Persian phonology
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The Persian language has six vowel phonemes and twenty-three consonant phonemes. It features contrastive stress and syllable-final consonant clusters.
Contents |
[edit] Vowels
Diachronically, Persian possessed a distinction of length in its underlying vowel inventory, contrasting the long vowels /iː/, /uː/, /ɒː/ with the short vowels /e/, /o/, /æ/ respectively.
Word-final /o/ is rare except for /to/ "thou, you (singular)", and word-final /æ/ is very rare in Iranian Persian, except for /næ/ "no." The word-final /æ/ in Early New Persian mostly shifted to /e/ in contemporary Iranian Persian (often romanized as "eh"), but is preserved in the Eastern dialects.
The chart to the right reflects the vowels of many educated Persian speakers from Tehran.[1]
[edit] Diphthongs
Several diphthongs occur in Persian, including /ej/, /ow/, /aj/, /ɒj/, /oj/, and /uj/.
These are typically not considered to be phonemic since they may be broken by morphological processes.[2] For example, the word /now/ "new" becomes [novin] when a suffix is added to change its meaning to "modern."
[edit] Chart
| Phoneme (in IPA) | Letter | Romanization | Example(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| /æ/ | َ , ا | a, æ | /næ/ نه no |
| /ɒː/ | آ , ا | a, aa, ā, â, A | /tɒː/ تا till |
| /e/ | ِ , ا | e | /ke/ که that |
| /iː/ | ی | i, ee | /kiː/ کی who (informal) |
| /o/ | ا , ُ , و | o | /to/ تو thou, you (singular) |
| /uː/ | و | u, oo, ou | /tuː/ تو in (informal) |
| Dipthong (in IPA) | Letter | Romanization | Example(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| /ej/ | ی | ey, ei, ay, ai | /kej/ کی when |
| /ow/ | و | ow, au | /now/ نو new |
[edit] Historical shifts
Early New Persian had eight vowels: i, ī, ē, u, ū, ō, a, ā (in IPA: /i,iː,eː,u,uː,oː,æ,ɒː/). The following chart describes their shifts into Tajik, Afghan Dari, and contemporary Iranian Persian. [3]
Tajik i e u ů a o
┌↑┐ ↑ ┌↑┐ ↑ ↑ ↑
Early NP i ī ē u ū ō a ā
↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓
Dari e i ē o u ō a ā
↓ └↓┘ ↓ └↓┘ ↓ ↓
Iranian e ī o ū a ā
See also: Tajik vowels
[edit] Consonants
| Labial | Alveolar | Post- alveolar |
Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | [ŋ] | ||||
| Plosive | p b | t d | k ɡ | ɢ | [ʔ] | ||
| Affricate | tʃ dʒ | ||||||
| Fricative | f v | s z | ʃ ʒ | x ɣ | h | ||
| Tap | ɾ | ||||||
| Trill | [r] | ||||||
| Approximant | l | j |
(Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a voiced consonant. Allophones are in phonetic brackets.)
