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There are 8 vowels in Vepsian: a, o, u, i, ü, e, ö and ä;
U - diphthongs:
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au (kauh, vauged, launda); |
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ou (koume, poud); |
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äu (täuz', näukta); |
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öu (pöud, röun, löuta); |
I - diphthongs:
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ai (air, sai, päivitai); |
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ei (vei, hein, leikata); |
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oi (oiged, toi, tatoi); |
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ui (uinotada, huiged, sanui); |
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äi (äi, läip, eläi); |
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öi (söi, möi); |
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üi (püil, lühüid); |
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ii (tegii, lugii); |
Words can not be hyphenated so that a hyphen is put between two vowels of a diphthong. (IMPOSSIBLE: hu-iged, lühü-id etc.)
Consonants in Vepsian can be soft (palatalized), or hard (unpalatalized), voiceless or voiced.
Here is the complete list of possible consonants:
hard: p, b, t, d, k, g, f, v, s, š, z, ž, c, h, m, n, l, r;
soft: p', t', d', g', s', z', č, j, h', m', n', l', r'.
Voiced consonants are not deafened at the ends of words.
The following geminates can be found in Vepsian:
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tt (t't') - kastta, katta, lat't'a; |
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pp - rippuda, hüppib; |
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nn - nukkuda, kukkub; |
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šš - kuššed; |
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čč - erazvuiččed, ühtejiččed, miččed; |
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mm - poimmaha; |
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nn - männuded, sinnä, linneb; |
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ll (l'l') - vill, halloita, velled, kal'l', mal'l'; |
Sometimes (but very rarely) only the geminate determines the grammatical form: otta - ota, katta - kata, ostta - osta;
sometimes (but very rarely) only the geminate determines the meaning of a word: vill - wool, vil'l' - grain.
If the word containing a geminate is hyphenated, then the hyphen is placed INSIDE a geminate: vel-led, tän-na.
First syllables are always emphasized in Vepsian (as in Finnish or Estonian).
2001