Phonology

Probable Phonemic System of Lepontic

Vowels

	Short	Long
Monophthongs	front back open/high i u mid e o close/low a	front back open/high ī ū mid close/low ā
Diphthongs	front back open/high mid ei̯ oi̯, ou̯ close/low ai̯, au̯	front back open/high ūi̯ mid close/low āi̯

Consonants

	labial				coronal				dorsal
	voiceless		voiced		voiceless		voiced		voiceless		voiced
Plosive	p	pp?	b (β)1	bb?	t	tt	d (δ)1	dd?	k	kk	g (γ)1	gg?
Affricate					ts
Fricative	φ?				s3				χ
Nasal			m	mm			n (ŋ)2	nn
Trill							r	rr
Lateral							l	ll
Approximant			u̯				i̯4

¹) possibly intervocalic allophone?   ²) allophone before dorsals   ³) alveolar   ⁴) palatal

Commentary

• Phonological notation follows other conventions as phonetical, f. ex.:

phonological	= phonetical
d	d/ð
pp	pː
āi̯	aːj
i̯	j
u̯	w

• regarding the tau gallicum phenomenon: Eska 1998b

Bibliography

Eska 1998b	Joseph Francis Eska, "Tau Gallicum", Studia Celtica 32 (1998), 115-127.

Overview Pages:
Archaeological Overview I Cisalpine Celtic I Historical Overview I Inscriptions of doubtful relevance I Morphology I North Italic Script I Numismatics I Onomastics I Phonology