Estonian phonology

This article is about the phonology and phonetics of the Estonian language. There are 9 vowels and 36 diphthongs, 28 of which are native to Estonian. All nine vowels can appear as the first component of a diphthong, but only /ɑ, e, i, o, u/ occur as the second component. A vowel characteristic of Estonian is the unrounded back vowel /ɤ/, which may be close-mid back, close back, or close-mid central. Vowels /ɑ, e, i, u/ can occur in both initial and non-initial syllables. Vowels /o, ɤ, æ, ø, y/ generally occur in initial syllables; they can occur in non-initial syllables only in compound words, exclamations, proper names and unnaturalized loanwords. The front vowels /æ, ø, y/ are phonetically near-front [æ, ø, y]. Before and after /j/, the back vowels /ɑ, u/ can be fronted to [ɑ̽, u̟]. The unrounded vowel transcribed /ɤ/ can be realized as close back ɯ, close-mid central ɘ or close-mid back ɤ, depending on the speaker. The mid vowels /e, o, ø/ are phonetically close-mid [e, o, ø]. Word-final /e/ is often realized as mid e̞. The open vowels [ɑ, æ] are phonetically near-open [ɑ, æ]. There are very few instances of vowel allophony; for instance, the long /y/ is pronounced as the diphthong [yi] before [j]. Simple vowels can be inherently short or long, written with single and double vowel letters respectively. Diphthongs are always inherently long. Furthermore, long vowels and diphthongs have two suprasegmental lengths. This is described further below. /m, p, pː/ are bilabial, whereas /v, f, fː/ are labiodental. The fricatives /f, ʃ/ appear only in loanwords. Some speakers merge /ʃ/ with /s/ to s. /n/ is realized as velar ŋ before a velar consonant (e.g. panga /pɑnkɑ/ [pɑŋɡ̊ɑ] 'bank [gen.sg.]'). /k, kː/ are velar, whereas /j/ is palatal. When it appears between non-high vowels, the intervocalic /j/ can be realized as a non-syllabic close-mid front unrounded vowel [e̯]. The stops are voiceless unaspirated, but the short versions may be partially [p̬, t̬, t̬j, k̬] or fully [b, d, dj, ɡ] voiced when they appear before or between vowels.