This page contains a presentation of Lezgi phonemes. For those who don't know - phonemes are the smallest distinctive units of speech. For simplicity's sake let's call
them just sounds. Now, you may think that there are exactly as many sounds in Lezgi as there are letters (or letter combinations) in Lezgi Cyrillic. This is not so.
Lezgi Cyrillic comes very close to accurately representing Lezgi speech, but there are times when it is at loss.
Consider for instance this word-pair: чил /chil/ 'earth' and чил /cchil/ 'net'. In the Lezgi Cyrillic script they are written exactly the same, but they are two different and differently
pronounced words!
Without further ado, let's see the list. [square brackets] mark X-SAMPA;
/slants/ mark Lezgi Latin orthography used elsewhere on this site; Cyrillic is
how the sound is represented in the Lezgi Cyrillic script. Sorry
for all the tech-speak, the version for people who are not deep into language
geekery will be created later.
Vowels:
|
front |
|
back |
|
|
non-rounded |
rounded |
non-rounded |
rounded |
high |
[i] /i/ и |
[y] /y/ уь |
|
[u] /u/ у |
mid |
[e] /e/ е; э |
|
|
|
low |
[{] /ae/ я |
|
[A] /a/ а |
|
Notes:
- /a/ has two allophones: [A] and [V]; the former prevails in closed (esp. before uvulars and /r/) the latter in open syllables
- /a/ is also very often rounded after labialized consonants, which may then lose
labialization. Thus, /k'wach/ 'foot' is pronounced [k_>_wQtS_h] or even
[k_>QtS_h]
- /e/ is open (ie. [E]) in stressed syllables
- if a /vowel plus /n// sequence is not followed by a vowel, the /n/ may be deleted and the vowel nasalized. Thus /zun/ 'I' can be pronounced [zun] or [zu_~]
Stops:
|
labial |
dental |
dental-labialized |
velar |
velar-labialized |
uvular |
uvular-labialized |
voiced |
[b] /b/ б |
[d] /d/ д |
|
[g] /g/ г |
[g_w] /gw/ гв |
|
|
aspirated |
[p_h] /p/ п |
[t_h] /t/ т |
[t_h_w] /tw/ тв |
[k_h] /k/ к |
[k_h_w] /kw/ кв |
[q_h] /qh/ хъ |
[q_h_w] /qhw/ хъв |
unaspirated |
[p] /pp/ п |
[t] /tt/ т |
[t_w] /ttw/ тв |
[k] /kk/ к |
[k_w] /kkw/ кв |
[q] /q/ къ |
[q_w] /qw/ къв |
ejective |
[p_>] /p'/ пI |
[t_>] /t'/ тI |
[t_>_w] /t'w/ тIв |
[k_>] /k'/ кI |
[k_>_w] /k'w/ кIв |
[q_>] /q'/ кь |
[q_>_w] /q'w/ кьв |
Affricates and fricatives:
|
|
labial |
dental |
dental-labialized |
postalveolar |
velar |
uvular |
uvular-labialized |
affricate |
aspirated |
|
[ts_h] /c/ ц |
[ts_h_w] /cw/ цв |
[tS_h] /ch/ ч |
|
|
|
|
unaspirated |
|
[ts] /cc/ ц |
[ts_w] /ccw/ цв |
[tS] /cch/ ч |
|
|
|
|
ejective |
|
[ts_>] /c'/ цI |
[ts_>_w] /c'w/ цIв |
[tS_>] /ch'/ чI |
|
|
|
fricative |
voiced |
|
[z] /z/ з |
[z_w] /zw/ зв |
[Z] /zh/ ж |
|
[R] /gh/ гъ |
[R_w] /ghw/ гъв |
|
voiceless |
[f] /f/ ф |
[s] /s/ с |
[s_w] /sw/ св |
[S] /sh/ ш |
[x] /xh/ хь |
[X] /x/ х |
[X_w] /xw/ хв |
All the rest:
nasals |
[m] /m/ м |
[n] /n/ н |
liquids |
[l] /l/ л |
[r] /r/ р |
glides |
[w] /w/ в |
[j] /j/ й |
laryngeals |
[h] /h/ гь |
[?] /'/ ъ |
Notes:
- /l/ is [5] after a back vowel at the end of a syllable and [l] elsewhere
- /w/ can be realized as [v] (esp. word-initially) or [B]
- pre-tonic /i/ syncope, may result in palatalization of the preceding consonant. Palatalized consonants occur also in careful pronunciation of Russian loanwords.
That would be it for the sounds of the standard Lezgi. Dialects, however, are a slightly different matter, as some of them have sound systems quite
different from the standards.
- Axceh dialect group has the high back unrounded vowel /M/ corresponding to standard /u/ in non-labializing stems.
- /dz/ and /dZ/ occur in Kyre dialect group and also in some dialects of the Quba group; in the Axceh dialect group and the standard language these fell together
with /z/ and /Z/. In the non-merging dialects /dz/ is marginal, occuring only in a handful of words, whereas /dZ/ is quite frequent, occuring in many Arabo-Perso-Turkic
loanwords
- Several dialects (e.g. St'ur dialect of Quba dialect group) have /X\/ and /?\/ in Arabic loans. Q'urah dialect has /?\/ in native words in place of standard /R/
- Jark'i dialect has the voiced velar fricative /G/
- Gyne dialect has the uvular voiced stop /G\/
- Some dialects have the postalveolar labialized obstruent series: /tS_w/ /tS_h_w/ /tS_>_w/ /S_w/ /Z_w/; in some cases this series appears at the
expense of the dental labialized one; in some cases the two co-exist
- Lastly, some dialects have lost the labialized consonants altogether (vowel rounding compensates for this loss).
Here you can go back to the main language page.
I owe this page, as I owe everything, to K.D. , whose smile makes the impossible happen