Editing Lithuanian language (section)

==Phonology==
{{main|Lithuanian phonology}}

===Consonants===
[[File:Oath in Lithuanian regarding the lands of the Svobiškis manor, 1p, 1680.06.19, Lithuania.png|thumb|upright|Written oath in Lithuanian (1680) where Lithuanians names and surnames has endings with "-as" (e.g. Jonas Miteykienas, Kazimieras Wikszcialunas, etc.)<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Drungilas |first1=Jonas |last2=Šinkūnas |first2=Mindaugas |title=1680 m. lietuviška priesaika dėl Svobiškio dvaro žemių |journal=Istorijos šaltinių tyrimai |date=2018 |volume=6 |pages=359–368 |url=https://etalpykla.lituanistika.lt/fedora/objects/LT-LDB-0001:J.04~2018~1574600438243/datastreams/DS.002.0.01.ARTIC/content |access-date=28 November 2023 |language=lt}}</ref>]]
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
|+ Consonant phonemes of Lithuanian
|-
! rowspan="2" colspan="2"|&nbsp;
! colspan="2"|[[Labial consonant|Labial]]
! colspan="2"|[[Dental consonant|Dental]]
! colspan="2"|[[Alveolar consonant|Alveolar]]
! rowspan="2"|[[Palatal consonant|Palatal]]
! colspan="2"|[[Velar consonant|Velar]]
|- style="font-size:small;"
! hard
! soft
! hard
! soft
! hard
! soft
! hard
! soft
|-
! colspan="2"|[[Nasal consonant|Nasal]]
| {{IPA link|m}} || [[Palatalization (phonetics)|mʲ]]
| {{IPA link|n̪|n}} || [[Palatalization (phonetics)|nʲ]]
| 
|
|
|
|
|-
! rowspan="2"|[[Stop consonant|Stop]]
! {{small|voiceless}}
| {{IPA link|p}} || [[Palatalization (phonetics)|pʲ]]
| {{IPA link|t̪|t}} || [[Palatalization (phonetics)|tʲ]]
|
|
|
| [[Voiceless velar plosive|k]]|| {{IPA link|kʲ}}
|-
! {{small|voiced}}
| {{IPA link|b}} || [[Palatalization (phonetics)|bʲ]]
| {{IPA link|d̪|d}} || [[Palatalization (phonetics)|dʲ]]
|
|
|
| [[Voiced velar plosive|ɡ]]|| {{IPA link|ɡʲ}}
|-
! rowspan="2"|[[Affricate consonant|Affricate]]
! {{small|voiceless}}
| colspan="2"|&nbsp;
| {{IPA link|t̪͡s̪|t͡s}} || [[Palatalization (phonetics)|t͡sʲ]]
| {{IPA link|t͡ʃ}} || {{IPA link|t͡ɕ}}
|
|
|
|-
! {{small|voiced}}
| colspan="2"|&nbsp;
| {{IPA link|d̪͡z̪|d͡z}} || [[Palatalization (phonetics)|d͡zʲ]]
| {{IPA link|d͡ʒ}} || {{IPA link|d͡ʑ}}
|
|
|
|-
! rowspan="2"|[[Fricative consonant|Fricative]]
! {{small|voiceless}}
| ({{IPA link|f}}) || ([[Palatalization (phonetics)|{{IPA|fʲ|cat=no}}]])
| {{IPA link|s̪|s}} || [[Palatalization (phonetics)|sʲ]]
| {{IPA link|ʃ}} || {{IPA link|ɕ}}
|
| ([[Voiceless velar fricative|x]]) || ({{IPA link|xʲ}})
|-
! {{small|voiced}}
| rowspan="2"|[[Voiced labiodental fricative|v]]|| rowspan="2" |[[Palatalization (phonetics)|vʲ]]
| {{IPA link|z̪|z}} || [[Palatalization (phonetics)|zʲ]]
| {{IPA link|ʒ}} || {{IPA link|ʑ}}
| rowspan="2"|[[Voiced palatal approximant|j]]
| ([[Voiced velar fricative|ɣ]]) || ({{IPA link|ɣʲ}})
|-
! colspan="2"|[[Approximant consonant|Approximant]]
| {{IPA link|ɫ̪|ɫ}}
|
| 
| {{IPA link|l|lʲ}}
| ||
|-
! colspan="2"|[[Trill consonant|Trill]]
| colspan="2"|&nbsp;
| colspan="2"|&nbsp;
| {{IPA link|r}} || [[Palatalization (phonetics)|rʲ]]
|
|
|
|}

All Lithuanian consonants except {{IPA|/j/}} have two variants: one non-[[Palatalization (phonetics)|palatalized]] and one palatalized, for example, {{IPA|/b/}}&nbsp;– {{IPA|/bʲ/}}, {{IPA|/d/}}&nbsp;– {{IPA|/dʲ/}}, {{IPA|/ɡ/}}&nbsp;– {{IPA|/ɡʲ/}} (see the chart above for the full consonant set, represented by [[International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA]] symbols). The consonants {{IPA|/f/}}, {{IPA|/x/}}, {{IPA|/ɣ/}} and their palatalized counterparts are only found in [[loanword]]s.

