xvi PHONETICS In addition to the above digraphs, the following diphthongal combina- tions occur: ai asin daijai, aitai. Equivalent to a+i. Cf. English fine, au as in fauta, maurs, Equivalent to a+u. There is no counterpart in English. Cf. German Haus. ei asin meita, pukei. Equivalent to “closed e” +4, There is no counterpart in English, the ay of day having a somewhat more open first element. eu asin pseudo-, pnewmatisks. Equivalent to “closed e”+u. There is no counterpart in English. CF. however the initial diphthong of Italian Europa. The spelling eu occurs only in words of foreign origin, in which both spelling and pronuncia- tion now widely appear as ei: cf. pseido-, pneimatisks, In words like seo and tee, the final v is sometimes vocalized, thus creating a native ew diphthong. ju as in Sooukst0r, pluksker, Equivalent to i-+u. There is no counterpart in English of as in Oidips, bikors. Equivalent to 0 (3)+1. Similar to the oy of English oy. It occurs only in words of foreign origin. ui as in muita, puika. Equivalent to ui. There is no counterpart in English, Cf. German pf. Other combinations of vowels occur, both in native words and foreign borrow- ings, cf. for native words paeglis, paost,neass, et., and for foreign words kakao oa, neons, radio, ete, but these are bi-syllabi ‘The correlation between sound and symbol in Latvian is quite high. Thus in general Latvian words are spelt as they sound, and vice versa. In spite of obvious difficulties over e and o, there is a basic regularity in the orthographic system. A number of departures from this relatively systematic correlation, however, need to be noted. 1. ASSIMILATION (a) in sonority ‘A voiced consonant, other than a sonant or a liquid, immediately preceding 1 voiceless consonant is normally devoiced. Thus 6, d, gz, 2 represent respec- tively (p), (9, (©, (), (@ in labs, bads, zrgs, aiztrenkt, meds. ‘A voiceless consonant immediately preceding a voiced consonant other than a sonant ora liquid is normally voiced. Thus ¢,k,p,s, 5, represent respectively (42), @. (©), (@, @, (@) in pleegade, nakedams, kdpdams, pusdivos, tetdtena, ardet. PHONETICS xxuK (b) in point of articulation ‘The dental nasal n occurs as a velar nasal before the velar plosives k and g. Thus in banka, banga, etc. the sound heard is that of the ng of English sing, followed by the k or g. Before J or 6, is often assimilated to §; thus: _puséetris often pronounced (puséetri) visSaurakais is often pronounced (vissaurakais). Before ¥ or df, zis often assimilated to 2; thus: ‘fat is often pronounced (i22ut) aizdtinksti1 is often pronounced (aiéazinksté). [At the end of a word the combination -is becomes (55) and reduces to (8); thus: dross is pronounced (4108). (2) in Both sonority and point of articulation ‘A combination of (a) and (b) above explains such cases as uckit pronounced (usS6t) ‘meis pronounced (mes). 2. VOWEL HARMONY Apart from the general (and rather misleading) statement that eis pronounced closed when followed in the next syllable by a closed front vowel or diphthong, 4 palatalized consonant or j, and is otherwise pronounced open, a rather complex formulation is required to predict the occurrence of open and closed e. For basic guidance, however, see Lesson 109. These rules do not extend to bez, ne, etc, used as prefixes, where the quality of e does not normally vary from the closed pronunciation heard when these words are independently used. Ne, however, when prefixed to a word beginning with open e or open & Will itself usually be pronounced with open e; thus: rnegsmu is often pronounced (nggsmu) negrtsis often pronounced (ng§rts). 3. YOCALIZATION In word final position, or de facto word final position after loss ofa final vowel (Gee section 4, Weakening), or immediately before final s, o preceded by a short ‘owe is commonly vocalized to u; thus: