Proto-Finnic/Phonology

Consonants Labial Dental/Alveolar Palatal Velar Nasals /m/⟨m⟩ /n/⟨n⟩ Plosives Voiceless /p/⟨p⟩ /t/⟨t⟩ /k/⟨k⟩ Voiced /b/⟨b⟩ /d/⟨d⟩ /ɡ/⟨g⟩ Affricate /t͡s/⟨c⟩ Fricatives /s/⟨s⟩ /x/⟨h⟩ Trill /r/⟨r⟩ Approximant /ʋ/⟨v⟩ /j/⟨j⟩ 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 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 thumb|Southern Proto-Finnic vowel harmony as reconstructed on this page is extremely similar to Votic. 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. {| class="wikitable" ! 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