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Old Prussian
Family: Baltic
Region: Prussia
Time: 16th century C.E.
Consonants
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | |
| Voiceless stop | p pʲ | t tʲ | k kʲ | |
| Voiced stop | b bʲ | d dʲ | g gʲ | |
| Voiceless fricative | s sʲ | ʃ ʃʲ | ||
| Voiced fricative | v vʲ | z zʲ | ||
| Nasal | m mʲ | n nʲ | ||
| Lateral | l lʲ | |||
| Trill | r rʲ | |||
| Approximant | j |
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
| High | i iː | u uː | |
| Mid | e eː | oː | |
| Low | a aː |
Diphthongs
/ei/, /ai/, /au/, /eu/, /an/, /en/, /in/, /un/, /am/, /em/, /im/, /um/
Notes
- The existence of /ʃ/ is doubtful for Dini (1997: 252); it is instead regarded as sure by Mažiulis (2004), who compares it with /ʃʲ/. The phonemes /ʃ/ and /ʃʲ/ would be represented graphemically in Prussian texts by <ſch> and would be the development of balt. *s + j, (for example pr. schutuan «il cucire», cfr. lett. šūt).
Bibliography
Dini, Pietro Umberto. 1997. Le lingue baltiche. Firenze: La Nuova Italia.
Mažiulis, Vytautas. 2004. Prusų kalbos istorinė gramatika. Vilnius: Vilniaus universiteto leidykla.
Author
Adriano Cerri