Suprasegmentals
There is one phonemic suprasegmental, the palatalizing suprasegmental that affects the pronunciation of an entire syllable. In written language the palatalizing suprasegmental is indicated with a free-standing acute accent between a stressed vowel and the following consonant, as follows:
-
- vääˊrr 'mountain, hill' (suprasegmental palatalization present)
- cf. väärr 'trip' (no suprasegmental palatalization)
The suprasegmental palatalization has three distinct phonetic effects:
- The stressed vowel is pronounced as slightly more fronted in palatalized syllables than in non-palatalized ones.
- When the palatalizing suprasegmental is present, the following consonant or consonant cluster is pronounced as weakly palatalized. It should be noted that suprasegmental palatalization is independent of segmental palatals: inherently palatal consonants (i.e. consonants with palatal place of articulation) such as the palatal glide /j/, the palatal nasal /ń/ (spelled <nj>) and the palatal lateral approximant /ĺ/ (spelled <lj>) can occur both in non-palatalized and suprasegmentally palatalized syllables.
- If the word form is monosyllabic and ends in a consonant, a non-phonemic weakly voiced or unvoiced vowel is pronounced after the final consonant. This vowel is e-colored if suprasegmental palatalization is present, but a-colored if not.
Read more about this topic: Skolt Sami Language, Phonology