This article is about the

phonology Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...

and

phonetics Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds, or in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians. ...

of the

Kyrgyz language Kyrgyz (; autonym: , tr. ''Kyrgyz tili'', ) is a Turkic language of the Kipchak branch spoken in Central Asia. Kyrgyz is the official language of Kyrgyzstan and a significant minority language in the Kizilsu Kyrgyz Autonomous Prefecture in X ...

Vowels

* Notes on vowel quality: ** Kyrgyz vowel space is different in affixes and stems. describes the former as more typical and more condensed. ** In stem vowel space, the main difference between and is that the latter is more back. In affix vowel space, they can have the same backness, and differ by height. * appears only in borrowings from Persian and is excluded from normal vowel harmony rules. In most dialects, its status as a vowel distinct from is questionable. There is also a phonetic which appears as a result of regressive assimilation of before syllables with phonological front vowels, e.g. 'sloping'. * are sometimes transcribed .For example by * The sequence of any vowel and the consonant is pronounced as a long vowel with falling pitch. * In colloquial speech, word-final vowels are dropped when the next word begins with a vowel. * All vowels but may be both short and long. Long vowels are the result of historical elisions (e.g.

compensatory lengthening Compensatory lengthening in phonology and historical linguistics is the lengthening of a vowel sound that happens upon the loss of a following consonant, usually in the syllable coda, or of a vowel in an adjacent syllable. Lengthening triggered ...

) and contractions. For example, ''jaa'' "rain" < *''yağ''; ''bee'' "mare" (cf. Kazakh ''biye''); ''too'' "mountain" < *''tağ''; ''döölöt'' "wealth" < Arabic ''daulat''; ''uluu'' "great" < *''uluğ''; ''elüü'' "fifty" < *''elliğ''.

Consonants

* are alveolar, whereas are dental. ** the liquid is velarized in back vowel contexts. * are velar, whereas is palatal. ** are palatal in words with front vowels, and uvular in words with back vowels. *** Word-initial is often voiced . *** In loanwords from Persian and Arabic, palatal are always followed by front vowels, whereas velar are always followed by back vowels, regardless of the vowel harmony. *** Word-final and word-initial is voiced to when it is surrounded by vowels or the consonants . * occur only in foreign borrowings. * In colloquial speech: ** is lenited to after or between vowels. ** is deaffricated to before voiceless consonants. ** Intervocalic can be voiced to . ** Word-final is often devoiced to .

Stress

Recent loanwords often retain their original stress.

Desonorisation and devoicing

In Kyrgyz, suffixes beginning with show desonorisation of the to after consonants (including ), and devoicing to after voiceless consonants; e.g. the definite accusative suffix -NI patterns like this: ('the boat'), ('the month'), ('the net'), ('the hand'), ('the dawn'), ('the eye'), ('the head'). Suffixes beginning with also show desonorisation and devoicing, though only after consonants of equal or lower sonority than , e.g. the plural suffix -LAr patterns like this: ('boats'), ('months'), ('nets'), ('hands'), ('dawns'), ('eyes'), ('heads'). Other -initial suffixes, such as -LA, a denominal verbal suffix, and -LUU, a denominal adjectival suffix, may surface either with or after ; e.g. / ('to net/weave'), / ('various'). See Kyrgyz language#Case for more examples.

References

Bibliography