This article is about the phonology and phonetics of the Kyrgyz language.
Vowels
editFront | Back | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
unrounded | rounded | unrounded | rounded | |
Close | i | y yː | ɯ ɯː | u uː |
Open | e eː (a) |
ø øː | ɑ ɑː | o oː |
- Notes on vowel quality:
- Kyrgyz vowel space is different in affixes and stems. Washington (2007) describes the former as more typical and more condensed.[2]
- In stem vowel space, the main difference between /e/ and /i/ is that the latter is more back. In affix vowel space, they can have the same backness, and differ by height.[2]
- /a/ appears only in borrowings from Persian and is excluded from normal vowel harmony rules. In most dialects, its status as a vowel distinct from /ɑ/ is questionable. There is also a phonetic [a] which appears as a result of regressive assimilation of /ɑ/ before syllables with phonological front vowels, e.g. "àydöş" [ajdøʃ] 'sloping'.[3][4]
- /i, y, u, e, ø, o/ are sometimes transcribed /ɪ, ʏ, ʊ, ɛ, œ, ɔ/.[5]
- The sequence of any vowel and the consonant /z/ is pronounced as a long vowel with falling pitch.[6]
- In colloquial speech, word-final vowels are dropped when the next word begins with a vowel.[7]
- All vowels but /i/ may be both short and long. Long vowels are the result of historical elisions (e.g. compensatory lengthening) and contractions. For example, já "rain" < *yağ; bé "mare" (cf. Kazakh biye); too "mountain" < *tağ; dőlöt "wealth" < Arabic daulat; ulú "great" < *uluğ; elű"fifty" < *elliğ.
Consonants
editLabial | Dental/ alveolar |
Post- alveolar |
Dorsal | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasal | m | n | ŋ | ||
Plosive | voiceless | p | t | k | |
voiced | b | d | ɡ | ||
Affricate | voiceless | (t͡s) | t͡ʃ | ||
voiced | d͡ʒ | ||||
Fricative | voiceless | (f) | s | ʃ | (x) |
voiced | (v) | z | |||
Approximant | l | j | |||
Trill | r |
- /n, l, r/ are alveolar, whereas /t, d, t͡s, s, z/ are dental.[8]
- the liquid /l/ is velarized [ɫ] in back vowel contexts.
- /ŋ, k, ɡ, x/ are velar, whereas /j/ is palatal.[8]
- /k, ɡ/ are palatal [c, ɟ] in words with front vowels, and uvular [q, ʁ] in words with back vowels.[9]
- Word-initial [c] is often voiced [ɟ].[10]
- In loanwords from Persian and Arabic, palatal [c, ɟ] are always followed by front vowels, whereas velar [k, ɡ] are always followed by back vowels, regardless of the vowel harmony.[9]
- Word-final and word-initial /k/ is voiced to [ɡ] when it is surrounded by vowels or the consonants /m, n, ŋ, l, r, j/.[7]
- /k, ɡ/ are palatal [c, ɟ] in words with front vowels, and uvular [q, ʁ] in words with back vowels.[9]
- /f, v, t͡s, x/ occur only in foreign borrowings, mostly from Indo-European and Semitic.[8]
- In colloquial speech:
Stress
editThis section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (April 2015) |
Stress is usually always put on the last vowel except for loanwords. Recent loanwords often retain their original stress.[11]
Desonorisation and devoicing
editIn Kyrgyz, suffixes beginning with /n/ show desonorisation of the /n/ to [d] after consonants (including /j/), and devoicing to [t] after voiceless consonants; e.g. the definite accusative suffix -NI patterns like this: ķemeņi ('the boat'), aydı('the month'), tordu ('the net'), koldu ('the hand'), tañdı ('the dawn'), ķözdü ('the eye'), baştı ('the head').
Suffixes beginning with /l/ also show desonorisation and devoicing, though only after consonants of equal or lower sonority than /l/, e.g. the plural suffix -LAr patterns like this: ķemeļer ('boats'), aylar ('months'), torlor ('nets'), koldor ('hands'), tañdar ('dawns'), ķözdör ('eyes'), baştar ('heads'). Other /l/-initial suffixes, such as -LA, a denominal verbal suffix, and -LÚ, a denominal adjectival suffix, may surface either with /l/ or /d/ after /r/; e.g. тордо-/торло- ('to net/weave'), түрдүү/түрлүү ('various').
See Kyrgyz language#Case for more examples.
References
edit- ^ Kara (2003), p. 10.
- ^ a b Washington (2007), p. 10.
- ^ Washington (2006b), p. 2.
- ^ Washington (2007), p. 11.
- ^ For example by Washington (2006a)
- ^ Washington (2007), p. 12.
- ^ a b c d e f Kara (2003), p. 16.
- ^ a b c d Kara (2003), p. 11.
- ^ a b Kara (2003), p. 14.
- ^ Kara (2003), pp. 14, 16.
- ^ Washington (2006c), pp. 2–3.
Bibliography
edit- Kara, Dávid Somfai (2003), Kyrgyz, Lincom Europa, ISBN 3895868434
- Washington, Jonathan North (2006a), An Investigation of Kyrgyz Rounding Harmony (PDF)
- Washington, Jonathan North (2006b), Root Vowels and Affix Vowels: Height Effects in Kyrgyz Vowel Harmony (PDF), archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-01-13, retrieved 2015-04-06
- Washington, Jonathan North (2006c), Where Turkic stress falls: Challenging final-stress analyses in Kazakh and Kyrgyz (PDF)
- Washington, Jonathan North (2007), Phonetic and Phonological Problems in Kyrgyz: A Fulbrighter's plans for gathering data in the field (PDF), archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-01-13, retrieved 2015-04-06
Further reading
edit- Kirchner, Mark (1998), "21 Kirghiz", in Johanson, Lars; Csató, Eva Á. (eds.), The Turkic Languages, Taylor & Francis, pp. 344–356, ISBN 978-0415412612
- Linebaugh, Gary Dean (2007), "5.2.1.1 Tatar, Kyrgyz, and Yakut", Phonetic Grounding and Phonology: Vowel Backness Harmony and Vowel Height Harmony, ProQuest, pp. 121–123, ISBN 978-0549340874
- Washington, Jonathan North (2009), Insights on Coda Cluster Phonology in Kazakh and Kyrgyz from a Split-Margin Approach (PDF)