Buryat phonology

Buryat has the vowel phonemes /i, ɯ, e, a, u, ʊ, o, ɔ/ (plus a few diphthongs), short /e/ being realized as [ɯ], and the consonant phonemes /b, g, d, tʰ, m, n, x, l, r/ (each with a corresponding palatalized phoneme) and /s, ʃ, z, ʒ, h, j/. These vowels are restricted in their occurrence according to vowel harmony. The basic syllable structure is (C)V(C) in careful articulation, but word-final CC clusters may occur in more rapid speech if short vowels of non-initial syllables get dropped.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
			unr.	rnd.
Close	i	ʉ	ɯ	u
	ɪ		ʊ
Mid	e	ə	ɤ	o
	ɛ	ɜ	ʌ	ɔ
Open	æ	ɐ	ɑ	ɒ
	a	ä

[ɯ] only occurs as a sound of a short e. [ə] is only an allophone of unstressed vowels.

Consonants

		Bilabial		Alveolar		Palatal	Velar		Glottal
		plain	pal.	plain	pal.		plain	pal.
Plosive	voiceless	p	pʲ	t	tʲ	c	k	kʲ	ʔ
	aspirated	pʰ	pʲʰ	tʰ	tʲʰ	cʰ	kʰ	kʲʰ
	voiced	b	bʲ	d	dʲ	ɟ	ɡ	ɡʲ
Fricative	voiceless	ɸ	ɸʲ	s	sʲ	ʃ	x	xʲ	h
	voiced	β	βʲ	z	zʲ	ʒ	ɣ	ɣʲ	ɦ
Nasal		m	mʲ	n	nʲ	ɲ	ŋ	ŋʲ
Lateral				l	lʲ	ʎ	ʟ	ʟʲ
Trill		ʙ	ʙʲ	r	rʲ
Approximant				ɹ	ɹʲ	j	ɰ	ɰʲ

[ŋ] only occurs as an allophone of /n/.

Stress

Lexical stress (word accent) falls on the last heavy nonfinal syllable when one exists. Otherwise, it falls on the word-final heavy syllable when one exists. If there are no heavy syllables, then the initial syllable is stressed. Heavy syllables without primary stress receive secondary stress:

ˌHˈHL	[ˌøːɡˈʃøːxe]	"to act encouragingly"
LˌHˈHL	[naˌmaːˈtuːlxa]	"to cause to be covered with leaves"
ˌHLˌHˈHL	[ˌbuːzaˌnuːˈdiːje]	"steamed dumplings (accusative)"
ˌHˈHLLL	[ˌtaːˈruːlaɡdaxa]	"to be adapted to"
ˈHˌH	[ˈboːˌsoː]	"bet"
LˈHˌH	[daˈlaiˌɡaːr]	"by sea"
LˈHLˌH	[xuˈdaːliŋɡˌdaː]	"to the husband's parents"
LˌHˈHˌH	[daˌlaiˈɡaːˌraː]	"by one's own sea"
ˌHLˈHˌH	[ˌxyːxenˈɡeːˌreː]	"by one's own girl"
LˈH	[xaˈdaːr]	"through the mountain"
ˈLL	[ˈxada]	"mountain"

Secondary stress may also occur on word-initial light syllables without primary stress, but further research is required. The stress pattern is the same as in Khalkha Mongolian.

External links

• Buryat language