{{IPA|/t͡ɕ, d͡ʑ, ɕ, ʑ/}} have been traditionally transcribed with {{angbr IPA|t͡ʃʲ, d͡ʒʲ, ʃʲ, ʒʲ}}, but they can be seen as equivalent transcriptions, with the former set being somewhat easier to write.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Ladefoged|Maddieson|1996|p=?}}</ref>

===Vowels===
[[File:Universitas lingvarum magno Palaemonii orbis et urbis hospiti (...) Christophoro Joanni comiti in Slupow Szembek (...), p8, Litvanice, 1729, Vilnius, Lithuania.jpg|thumb|upright|An example of [[poetry]] in Lithuanian, published by [[Vilnius University]] in 1729]]
Lithuanian has six long vowels and four short ones (not including disputed phonemes marked in brackets). Length has traditionally been considered the distinctive feature, though short vowels are also more centralized and long vowels more peripheral:
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
|-
! &nbsp;
! colspan="2"|[[Front vowel|Front]]
! colspan="2"|[[Central vowel|Central]]
! colspan="2"|[[Back vowel|Back]]
|-
! [[Close vowel|Close]]
| {{IPA link|iː}} || {{IPA link|ɪ}} || colspan="2"|&nbsp; || {{IPA link|ʊ}} || {{IPA link|uː}}
|-
! [[Mid vowel|Mid]]
| {{IPA link|eː}} || {{IPA link|ɛ}}, ({{IPA link|e}}) || colspan="2"|&nbsp; || ({{IPA link|ɔ}}) || {{IPA link|oː}}
|-
! [[Open vowel|Open]]
| {{IPA link|æː}} || || {{IPA link|ɐ}} || {{IPA link|ä|aː}} || colspan="2"|&nbsp;
|}
* {{IPA|/e, ɔ/}} are restricted to loanwords. Many speakers merge the former with {{IPA|/ɛ/}}.{{sfnp|Ambrazas et al.|1997|p=24}}

===Diphthongs===
Lithuanian is traditionally described as having nine [[diphthong]]s, ''ai'','' au'','' ei'','' eu'','' oi'','' ou'','' ui'','' ie'', and'' uo.'' However, some approaches (i.e., Schmalstieg 1982) treat them as vowel sequences rather than diphthongs; indeed, the longer component depends on the type of stress, whereas in diphthongs, the longer segment is fixed.

{|class=wikitable style="text-align:center;"
|-
! &nbsp;
! stressless<br />or tilde
! acute stress
|-
! ai
| {{IPA|[ɐɪ̯ˑ]}} || {{IPA|[âˑɪ̯]}}
|-
! ei
| {{IPA|[ɛɪ̯ˑ]}} || {{IPA|[æ̂ˑɪ̯]}}
|-
! au
| {{IPA|[ɒʊ̯ˑ]}} || {{IPA|[âˑʊ̯]}}
|-
! eu
| {{IPA|[ɛʊ̯ˑ]}} || {{IPA|[ɛ̂ʊ̯]}}
|-
! iau
| {{IPA|[ɛʊ̯ˑ]}} || {{IPA|[ɛ̂ˑʊ̯]}}
|-
! {{Not a typo|ie}}
| {{IPA|[iə]}} || {{IPA|[îə]}}<ref name="Girdenis 2009">{{Cite journal |last=Girdenis |first=Aleksas |date=2009 |title=Vadinamųjų sutaptinių dvibalsių [ie uo] garsinė ir fonologinė sudėtis |journal=Baltistica |language=lt |volume=44 |issue=2 |pages=213–242 |doi=10.15388/baltistica.44.2.1313 |doi-access=free}}</ref>
|-
! oi
| — || {{IPA|[ɔ̂ɪ̯]}}
|-
! ou
| — || {{IPA|[ɔ̂ʊ̯]}}
|-
! ui
| {{IPA|[ʊɪ̯ˑ]}} || {{IPA|[ʊ̂ɪ̯]}}
|-
! uo
| {{IPA|[uə]}} || {{IPA|[ûə]}}<ref name="Girdenis 2009" />
|}

===Pitch accent===
{{Main|Lithuanian accentuation}}
The Lithuanian prosodic system is characterized by free accent and distinctive quantity (i.e. [[syllable weight]]). The word prosody of Lithuanian is sometimes described as a restricted [[tone (linguistics)|tone]] system, also called a [[pitch accent]] system.<ref name="tone">{{Cite conference |last1=Dogil |first1=Grzegorz |last2=Möhler |first2=Gregor |date=1998 |title=Phonetic Invariance and Phonological Stability: Lithuanian Pitch Accents |url=https://www.isca-speech.org/archive/icslp_1998/i98_0206.html |conference=5th International Conference on Spoken Language Processing, Sydney, Australia, November 30 – December 4, 1998 |access-date=27 May 2021 |archive-date=2 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210802002227/https://www.isca-speech.org/archive/icslp_1998/i98_0206.html |url-status=dead}}</ref> In Lithuanian, [[lexical word]]s contain a single syllable that is prominent or stressed. Among those, [[heavy syllable]]s – that is, those containing a [[long vowel]], [[diphthong]], or a [[sonorant]] coda – bear either one of two tones: a falling (or ''acute tone'') or a rising (or ''circumflex tone''). Light syllables (syllables with short vowels and optionally also [[obstruent]] codas) do not have the two-way contrast of heavy syllables.