Nyelvtudományi Közlemények 103. kötet (2006)
Tanulmányok - Tamás Ildikó: The Lule Saami vocalism 7
The orthography indicates diphthongs in the first syllable but not the diphthongoids occurring in even syllables. The Lule Saami monophthongs and diphthongs are the following: а, а, а, ее, e, i, о, u; ie, uo, oa (IPA: A, ae, o, e, e, i, o, u; ie, uo, oa). The pronunciation of mid vowels (e and o) in even syllables is most often ['e] and [uo], the surface realization of which, apart from their bound (second-syllable) position, is not influenced by the immediate environment. The reason for surface diphthongization may be the long duration as well as the low functional load of the vowels involved. In the phonetic transcription of Sammallahti all the long phones, except for low á, undergo diphthongization (both in first and second syllables) but he does not speak of second syllable diphthongs as individual phonemes (Sammallahti 1999, 153-154). Consequently, underlyingly these phones - as suggested by the graphemes indicating them - are to be considered monophthongs. The phoneme ce is also problematic because, while in certain subdialects it is a diphthong [eä], in others it is a long monophthong [e:] (Sammallahti 1998, 21-22). In neighbouring Northern Saami, the uniform equivalent of this phone is the diphthong ea. With respect to the dual nature of the phoneme ce, monophthongization is - I think - a secondary outcome. This approach seems to be borne out by the phonotacic rules, and by the sound system of more conservative dialects. Although in Lule dialects the phoneme ce is regarded as a monophthong, the phonotactic rules that apply to diphthongs are valid with respect to ce as well.5 In this paper I will basically concentrate on the Northern and Central subdialects, which form the basis of the standard language. Before a detailed demonstration of symptoms related to vowel alternations, I survey the Lule Saami vowel system and the possible structures of syllables and words. C-S: the PS *ea and *ie diphthongs undergo neutralization before 2a *ё. N geasset [keass'et], diehtet [tieht'et] ~ C-S [kiess'et], [tieht'et] 5 Sammallahti holds the same opinion (Sammallahti 1998: 20).
