Appendix:Persian pronunciation
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View Persian phonology for more general information. Also see Dari#Phonology and Tajik language#Phonology.
Read foot notes for the pronunciation information below for additional pronunciation information.
Vowels
IPA | Persian[1] | Cyrillic | |||
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ɒː[2] | ɑː | ɑː, aː[3] | ɔː[4] | آ, ـَا | О, о |
æ[5] | ä[6] | a | ä[6] | اَ، ◌َ | А, а |
iː | eː | ای، ـیـ، ـی | Е, е | ||
iː | i[7][8] | اِی، ـِیـ، ـِی | И, и, Ӣ, ӣ, | ||
e | ɪ[7][8] | i | اِ، ◌ِ | И, и | |
uː | oː | ɵː[9] | او، ـو | Ӯ, ӯ | |
uː | u[10] | اُو، ـُو | У, у | ||
o | ʊ[10] | u | اُ، ◌ُ |
- ^ Diacritics are based on Classical Persian. Due to phonemic mergers in Iranian Persian, the diacritic usage here may not be reflective of how diacritics are used in contemporary Iranian Persian.
- ^ In colloquial speech, frequently raised to /uː/ before nasals.
- ^ Exact quality uncertain.
- ^ variously described as [o̞], [ɒ], [ɔ] and [ɔː], some level of free variation is likely.
- ^ Typically raised to /e/ in the word final position. Occasionally raised elsewhere, particularly before a syllable with a high vowel.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 In Dari and Tajik, ä is often realized as /æ/ in the word final position. I'm Dari this vowel may also be realize as ɑː before a glottal consonant.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Often lowered to [e̞] before the glottal consonants /h/ or /ʔ/
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Many linguists have reported phonetic instability of this vowel. According to SIL International's phonological report for Dari, this phoneme randomly varies between [ɪ] or [e̞]~[ɛ] and it is not possible to predict pronunciation. The University of Maryland and Encyclopedia Iranica report a combination of free variation and dialectal factors, with Iranica reporting that urban speakers in Kabul tend to realize this phoneme as /ɪ/. Wiktionary uses this analysis based on urban speakers in Kabul, this analysis is also more neutral to dialects such as Hazaragi and northern dialects that predominantly realize this vowel as a high or near-high vowel. However phonetic transcriptions should use [e̞] in cases where the vowel always or predominately lowered. Such as before glottal consonants and some loanwords.
Linguists at Georgetown Univeristy report some Tajik dialects have some variation between [i] and [ɛ] similarly to Dari, but not to the same extent. - ^ Free variation with o and ʉ, interpreded by Wiktionary as ɵː
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Often lowered to [o̞] before the glottal consonants /h/ or /ʔ/
Schwa and Epenthetic short vowels
- In Dari and Tajik, particularly in colloquial speech, a short vowel in an unstressed syllable may be produced as a schwa ([ə]) or even as another short vowel. This occurs randomly and causes unstressed short vowels in these varieties to be unstable.
- In Dari /ä/ frequently is realized as [ə] or sometimes as [ʊ] after the accented/stressed syllable. Since the accented syllable is typically the last syllable of the lemma form, this only commonly occurs in inflicted forms.
- In Dari and Tajik, syllabic consonants are forbidden in the coda, being replaced by -[əC].
- In colloquial Dari an epenthetic short vowel may be randomly inserted in consonant clusters. In rare instances, short vowel may also be deleted between two open syllables.
- Dari does not forbid multi-consonant onsets like other dialects and as such epenthetic vowels do not always appear here. Though multi-consonant onsets are rare and only happen word initially.
Consonants
IPA | Persian | Cyrillic | ||
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ʔ[1] | ا، ء | N/A or Ъ, ъ | ||
b | b~β | b[2] | ب | Б, б |
p[3] | پ | П, п | ||
t[3] | ت، ط | Т, т | ||
d͡ʒ | ج | Ҷ, ҷ | ||
t͡ʃ[3] | چ | Ч, ч | ||
x[1] | خ | Х, х | ||
d | d~ð | d | د | Д, д |
z | z | ذ | З, з | |
ɾ[4] | ر | Р, р | ||
z | ز، ض، ظ | З, з | ||
ʒ | ژ | Ж, ж | ||
s | س | С, с | ||
ʃ | ش | Ш, ш | ||
ʔ[1] | ع، ء | Ъ, ъ | ||
ɣ | غ | Ғ, ғ | ||
f | ف | Ф, ф | ||
ɣ | q[3] | ق | Қ, қ | |
k[3][5] | ک | К, к | ||
ɡ[5] | گ | Г, г | ||
l | ل | Л, л | ||
m | م | М, м | ||
h[1] | ه، ح | Ҳ, ҳ | ||
n[6] | ن | Н, н | ||
v | w[7] | w, v[8] | و | В, в |
j | ی | Й, й |
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 The glottal consonats /h/ and /ʔ/ are almost never pronounced in colloquial Dari. While these consonants are frequently droped in other colloquial dialects, they are not dropped near universally as they are in Dari
- ^ In some words, may also be realized as /w/ in colloquial speech. In Tajik the realizations [v] and [β] are also common.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 In Dari, Iranian and Tajik Persian, and presumably Classical Persian, all voiceless stops are aspirated.
- ^ In Eastern dialects the phoneme ɾ tends to be dropped before dental consonants. Though not in formal speech.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 (In Iranian Persian) May be palatized before a front vowel.
- ^ In Eastern dialects, morpheme-terminal n is ommitted in some high frequency words. Though in Tajik this only occurs in southern dialects.
- ^ Linguist Daniel A. Rees at Georgetown University argues that this phoneme was realized as /ʋ/ in Classical/Early New Persian, and the modern /w/ - /v/ split comes from a former /w/ - /v/ free variation.
- ^ In Tajik, [v] appears in proximity to unrounded vowels and [w] appears in proximity to rounded vowels. This phoneme is never realized as [v] in Dari, however.
Dialectal consonants
Also see Hazaragi dialect#Phonology
IPA | Persian | ||
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Non-Standard[1] | Standard |
ʈ | t | ٹ، ٹـ، ـٹـ، ـٹ
ټ، ټـ، ـټـ، ـټ |
ت، تـ، ـتـ، ـت |
ɖ | d | ڈ، ـڈ
ډ، ـډ |
د، ـد |
- ^ Characters from Urdu and Pashto are sometimes used by Hazargi linguists to denote retroflex consonants, but retroflex consonants are not typically denoted by speakers