Different IPA Equivalents for Some Lithuanian and Latvian vowels
Different IPA Equivalents for Some Lithuanian and Latvian vowels

Summary/Abstract: Despite the common Baltic origin, the inventories of vowel and consonant phonemes in contemporary Standard Lithuanian and Standard Latvian have differences, firstly, because of functional significance which is not universal: what is phonologically relevant in Lithuanian, cannot be so in Latvian or some other language, because the importance of vowels and consonants in distinguishing one word from another varies from language to language; all languages use a limited number of vowels and consonants that are able to distinguish word meanings. Also, the analysis of acoustic and articulatory phenomena and processes involves the study and comparison of sounds (for example, their distinctive features) of different languages on the basis of similar principles and similar methods by also providing some universal (international) transcription. Nowadays Lithuanian and Latvian vowels (as well as consonants) can be transcribed using not only national (traditional) phonetic symbols but also international phonetic alphabet(s) (universally agreed system(s) of notation for the sounds of languages). In the present article the choice of non-identical equivalents of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) for the long and short monophthongs of contemporary Baltic languages is mainly discussed by highlighting terminology and other nuances of classifying sounds on the basis of different criteria since there can be various (traditional acoustic, articulatory, functional, international articulatory and the like) classifications provided for Lithuanian and Latvian vowel systems.

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