Editing Iberian language (section)

=== Vowels ===
Iberian appears to have five vowels commonly transcribed as {{lang|xib|a e i o u}}. Some other languages on the peninsula such as [[Basque language|Basque]] and modern [[Spanish language|Spanish]] also have such systems. Although five-vowel systems are extremely common all over the world, it has been suggested that this may point to a [[Sprachbund]] amongst the ancient languages of the Iberian peninsula.<ref name=Trask>[[Larry Trask|Trask, R.L.]] ''The History of Basque'' Routledge: 1997 {{ISBN|0-415-13116-2}}</ref>

The unrounded vowels (in frequency order: {{lang|xib|a, i, e}}) appear more frequently than the rounded vowels ({{lang|xib|u, o}}).  Although there are indications of a nasal vowel ({{lang|xib|ḿ}}), this is thought to be an [[allophone]]. Judging by Greek transcriptions, it seems that there were no vowel length distinctions; if this is correct then Iberian uses the long {{lang|xib|ē}} ({{langx|el|ἦτα|translit=êta}}) as opposed to the short epsilon {{langx|el|ἒ ψιλόν|translit=è psilón}}.

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
|+ caption | Vowels<ref>{{cite book |last=Agostiniani |first=Luciano |year=2013 |chapter=The Etruscan Language |title=The Etruscan World |editor=Jean MacIntosh Turfa |editor-link=Jean MacIntosh Turfa |pages=457–77 |place=Abingdon |publisher=Routledge |quote="We believe that for the Archaic period, the /a/ was a back vowel (as in French ''pâte'')".}}</ref>
! rowspan="2" |
! rowspan="1" | [[Front vowel|Front]]
! [[Central vowel|Central]]
! [[Back vowel|Back]]
|-
! colspan="2" |[[unrounded]]
! [[Roundedness|rounded]]
|-
! [[Close vowel|Close]]
| {{IPAslink|i}}<br>i<br>[[File:NE Iberian i1a.svg|14px|I]]
|
| {{IPAslink|u}}<br>u<br>[[File:NE Iberian u3.svg|14px|U]]
|-
! [[Mid vowel|Mid]]
| {{IPAslink|e}}<br>e<br>[[File:NE Iberian e1.svg|14px|E]]
|
| {{IPAslink|o}}<br>o<br>[[File:NE Iberian o1.svg|14px|O]]
|-
! [[Open vowel|Open]]
|
| {{IPAslink|a}}<br>a<br>[[File:NE Iberian a1a.svg|14px|A]]
|
|}

==== Diphthongs ====
It seems that the second element of [[diphthongs]] was always a closed vowel, as in {{lang|xib|ai}} ({{lang|xib|śaitabi}}), {{lang|xib|ei}} ({{lang|xib|neitin}}), and {{lang|xib|au}} ({{lang|xib|lauŕ}}). Untermann observed that the diphthong {{lang|xib|ui}} could only be found in the first cluster.

==== Semivowels ====
It is possible that Iberian had the [[semivowels]] {{IPA|/j/}} (in words such as {{lang|xib|aiun}} or {{lang|xib|iunstir}}) and {{IPA|/w/}} (only in loanwords such as {{lang|xib|diuiś}} from [[Gaulish language|Gaulish]]).  The fact that {{IPA|/w/}} is lacking in native words casts doubt on whether semivowels really existed in Iberian outside of foreign borrowings and diphthongs.