Algushäälikud

Algushäälikud, Estonian for initial consonants, are the consonant sounds that begin a word or syllable. They form the onset of the syllable together with the nucleus. In Estonian, algushäälikud can be single consonants or consonant clusters. The most common onsets in native words are one consonant (for example p in põrand, m in meri, s in sild, r in raamat). Clusters occur in words such as klaver, prillid, tramm, spordiklubid, psühholoogia and tsirkus, where two or more consonants appear at the beginning. The writing system generally represents these sounds with letters or letter combinations; for instance, ps- and ts- are pronounced as a single onset cluster but are written with two letters. Onsets influence how the following vowel is pronounced and are an important aspect of Estonian phonotactics, which prefers relatively simple onset structures in native words while allowing more complex ones in loanwords.