Kyrgyz phonology

This article is about the phonology and phonetics of the Kyrgyz language.

Vowels

A formant chart showing the stem vowel space of Kyrgyz. From Washington (2007 :10).

Kyrgyz vowel phonemes ^[1]

	Front		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, cá "rain" < *yağ; bé "mare" (cf. Kazakh biye); too "mountain" < *tağ; dőlöt "wealth" < Arabic daulat; ulú "great" < *uluğ; elű"fifty" < *eļļiģ.

Consonants

Kyrgyz consonant phonemes ^[8]

		Labial	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 velar [k, g] in words with front vowels, and uvular [q, ʁ] in words with back vowels. ^[9]
    • Word-initial [ k ] is often voiced [ g ]. ^[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]
• /f,v,t͡s,x/ occur only in foreign borrowings, mostly from Indo-European and Semitic. ^[8]
• In colloquial speech:
  • /b/ is lenited to [ w ] after /l,r,j/ or between vowels. ^[7]
  • /t͡ʃ/ sometimes is deaffricated to [ ʃ ] before voiceless consonants. ^[7]
  • Intervocalic /s/ can be voiced to [ z ]. ^[7]
  • Word-final /z/ is often devoiced to [ s ]. ^[7]

Stress

Stress is usually always put on the last vowel except for loanwords. Recent loanwords often retain their original stress. ^[11]

Desonorisation and devoicing

In 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: ķemeñi ('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. tordo-/torlo- ('to net/weave'), türdű/türļű ('various').

See Kyrgyz language#Case for more examples.

References

1. Kara (2003), p. 10.
2. Washington (2007), p. 10.
3. Washington (2006b), p. 2.
4. Washington (2007), p. 11.
5. For example by Washington (2006a)
6. Washington (2007), p. 12.
7. Kara (2003), p. 16.
8. Kara (2003), p. 11.
9. Kara (2003), p. 14.
10. Kara (2003), pp. 14, 16.
11. Washington (2006c), pp. 2–3.

Bibliography

• 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

• 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)