# Proto-Finnic/Phonology
## Consonants

| | | Labial | Dental/Alveolar | Palatal | Velar |
| Nasals | Nasals | /m/ ⟨m⟩ | /n/ ⟨n⟩ | | |
| Plosives | Voiceless | /p/ ⟨p⟩ | /t/ ⟨t⟩ | | /k/ ⟨k⟩ |
| Plosives | Voiced | /b/ ⟨b⟩ | /d/ ⟨d⟩ | | /ɡ/ ⟨g⟩ |
| Affricate | Affricate | | /t͡s/ ⟨c⟩ | | |
| Fricatives | Fricatives | | /s/ ⟨s⟩ | | /x/ ⟨h⟩ |
| Trill | Trill | | /r/ ⟨r⟩ | | |
| Approximant | Approximant | /ʋ/ ⟨v⟩ | | /j/ ⟨j⟩ | |
| Lateral | Lateral | | /l/ ⟨l⟩ | | |
All consonants except /b, d, ɡ, h, j, ʋ/, can be geminated. The geminated obstruents *cc, *kk, *pp, and *tt are subject to consonant gradation into half-long obstruents *c', *k', *p', and *t', respectively (see more at § Morphophonology). The voiced plosives are pronounced as fricatives [β, ð, ɣ] when following vowels and /l, r/, although the voiced plosives only fully merged with fricatives as suggested by assimilation into nasals in some languages ([mb, nd, ŋɡ] → [mβ, nð, ŋɣ] → Finnish mm, nn, ng /mː, nː, ŋː/). It is important to note that Estonian lacks phonemic /ŋ/, so the allophony are still preserved in some dialects.

## Vowels

| | Front | Front | Back | Back |
| | Unrounded | Rounded | Unrounded | Rounded |
| Close | /i/, /iː/ ⟨i⟩, ⟨ii⟩ | /y/, /yː/ ⟨ü⟩, ⟨üü⟩ | | /u/, /uː/ ⟨u⟩, ⟨uu⟩ |
| Mid | /e/, /eː/ ⟨e⟩, ⟨ee⟩ | /ø/, /øː/ ⟨ö⟩, ⟨öö⟩ | (/ɤ/, /ɤː/) (⟨ë⟩, ⟨ëë⟩) | /o/, /oː/ ⟨o⟩, ⟨oo⟩ |
| Open | /æ/, /æː/ ⟨ä⟩, ⟨ää⟩ | | /ɑ/, /ɑː/ ⟨a⟩, ⟨aa⟩ | |
There are also phonemes /ɤ/, /ɤː/ (written as ⟨ë⟩, ⟨ëë⟩ in Proto-Finnic contexts) in Southern Finnic, usually results from rounding of *e in back harmony words (*velka → *vëlka → Estonian *võlg), but also from other sporadic changes such as Southern Proto-Finnic *sëna : Northern Proto-Finnic *sana, SPF *hëbëda : NPF *hobeda, and SPF *mëistadak : NPF *muistadak. Because of this, some preferred to reconstruct words with *ë, at least dialectally (Southern Proto-Finnic).

## Morphophonology
### Vowel harmony

Vowel harmony is a feature occurring in many Finnic languages, notable exceptions include (North) Estonian and Livonian. Proto-Finnic morphologically distinguished back vowels *a, *ë (in some dialects), *u, front vowels *ä, *e, *ö, *ü, and neutral vowels *i, *o. The vowel ö is always followed by front vowels, but o usually followed by back and neutral vowels, but can be preceded by all vowels.

### Consonant gradation

Consonant gradation is a feature occurring in almost all Finnic languages, except Livonian, Ludic, and Veps. There are originally two types of consonant gradation:
* Radical gradation: Occurring in non-initial closed syllables. This causes strong grade consonants become weak.
| Strong grade | Weak grade |
| *cc | *c' |
| *k | *g |
| *kk | *k' |
| *p | *b |
| *pp | *p' |
| *t | *d |
| *tt | *t' |
Radical gradation is restricted after vowels, sonorants (*l, *m, *n, *r), and homorganic stops, although it later extended to *h, *k albeit inconsistently. Gradated syllables also influenced preceding syllable's long vowel (*kee·li : *kee·len → *keeeli : *keelen → keel : keele /ˈkeːːl : ˈkeːle/ "tongue") in Estonian.
Note that *s → *h gradation is sporadic; and it largely occurs in s-stem nouns (nominative *pensas → genitive *pensahen "brush"), illative *-sen ~ *-hen, connegative past *-(t)tisen ~ *-(t)tihen. It also occurred on the irregular noun *mees → genitive *meehen "man" (but maa → illative *maasen) All of the former examples are subject to suffixal gradation.
* Suffixal gradation: Occurring in non-initial odd-numbered syllables. It is now less productive than radical gradation in modern languages, although it leaves some remnants such as the Finnish partitive suffix -ta changes -a after short vowels, otherwise -ta.
| Strong grade | Weak grade |
| *k | *g |
| *p | *b |
| *t | *d |
Suffixal gradation is restricted into intervocalic positions.

#### Examples

| | "tree" | "hut" | "cover" | "blind" |
| Nominative | *puu | *ko·ta | *jä·t'ek | *so·ke·da |
| Genitive | *puun | *ko·dan | *jä·tte·gen | *so·ke·dan |
| Partitive | *puu·ta | *ko·ta·da | *jä·t'ek·tä | *so·ke·da·ta |
| Illative | *puu·sen | *ko·ta·hen | *jä·tte·ge·sen | *so·ke·da·sen |
| Inessive | *puus·sa | *ko·das·sa | *jä·tte·ges·sä | *so·ke·das·sa |