Editing Votic language (section)

=== Vowels ===
Votic has 10 vowel qualities, all of which can be long or short; represented in the following chart. The vowels /ɨ/ and /ɨː/ are found only in loanwords. The Votic ⟨õ⟩ /ɤ/ , however, is impressionistically a bit higher than the [[Estonian language|Estonian]] ⟨õ⟩, with the rest of the vowel inventory generally corresponding to the ones found in Estonian.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ariste |first=Paul |title=A Grammar of the Votic Language |publisher=Curzon |year=1997 |location=Richmond}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
! rowspan=2| (IPA) <br> ([[Uralic transcription|FUT]]) !! colspan=2| Front !! rowspan=2| Central !! rowspan=2| Back
|-
! {{small|unrounded}}
! {{small|[[Rounded vowel|rounded]]}}
|-
! [[Close vowel|Close]]
| {{IPAslink|i}} {{IPAslink|iː}} || {{IPAslink|y}} {{IPAslink|yː}} || {{IPAslink|ɨ}} {{IPAslink|ɨː}} ||{{IPAslink|u}} {{IPAslink|uː}}
|-
! [[Close-mid vowel|Mid]]
| {{IPAslink|e}} {{IPAslink|eː}}  || {{IPAslink|ø}} {{IPAslink|øː}} || {{IPAslink|ɤ}} {{IPAslink|ɤː}} || {{IPAslink|o}} {{IPAslink|oː}}
|-
! [[Open vowel|Open]]
| {{IPAslink|æ}} {{IPAslink|æː}} || ||  || {{IPAslink|ɑ}} {{IPAslink|ɑː}}
|}

In some central dialects, the long mid vowels {{IPA|/eː oː øː/}} have been diphthongized to {{IPA|/ie uo yø/}}, as in Finnish. Thus, ''tee'' 'road' is pronounced as ''tie''. Votic also has a large inventory of diphthongs. Interestingly, some diphthongs in Votic fail to conform to the vowel harmony pattern<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lauerma |first=Petri |title=Vatjan vokaalisointu |publisher=Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura |year=1993 |isbn=951 9403 57 4 |location=Helsinki |language=fi |trans-title=Votic Vowel Harmony}}</ref>.
{| class="wikitable"
|+Diphthongs
!
!ɑ
!u
!y
!æ
!i
|-
!ɑ
|
|ɑu̯
|
|
|ɑi
|-
!o
|
|ou̯
|
|
|oi
|-
!u
|uɑ̯
|
|
|
|ui
|-
!ɤ
|ɤɑ̯
|ɤu̯
|
|
|ɤi
|-
!ø
|
|øu̯
|øy
|
|øi
|-
!y
|
|
|
|yæ̯
|yi
|-
!æ
|
|
|æy
|
|æi
|-
!e
|
|eu̯
|ey
|
|ei
|-
!i
|iɑ̯
|iu̯
|iy
|iæ̯
|
|}

[[File:Votic vowel harmony Venn diagram.svg|thumb|A diagram featuring vowel harmony in Votic.]]

==== Vowel harmony ====
Votic has a system of [[vowel harmony]], in which vowels sounds pattern according to their position in the oral cavity. Underived words tend to contain either ''front-harmonic'' or ''back-harmonic'' vowels, including suffixes. Front-harmonic vowels are /æ e ø y/ ⟨ä e ö ü⟩; the corresponding back-harmonic vowels are /ɑ ɤ o u/ ⟨a õ o u⟩. Unlike Finnish, Votic only has a single neutral vowel /i/.

However, there are exceptions in the behavior of /o ø/ ⟨o ö⟩. Some suffixes including the vowel /o/ do not harmonize (the occurrence of /ø/ ⟨ö⟩ in non-initial syllables is generally a result of Finnish or [[Ingrian language|Ingrian]] loan words), and similarly onomatopoetic words and loanwords are may follow outside patterns of vowel harmony.