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Estonian (Standard)

Phylum: Uralic

Genus: Finnic

Lat/lon: 59.4, 24.7

ISO code: ekk

Consonants

Basic short series

bilabiallabio-dentaldentalalveolarpostalveolarpalatalvelarglottal
stoppk
trillr
fricativefʃh
nasalmn
approximantʋj
lateral approximantl

Short palatalised series

alveolar
stop
fricative
nasal
lateral approximant

Vowels

Basic short series

frontback
closei, yu
close-mide, øo, ɤ
near-openæ
openɑ

Licit syllabic templates

(C)(C)V(V)(C)(C)(C)

Source: Hebedová, Petra. 2013. Stručná gramatika estonštiny. Masarykova univerzita, Brno.

Comments: Initial clusters are resticted to borrowings and onomatopoeia. /ʃ/ and /f/ are only found in borrowings. Palatalization is stronger in the initial part of the consonants. Half-long, long and overlong vowels and consonants might be treated either as biphonemic sequences or prosodically depending on the analysis.

Contributed by: André Nikulin (andre.n.guzman@gmail.com)