃ | (ɕ) | (x) | |
| Fricative | voiced | v | vʲ | z | zʲ | ʒ | (ʑ) | | |
| Approximant | Approximant | v | vʲ | l | lʲ | ɪ̯ | (i̯) | ʊ̯ | (u̯) |
| Trill | Trill | | | r | (rʲ) | | | | |
* ↑ /m, mʲ, p, pʲ, b, bʲ/ are bilabial, whereas /f, v, vʲ/ are labiodental.
* ↑ The alveolo-palatals occur only in some non-standard dialects, with the fricatives /ɕ, ʑ/ being more common than the affricates /t͡ɕ, d͡ʑ/.
* ↑ /f/ occurs only in some loanwords, such as ortografeja transl. orthography. In other loanwords, it is replaced by /p/, as in kopejs transl. coffee.
* ↑ /x/ occurs only in some loanwords, such as tehnologeja transl. technology. In other loanwords, it is replaced by /k/, as in kokejs transl. hockey.
* 1 2 /v, vʲ/ are traditionally classified as approximants [ʋ, ʋʲ] which phonetically may be fricatives [v, vʲ].
* 1 2 For the approximants /ɪ̯/ and /ʊ̯/ the contrast between their hard and soft versions is phonetically realized as a contrast between retraction and advancement. The "soft" counterparts of /ɪ̯/ and /ʊ̯/ are /i̯/ and /u̯/. Brejdak (2006, p. 198-199) considers those to have phonemic status and argues that the contrast between them and the plain /ɪ̯/ and /ʊ̯/ corresponds to the soft/hard contrast. However, Nau (2011, p. 13) considers the phonemic status of /u̯/ and especially /i̯/ (which he transcribes with a non-IPA symbol ⟨jʲ⟩) as questionable. If the difference is considered to be allophonic, the resulting single palatal approximant can be transcribed with ⟨j⟩ and the corresponding labio-velar with ⟨w⟩. In this article, the difference is assumed to be phonemic.
* 1 2 /ʊ̯, u̯/ are labial-velar.

## Accent
### Stress

The stress is most often on the first syllable.

### 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 [rɛ̀ɪ̯tʲ] 'swallow' and [rɛ̂ɪ̯t] 'tomorrow', both written reit.
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.