Vowels[]
The table below lists the six vowel phonemes in standard, literary Tajik. Letters from the Tajik Cyrillic alphabet are given first, followed by IPA transcription. Local dialects frequently have more than the six seen below.
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i и, ӣ /i/ |
u у /u/ | |
| Mid | e е /e/ |
y ӯ /ɵ/ |
o о /ɔ/ |
| Open | a а /æ/ |
In central and southern dialects, /ɵ/ merges with /u/.[2]
The open back vowel has varyingly been described as mid-back,[3][4] [ɒ],[5] [ɔ], and [ɔː].[6] It is analogous to standard Persian â (long a).
Consonants[]
The Tajik language contains 24 consonants, 16 of which form contrastive pairs by voicing: [б/п] [в/ф] [д/т] [з/с] [ж/ш] [ҷ/ч] [г/к] [ғ/х].[1] The table below lists the consonant phonemes in standard, literary Tajik. Letters from the Tajik Cyrillic alphabet are given first, followed by IPA transcription.
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m м /m/ |
n н /n/ |
||||
| Stop | p b п б /p b/ |
t d т д /t d/ |
c j ч ҷ /tʃ dʒ/ |
k g к г /k ɡ/ |
q қ /q/ |
' ъ /ʔ/ |
| Fricative | f v ф в /f v/ |
s z с з /s z/ |
ʃ ʒ ш ж /ʃ ʒ/ |
x ɣ х ғ /χ ʁ/ |
h ҳ /h/ | |
| Approximant | l л /l/ |
w й /j/ |
||||
| Trill | r р /r/ |
Word stress[]
Word stress generally falls on the first syllable in finite verb forms and on the last syllable in nouns and noun-like words.[1] Examples of where stress does not fall on the last syllable are adverbs like: бале (bale, meaning "yes") and зеро (zero, meaning "because"). Stress also does not fall on enclitics, nor on the marker of the direct object.
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Khojayori, Nasrullo, and Mikael Thompson. Tajiki Reference Grammar for Beginners. Washington, DC: Georgetown UP, 2009.
- ↑ A Beginners' Guide to Tajiki by Azim Baizoyev and John Hayward, Routledge, London and New York, 2003, p. 3
- ↑ Lazard, G. 1956
- ↑ Perry, J. R. (2005)
- ↑ Nakanishi, Akira, Writing Systems of the World
- ↑ Korotkow, M. (2004)