zāle: [zãle] (level tone) 'hall, large room' vs. [zâle] (broken tone) 'grass, herb'.
two specific graphemes -'e' pronounced as 'e' or 'ae', and 'o' pronounced as 'uo < ' (as in doma 'thought'), 'O' or 'O:' -require an informed choice to pronounce the word correctly, and the pronunciation may vary across inflectional forms, even with the same spelling.