Vowels
Like Etruscan, the Lemnian language appears to have had a four-vowel system, consisting of "i", "e", "a" and "u". Having a contrast between front and back vowels, it would (unlike Etruscan) appear to lack a high back rounded vowel (written in IPA as /u/) which is curious because this defies the linguistic universal of contrast maximization. Since vowel systems without /u/ are rare (though occurring in languages such as Seneca and Nahuatl), it is likely that what we transliterate as "o" from the symbol omicron was in fact meant to record /u/. This is not unusual considering that different languages may take the same letter to transcribe different sounds. It is rather coincidental that the languages neighbouring this region, namely Hittite and Akkadian, also happen to have the same four-vowel systems lacking "o". This suggests early areal influence.
Read more about this topic: Lemnian Language
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