Editing Veps language (section)

===Vowels===
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center"
|-
|+ Vowel phonemes of Veps<ref>{{harvp|Zaitseva|1981|page=17}}</ref>
! rowspan="2" |
! colspan="2" | [[Front vowel|Front]]
! rowspan="2" | [[Central vowel|Central]]
! rowspan="2" | [[Back vowel|Back]]
|-
! [[Unrounded vowel|Unr.]]
! [[Rounded vowel|Rnd.]]
|-
! [[Close vowel|Close]]
| {{IPA link|i}}
| {{IPA link|y}}
| ({{IPA link|ɨ}})
| {{IPA link|u}}
|-
! [[Mid vowel|Mid]]
| {{IPA link|e̞|e}}
| {{IPA link|ø̞|ø}}
|
| {{IPA link|o̞|o}}
|-
! [[Open vowel|Open]]
| {{IPA link|æ}}
|
|
| {{IPA link|ɑ}}
|}

The status of {{IPA|/ɨ/}} is marginal; it occurs as an allophone of {{IPA|/i/}} after a non-palatalized consonant. See above under "Palatalization" for more information. It does not occur in the first syllable of a word.

====Vowel harmony====

Like many other Finnic languages, Veps has [[vowel harmony]] but in a much more limited form. Words are split into back-vowel and front-vowel words based on which vowels they contain:

* Back vowels: {{IPA|/ɑ/}}, {{IPA|/o/}} and {{IPA|/u/}}
* Front vowels: {{IPA|/æ/}}, {{IPA|/ø/}} and {{IPA|/y/}}

However, the front vowels can only occur in the first two syllables of a word. In a third or later syllable, and also sometimes in the second syllable, they are converted to the corresponding back vowel. Thus, vowel harmony only applies (inconsistently) in the second syllable, and has been lost elsewhere. It is not applied for inflectional endings except in a few exceptional cases, but is retained more frequently in derivational endings.

For example:
* {{lang|vep|korged}} ("high", back-vowel harmony), genitive singular {{lang|vep|korkt'''a'''n}}, derived noun {{lang|vep|korkt'''u'''z<nowiki>'</nowiki>}} ("height"); compare Finnish {{lang|fi|korke'''a'''n, korke'''u'''s}}.
* {{lang|vep|pimed}} ("dark", back-vowel harmony), genitive singular {{lang|vep|pimed'''a'''n}}, derived noun {{lang|vep|pimed'''u'''z<nowiki>'</nowiki>}} ("darkness"); compare Finnish {{lang|fi|pime'''ä'''n, pime'''y'''s}}.
* {{lang|vep|hüv'''ä'''}} ("good", front-vowel harmony), illative singular {{lang|vep|hüv'''ä'''h'''a'''}}, derived noun {{lang|vep|hüv'''ü'''z<nowiki>'</nowiki>}} ("goodness"); compare Finnish {{lang|fi|hyv'''ää'''n, hyv'''yy'''s}}.
* {{lang|vep|päiv}} ("day", front-vowel harmony), genitive singular {{lang|vep|päiv'''ä'''n}}, illative singular {{lang|vep|päivh'''a'''n}}; compare Finnish {{lang|fi|päiv'''ä'''n, päiv'''ää'''n}}.
* {{lang|vep|pä}} ("head", back-vowel harmony), illative singular {{lang|vep|päh'''a'''}}; compare Finnish {{lang|fi|pääh'''ä'''n}}.
* {{lang|vep|kez'''a'''}} ("summer", back-vowel harmony); compare Finnish {{lang|fi|kes'''ä'''}}.
* {{lang|vep|väv'''u'''}} ("son-in-law", back-vowel harmony); compare Finnish {{lang|fi|väv'''y'''}}.
* {{lang|vep|üld'''ü'''d'''a'''}} ("to rise", front-vowel harmony in second syllable, back-vowel in third); compare Finnish {{lang|fi|ylt'''yä'''}}.
* {{lang|vep|küz'''u'''d'''a'''}} ("to ask", back-vowel harmony); compare Finnish {{lang|fi|kys'''yä'''}}.