Pronunciation help with Latvian song text

[HUgh Olmsted]

Friends and colleagues, brāļi un māsas! 



I am preparing the text of a well-beloved Latvian song, "Kas tie tādi," in slightly modified transcription to help a chorus pronounce it reasonably, and am writing to request help from you who really know the language and the text. 




As you know, standard Latvian orthography uses a single letter, e , to represent two different sounds: "closed" [ɛ] and "open" [æ]; the former sounds something like US standard pronunciation of the vowel in "head"or "led" or "gem"; the latter sounds more like the vowel in US standard "had"or "lad" or "jam". (As with other vowels, both of these "e"-variants can occur short or long, standardly written "e" or "ē".) If you don't know the language, when you meet a graphic "e" or "ē" you can't very well tell which pronunciation to give it, like head/led/gem or had/lad/jam. 


In the text below (four verses), my intention is to indicate this difference by using an arbitrary "e*" for the open (had/lad/jam) variant. I have done my best to do so, but there are probably some mistakes remaining. I would be very grateful for corrections of mistakes I may have made in this or any other feature (long/short syllables, for instance). It probably makes most sense to respond off-list. 


Many thanks. Liels paldies! 


Hugh Olmsted 




Kas tie tādi, kas dziedāja, 

Bez saulītes vakarā? 

Tie ir visi bāra bē*rni, 

Bargu kungu klausītāj’. 



2. 

Kurin’ ugun, silda gaisu, 

Slauka gaužas asaras, 

Krimta cietu pe*lavmaizi, 

Avotiņa mē*rcē*dam’. 



3. 

Saulīt vē*lu vakarāi, 

Sēžas zeltā laiviņā, 

Rītā, agri uzlē*kdama, 

Atstāj laivu līgojot. 



4. 

Kam, saulīte, vē*lu lēci, 

Kur tik ilgi kavējies? 

Aiz viņiemi kalniņiemi, 

Bāra bē*rnus sildīdam’. 

[note: e* pronounced like ‘had/lad/jam']

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