Votic phonology

## Vowels

Votic has 10 vowel qualities, all of which can be long or short; represented in the following chart. The Votic ⟨õ⟩ /ɤ/ , however, is impressionistically a bit higher than the Estonian ⟨õ⟩, with the rest of the vowel inventory generally corresponding to the ones found in Estonian.

In some central dialects, the long mid vowels /eː oː øː/ have been diphthongized to /ie uo yø/, as in Finnish. Thus, *tee* 'road' is pronounced as *tie*. Votic also has a large inventory of diphthongs.

Votic has a system of vowel harmony, rather similar to Finnish in its overall behavior: the vowels are divided in three groups, *front-harmonic*, *back-harmonic* and *neutral*. Words may generally not contain both front-harmonic and back-harmonic vowels; but both groups can combine with neutral vowels. The front-harmonic vowels are *ä e ö ü*; the corresponding back-harmonic vowels are *a õ o u*. Unlike Finnish, Votic only has a single neutral vowel, *i*.

However, there are some exceptions with the behavior of *o ö*. Some suffixes including the vowel *o* do not harmonize (the occurrence of *ö* in non-initial syllables is generally a result of Finnish or Ingrian loan words), and similarly onomatopoetic words and loanwords are not necessarily subject to rules of vowel harmony.

## Consonants

Notes:

* /dʒ/ occurs only in eastern Votic, as a weak-grade counterpart to /tʃ/.
* Palatalised consonants are rare and normally allophonic, occurring automatically before /i/ or before a consonant that in turn is followed by /i/. Phonemic palatalised consonants occur mostly as the result of a former following /j/, usually as geminates. In other environments they are almost entirely found in loanwords, primarily from Russian. In some words in certain dialects, a palatalised consonant may become phonemic by the loss of the following vowel, such as *esimein* > *eśmein*.
* /tʲ/ is affricated to [tsʲ] in Kukkuzi Votic.
* /ʎ/ only occurs in complementary distribution with /l/.
* /x/ mainly as a result of loanwords from Russian, Ingrian, and Finnish dialects, or as an allophone of /h/.

Nearly all Votic consonants may occur as geminates. Also, Votic also has a system of consonant gradation, which is discussed in further detail in the consonant gradation article, although a large amount of alternations involve voicing alternations. Two important differences in Votic phonetics as compared to Estonian and Finnish is that the sounds /ʝ/ and /v/ are actually fully fricatives, unlike Estonian and Finnish, in which they are approximants. Also, one possible allophone of /h/ is [ɸ], *ühsi* is thus pronounced as IPA: [yɸsi].

The lateral /l/ has a velarized allophone [ɫ] when occurring adjacent to back vowels.

Voicing is not contrastive word-finally. Instead a type of sandhi occurs: voiceless [p t k s] are realized before words beginning with a voiceless consonant, voiced [b d ɡ z] before voiced consonants (or vowels). Before a pause, the realization is voiceless lenis, [b̥ d̥ ɡ̊ z̥]; the stops are here similar to the Estonian *b d g*. Thus:

* pre-pausal: [vɑrɡɑz̥] "thief"
* before a voiceless consonant: [vɑrɡɑs‿t̪uɤb̥] "a thief comes"
* before a voiced consonant: [vɑrɡɑz‿vɤt̪ɑb̥] "a thief takes"