Editing Corsican language (section)

=== Vowels ===
As in Italian, the grapheme {{angle bracket|i}} appears in some [[Digraph (orthography)|digraphs]] and [[trigraph (orthography)|trigraphs]] in which it does not represent the phonemic vowel. All vowels are pronounced except in a few well-defined instances. {{angle bracket|i}} is not pronounced between {{angle bracket|sc/sg/c/g}} and {{angle bracket|a/o/u}}: ''sciarpa'' {{IPA|[ˈʃarpa]}}; or initially in some words: ''istu'' {{IPA|[ˈstu]}}<ref>{{cite web |title=La prononciation des voyelles |url=https://gbatti-alinguacorsa.pagesperso-orange.fr/grammaire/prononciation-voyelles.htm |work=A Lingua Corsa |date=19 April 2008 |access-date=2008-06-20}}</ref>

Vowels may be nasalized before {{angle bracket|n}} (which is assimilated to {{angle bracket|m}} before {{angle bracket|p}} or {{angle bracket|b}}) and the palatal nasal consonant represented by {{angle bracket|gn}}. The nasal vowels are represented by the vowel plus {{angle bracket|n}}, {{angle bracket|m}} or {{angle bracket|gn}}. The combination is a digraph or trigraph indicating the nasalized vowel. The consonant is pronounced in weakened form. The same combination of letters might not be the digraph or trigraph but might be just the non-nasal vowel followed by the consonant at full weight. The speaker must know the difference. Example of nasal: {{angle bracket|pane}} is pronounced {{IPA|[ˈpãnɛ]}} and not {{IPA|[ˈpanɛ]}}.

The Northern and central dialects in the vicinity of the [[Taravo]] river adopt the Italian seven-vowel system (the Italo-Western type and a unique type where the short high vowels of Latin are uniquely reflected as mid-low vowels), whereas all the Southern ones around the so-called "archaic zone" with its centre being the town of Sartène (including the [[Gallurese]] dialect spoken in Northern Sardinia) resort to a five-vowel system without length differentiation, like [[Sardinian language|Sardinian]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/dialetti-corsi_(Enciclopedia-dell'Italiano)/ |first=Annalisa |last=Nesi |title=corsi, dialetti |encyclopedia=Enciclopedia dell'Italiano |lang=it |access-date=18 March 2018}}</ref>

The vowel inventory, or collection of phonemic vowels (and the major allophones), transcribed in [[International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA]] symbols, is:<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fusina |first=Jacques |year=1999 |title=Parlons Corse |location=Paris |publisher=L'Harmattan |isbn=978-2-7384-8209-9}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Notes sur la phonétique utilisée sur ce site |work=A Lingua Corsa |date=19 April 2008 |url=https://gbatti-alinguacorsa.pagesperso-orange.fr/phonetique.htm |access-date=2008-06-20}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! [[International Phonetic Alphabet|Description]]
! [[Grapheme]]<br>([[Lower case|Minuscule]])
! [[Phoneme]]
! [[Phonetics|Phone]] or<br>[[Allophone]]s
! Usage
! Example
|-
| Open front unrounded<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Near open
| style="text-align:center;"| a
| style="text-align:center;"| {{IPA|/a/}}
| style="text-align:center;"|{{IPA|[a]}}<br>{{IPA|[æ]}}
|<br>Occasional northern
|casa {{IPA|[ˈkaza]}} ''house''<br>carta {{IPA|[ˈkærta]}} ''card''
|-
| Close-mid front unrounded<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Open-mid<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Near-open<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Open
| style="text-align:center;"| e
| style="text-align:center;"| {{IPA|/e/}}
| style="text-align:center;"|{{IPA|[e]}}<br>{{IPA|[ɛ]}}<br>{{IPA|[æ]}}<br>{{IPA|[a]}}
| Inherited as<br>open or close<br>Occasional northern<br>Occasional southern
| u celu {{IPA|[uˈd͡ʒelu]}} ''the sky''<br>ci hè {{IPA|[ˈt͡ʃɛ]}} ''there is''<br>mercuri {{IPA|['mærkuri]}} ''wednesday''<br>terra {{IPA|[ˈtarra]}} ''land''
|-
| Close front unrounded
| style="text-align:center;"| i
| style="text-align:center;"| {{IPA|/i/}}
| style="text-align:center;"|{{IPA|[i]}}<br>{{IPA|[j]}}
|<br>1st sound, [[diphthong]]
|dì {{IPA|['di]}} ''say''<br>fiume {{IPA|[ˈfjumɛ]}} ''river''
|-
| Close-mid back rounded<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Open-mid
| style="text-align:center;"| o
| style="text-align:center;"|{{IPA|/o/}}
| style="text-align:center;"|{{IPA|[o]}}<br>{{IPA|[ɔ]}}
|Inherited as<br>open or close
|locu {{IPA|[ˈloɡu]}} ''place''<br>notte {{IPA|[ˈnɔtɛ]}} ''night''
|-
| Close back rounded
| style="text-align:center;"| u
| style="text-align:center;"| {{IPA|/u/}}
| style="text-align:center;"|{{IPA|[u]}}<br>{{IPA|[w]}}<br>{{IPA|[ɥ]}}
|<br>1st sound, [[diphthong]]
|malu {{IPA|[ˈmalu]}} ''bad''<br>quassù {{IPA|[kwaˈsu]}} ''up there''<br>què {{IPA|[ˈkɥɛ]}} ''that''
|}