Azerbaijani phonology

Consonants

Consonant phonemes of Standard Azerbaijani

	Labial		Dental/ Alveolar		Palato- alveolar		Palatal		Velar		Glottal
Nasal		m m		n n						ŋ ŋ
Stop	p p	b b	t t	d d	ch t͡ʃ	jh d͡ʒ	c c	j ɟ	(k) (k)	g ɡ
Fricative	f f	v v	s s	z z	sh ʃ	zh ʒ			x x	ɣ ɣ	h h
Approximant	wh ʍ	w w		l l				y j		q ɰ
Flap		r ⱱ		ð ɾ

1. /t͡ʃ/ and /d͡ʒ/ are realised as [t͡s] and [d͡z] respectively in the areas around Tabriz and to the west, south and southwest of Tabriz (including Kirkuk in Iraq); in the Nakhchivan and Ayrum dialects, in Cəbrayil and some Caspian coastal dialects;
2. In most dialects of Azerbaijani, /c/ is realized as [ç] when it is found in the syllabic coda or is preceded by a voiceless consonant (as in çörək [t͡ʃœˈɾæç] – "bread"; səksən [sæçˈsæn] – "eighty").
3. /w/ exists in the Kirkuk dialect as an allophone of /v/ in Arabic loanwords.
4. In the Baku subdialect, /ov/ may be realised as [oʊ], and /ev/ and /œv/ as [œy], e.g. /ɡovurˈmɑ/ → [ɡoʊrˈmɑ], /sevˈdɑ/ → [sœyˈdɑ], /dœvˈrɑn/ → [dœyˈrɑn], as well as with surnames ending in -ov or -ev (borrowed from Russian).
5. In colloquial speech, /x/ is usually pronounced as [χ]

Vowels

The vowels of the Azerbaijani are, in alphabetical order, a /ɑ/, e /e/, ə /æ/, ı /ɯ/, i /i/, o /o/, ö /œ/, u /u/, ü /y/. There are no diphthongs in standard Azerbaijani when two vowels come together; when that occurs in some Arabic loanwords, diphthong is removed by either syllable separation at V.V boundary or fixing the pair as VC/CV pair, depending on the word.

Vowels

	Front		Back
	Unrounded	Rounded	Unrounded	Rounded
Close	i i	ü y	ı ɯ	u u
Close-mid	e e	ø ø	ë ɤ	o o
Open-mid	ɛ ɛ	ö œ	ʌ ʌ	ɔ ɔ
Open	ə æ	ä ɶ	a ɑ	ɐ ɒ

The typical phonetic quality of South Azeri vowels is as follows:

• /i, u, æ/ are close to cardinal [i, u, a].
• The F1 and F2 formant frequencies overlap for /œ/ and /ɯ/. Their acoustic quality is more or less close-mid central [ɵ, ɘ]. The main role in the distinction of two vowels is played by the different F3 frequencies in audition and rounding in articulation. Phonologically, however, they are more distinct: /œ/ is phonologically a mid front rounded vowel, the front counterpart of /o/ and the rounded counterpart of /e/. /ɯ/ is phonologically a close back unrounded vowel, the back counterpart of /i/ and the unrounded counterpart of /u/.
• The other mid vowels /e, o/ are closer to close-mid [e, o] than open-mid [ɛ, ɔ].
• /ɑ/ is phonetically near-open back [ɑ̝].

External links

• Azerbaijani language