[edit] Chart
| Phoneme | Sound (in IPA) | Letter | Romanization | Example |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| /p/ | [p] | پ | p | /pedæɾ/ پدر (father) |
| /b/ | [b] | ب | b | /bærɒdær/ برادر (brother) |
| /t/ | [t] | ت , ط | t | /tɒ/ تا (till) |
| /d/ | [d] | د | d | /dost/ دوست (friend) |
| /k/ | [k] | ک | k | /keʃvæɾ/ كشور (country) |
| /ɡ/ | [ɡ] | گ | g | /goruh/ گروه (group) |
| /ʔ/ | [ʔ] | ء , ع | ', ʔ | /mæʔnɒ/ معنا (meaning) |
| /tʃ/ | [tʃ] | چ | č, c | /tʃub/ چوب (stick, wood) |
| /dʒ/ | [dʒ] | ج | j | /dʒævɒn/ جوان (young) |
| /f/ | [f] | ف | f | /feʃɒɾ/ فشار (pressure) |
| /v/ | [v] | و | v | /viʒe/ ويژه (special) |
| /s/ | [s] | س , ص, ث | s | /sɒye/ سايه (shadow) |
| /z/ | [z] | ز , ذ , ض , ظ | z | /ɒzɒd/ آزاد (free) |
| /ʃ/ | [ʃ] | ش | š | /ʃɒh/ شاه (king) |
| /ʒ/ | [ʒ] | ژ | ž | /ʒɒle/ ژاله (dew) |
| /x/ | [x] | خ | x | /xɒne/ خانه (house) |
| /ɣ/ | [ɣ] | غ , ق | q, ɣ | /bɒɣ/ باغ (garden) |
| /ɣ/ | [ɢ] | غ , ق | q | [ɢælæm] قلم (pen) |
| /h/ | [h] | ه , ح | h | /hæft/ هفت (seven) |
| /m/ | [m] | م | m | /mɒdær/ مادر (mother) |
| /n/ | [n] | ن | n | /nɒn/ نان (bread) |
| /l/ | [l] | ل | l | /læb/ لب (lip) |
| /ɾ/ | [ɾ] | ر | r | /iɾɒn/ ايران (Iran) |
| /j/ | [j] | ی | y | /jɒ/ يا (or) |
[edit] Allophonic variants
Alveolar stops /t/ and /d/ are either apico-alveolar or apico-dental. The unvoiced stops /p, t, tʃ, k/ are aspirated much like their English counterparts: they become aspirated when they begin a syllable, though aspiration is not contrastive.[4] Farsi does not have syllable-initial consonant clusters (see below), so unlike in English, /p, t/ are aspirated even following /s/, as in /hastam/ "I am".[5]
In Classical Persian, غ and ق denoted [ɣ] and [q], respectively. In modern Tehrani Persian (which is used in the Iranian mass media), there is no difference in the pronunciation of غ and ق; both represent [ɣ] or [ɢ], depending on their position in the word.When /ɣ/ occurs at the beginning of a word, it is realized as a voiced uvular plosive [ɢ]. [1] [6] However, the classic pronunciation difference for غ and ق is preserved in the eastern variants of Persian (i.e. Dari and Tajiki), as well as the southern dialects of the modern Iranian variety (e.g. Yazdi and Kermani dialects).
Alveolar flap /ɾ/ can have a trilled allophonic variant [r] at the beginning of a word, like in Spanish and Italian languages.[4]
[edit] Phonotactics
[edit] Syllable Structure
Syllables may be structured as (C) V (C) (C) .[4][6]
[edit] Stress
One syllable in each word (or breath group) is stressed, and knowing the rules is conducive to proper pronunciation. [7]
General rule:
I. Stress falls on the last stem syllable of most words.
Exceptions and clarifications:
II. Stress falls on the first syllable of interjections, conjunctions and vocatives. E.g. /'bale/ "yes", /'nakheir/ "no indeed", /'vali/ "but", /'cerā/ "why", /'agar/ "if", /'mersi/ "thanks", /'xānom/ "Ma'am", /'āqā/ "Sir"; cf. IV-3 īnfrā.
III. Never stressed are: 1) personal suffixes on verbs (-am "I do..", -i "you do..", .., -and "they do..") (with one exception, cf. IV-1 īnfrā); 2) a small set of very common noun enclitics: the ezāfe (-e/-ye) "of", -rā "[direct object marker]", -i "a, an", -o "and"; 3) the possessive and pronoun-object suffixes, -am, -et, -esh, &c.
IV. Always stressed are: 1) the personal suffixes on the positive future auxiliary verb (the single exception to III-1 suprā); 2) the negative verb prefix na-/ne-, if present; 3) if na-/ne- is not present, then the first non-negative verb prefix (e.g. mi- "-ing", bi- "Do!", and the prefix noun in compound verbs (e.g. kār in kār mi-kardam); 3) the last syllable of all other words, including the infinitive ending -an and the participial ending -te/-de in verbal derivatives, noun suffixes like -i "-ish" and -egi, all plural suffixes (-hā, -ān), adjective comparative suffixes (-tar, -tarin), and ordinal-number suffixes (-om). Nouns not in the vocative are stressed on the final syllable: /xā'nom/ "lady", /ā'qā/ "gentleman"; cf. II suprā.
