Vokaalide

Vokaalid are a basic class of speech sounds found in many languages, produced with relatively open vocal tracts and serving as the nucleus of syllables. In linguistic terms, they are the vocalic sounds that form the core of a syllable, as opposed to consonants which generally surround or follow the vowel.

In Estonian, the vokaalide system consists of nine vowel qualities: a, e, i, o, u, ä, ö, ü, õ. Each quality can occur in short or long form, and vowel length is phonemic, meaning it can distinguish words. In writing, long vowels are represented by doubling the corresponding letter, for example aa, ee, ii, oo, uu, ää, öö, üü, õõ. The nine vowels are used in both native vocabulary and many loanwords, and they appear in all positions within syllables (onset, nucleus, coda) as long as there is a vowel nucleus.

Estonian has a syllable-based phonology in which every syllable contains a vowel nucleus. The language generally treats vowel length as part of the syllable’s quantity, contributing to the rhythm and prosody of speech. Stress in Estonian is typically on the first syllable of a word, and length can interact with syllable weight in perception and timing, though this is more a matter of prosody than of phonemic contrast.

orthography reflects the phonemic inventory through the use of the nine vowel letters, with diacritics indicating distinct vowel qualities. In standard Estonian, there is no separate vowel harmony system like in some neighboring languages, and vowel distribution primarily follows general syllabic structure rather than long-distance assimilation.