Kyrgyz phonology

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

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. "àydöş"  'sloping'.
 * are sometimes transcribed.
 * 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) and contractions. For example, já "rain" < *yağ; bé "mare" (cf. Kazakh biye); too "mountain" < *tağ; dőlöt "wealth" < Arabic daulat; ulú "great" < *uluğ; elű"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, mostly from Indo-European and Semitic.
 * 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
Stress is usually always put on the last vowel except for loanwords. 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: ķemeņi ('the boat'), aydı('the month'), tordu ('the net'), koldu ('the hand'), tañdı ('the dawn'), ķözdü ('the eye'), baştı ('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: ķemeļer ('boats'), aylar ('months'), torlor ('nets'), koldor ('hands'), tañdar ('dawns'), ķözdör ('eyes'), baştar ('heads'). Other -initial suffixes, such as -LA, a denominal verbal suffix, and -LÚ, a denominal adjectival suffix, may surface either with or  after ; e.g. тордо-/торло- ('to net/weave'), түрдүү/түрлүү ('various').

See Kyrgyz language for more examples.