V. In the informal language the present perfect tense is pronounced like the simple past tense. Only the stress distinguishes between these tenses: the stressed personal suffix indicates the present perfect and the unstressed one the simple past tense:
| Formal | Informal | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| dī'de-am | dī'dam | I have seen |
| 'dīdam | 'dīdam | I saw |
In transcription, enclitics (like the ezāfe) and personal suffixes should be written separated from their words by a hyphen, to show that they are unstressed. Stressed prefixes should be joined with a hyphen. Interjections &c. should be marked with an acute diacritic on their initial syllable.
[edit] Colloquial Iranian Persian
When spoken formally, Iranian Persian is pronounced as written. But colloquial pronunciation as used by all classes makes a number of very common substitutions. They include:[7][8]
- In the Tehrani accent and also most of the accents in Central and Southern Iran, The sequence /ɒn/ in the formal or written language is nearly always pronounced [un]. The only common exceptions are high prestige words, such as [ɢorʔɒn] "Qur'an", and [ʔirɒn] "Iran," which are pronounced as written. A few words written as /ɒm/ are pronounced [um], especially forms of the verb /ɒmædæn/ "to come".
- In the Tehrani accent, the unstressed direct object suffix marker /rɒ/ is pronounced /ro/, or /o/ after a consonant.
- The stems of many verbs have a short colloquial form, especially /æst/ "he/she is" is colloquially shortened to /e/ after a consonant or /je/ after a vowel.
- The 2nd and 3rd person plural verb subject suffixes, written /-id/ and /-ænd/ respectively, are pronounced [-in] and [-æn].
- Many frequently-occurring verbs are shortened, such as /mixɒːhæm/ "I want" → [mixɒm], and /mirævæm/ "I go" → [miræm].
[edit] Example
| Broad IPA Transcription | Native orthography | Gloss |
|---|---|---|
| /jek ˈɾuzi ˈbɒde ʃoˈmɒl bɒ xorˈʃid bɒhæm dæʔˈvɒ ˈmikæɾdænd ke ˈɒjɒ koˈdɒmjeki ɢæviˈtæɾ æst/[1] | یک روزی باد شمال با خورشید با هم دعوا میکردند که آیا کدام یکی قویتر است | [One day] the North Wind and the Sun were disputing which was the stronger. |
[edit] References
- ^ a b c International Phonetic Association (1999). Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 124–125. ISBN 978-0521637510.
- ^ Samareh, Yadollah (1999). Âvâshenâsi-e Zabân-e Fârsi. Tehran: Nashre Dâneshgâhi. ISBN 964-01-0923-1.
- ^ Windfuhr, Gernot (1987). "Persian". in Bernard Comrie. The World's Major Languages. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 543. ISBN 978-0195065114.
- ^ a b c Mahootian, Shahrzad (1997). Persian. London: Routledge. pp. 287,292,303,305. ISBN 0-415-02311-4.
- ^ Mace, John (1993-03). Modern Persian. Teach Yourself. ISBN 0844238155.
- ^ a b Jahani, Carina (2005). "The Glottal Plosive: A Phoneme in Spoken Modern Persian or Not?". in Éva Ágnes Csató, Bo Isaksson, and Carina Jahani. Linguistic Convergence and Areal Diffusion: Case studies from Iranian, Semitic and Turkic. London: RoutledgeCurzon. pp. 79–96. ISBN 0-415-30804-6.
- ^ a b Mace, John (2003). Persian Grammar: For reference and revision. London: RoutledgeCurzon. ISBN 0700716955.
- ^ Thackston, W. M. (1993-05-01). "Colloquial Transformations". An Introduction to Persian (3rd Rev ed.). Ibex Publishers. pp. 205-214. ISBN 0936347295.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
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