Editing Tajik language (section)

==Phonology==

===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.
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
|+ Tajik vowels<ref name="Khojayori, Nasrullo 2009">Khojayori, Nasrullo, and Mikael Thompson. Tajiki Reference Grammar for Beginners. Washington, DC: Georgetown UP, 2009.</ref>
!
! [[Front vowel|Front]]
! [[Central vowel|Central]]
! [[Back vowel|Back]]
|-
! [[Close vowel|Close]]
| {{lang|tg-Cyrl|и}} {{lang|tg-Cyrl|ӣ}} {{IPAslink|i}}
|
| {{lang|tg-Cyrl|у}} {{IPAslink|u}}
|-
! [[Mid vowel|Mid]]
| {{lang|tg-Cyrl|е}} {{IPAslink|e̞}}
| colspan="2" | {{lang|tg-Cyrl|ӯ}} {{IPAslink|ɵ̞}} ({{IPAslink|o̞}})
|-
! [[Open vowel|Open]]
| colspan="2" | {{lang|tg-Cyrl|а}} {{IPAslink|a}}
| {{lang|tg-Cyrl|о}} {{IPAslink|ɔ}}
|}

In northern and Uzbek dialects, classical {{IPAslink|o̞}} has [[chain shift]]ed forward in the mouth to {{IPAslink|ɵ̞}}. In central and southern dialects, classical {{IPAslink|o̞}} has chain shifted upward and merged into {{IPAslink|u}}.<ref>''[https://books.google.com/books?id=3sNV38u-zBwC A Beginners' Guide to Tajiki]'' by Azim Baizoyev and John Hayward, Routledge, London and New York, 2003, p. 3</ref> In the [[Zarafshon (river)|Zarafshon]] dialect, earlier {{IPA|/u/}} has shifted to {{IPAslink|y}} or {{IPAslink|ʊ}}, however {{IPA|/u/}} from earlier {{IPA|/ɵ/}} remained (possibly due to influence from [[Yaghnobi language|Yaghnobi]]).<ref>{{cite book|last=Novák|first=Ľubomír|title=Problem of Archaism and Innovation in the Eastern Iranian Languages (PhD dissertation)|url=https://www.academia.edu/4896441|location=Prague|publisher=Univerzita Karlova v Praze, filozofická fakulta|year=2013}}</ref>

The open back vowel has varyingly been described as mid-back {{IPA|[o̞]}},<ref>Lazard, G. 1956</ref><ref>Perry, J. R. (2005)</ref> {{IPA|[ɒ]}},<ref>Nakanishi, Akira, ''Writing Systems of the World''</ref> {{IPA|[ɔ]}}<ref name=Ido /> and {{IPA|[ɔː]}}.<ref>Korotkow, M. (2004)</ref> It is analogous to standard Persian ''â'' (long ''a''). However, it is  standardly not a back vowel.<ref>''Standard Tajik phonology'' by Shinji Ido, Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin, 2023</ref>

The vowel ⟨Ӣ ӣ⟩ usually represents a stressed /i/ at the end of a word. However, not all instances of ⟨Ӣ ӣ⟩ are stressed, as can be seen with the second person singular suffix -ӣ remaining unstressed.

The vowels /i/, /u/ and /a/ may be reduced to [ə] in unstressed syllables.

===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].<ref name="Khojayori, Nasrullo 2009"/> The table below lists the consonant phonemes in standard, literary Tajik. Letters from the Tajik Cyrillic alphabet are given first, followed by IPA transcription.

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
! colspan="2" |
![[Labial consonant|Labial]]
![[dental consonant|Dental]]/<br />[[Alveolar consonant|Alveolar]]
! [[Postalveolar consonant|Post-alv.]]/<br />[[palatal consonant|Palatal]]
![[velar consonant|Velar]]
![[uvular consonant|Uvular]]
![[glottal consonant|Glottal]]
|-
! colspan="2" |[[Nasal stop|Nasal]]
|м {{IPAslink|m}}
|н {{IPAslink|n}}
|
|
|
|
|-
! rowspan="2" |[[Stop consonant|Stop]]/<br>[[Affricate]]
!<small>[[Voicelessness|voiceless]]</small>
|п {{IPAslink|p}} 
|т {{IPAslink|t}} 
|ч {{IPAslink|tʃ}} 
|к {{IPAslink|k}} 
|қ {{IPAslink|q}}
|ъ {{IPAslink|ʔ}}
|-
!<small>[[Voice (phonetics)|voiced]]</small>
|б {{IPAslink|b}}
|д {{IPAslink|d}}
|ҷ {{IPAslink|dʒ}}
|г {{IPAslink|ɡ}}
|
|
|-
! rowspan="2" |[[Fricative consonant|Fricative]]
!<small>[[Voicelessness|voiceless]]</small>
|ф {{IPAslink|f}} 
|с {{IPAslink|s}} 
|ш {{IPAslink|ʃ}} 
|
|х {{IPAslink|χ}} 
|ҳ {{IPAslink|h}}
|-
!<small>[[Voice (phonetics)|voiced]]</small>
|в {{IPAslink|v}}
|з {{IPAslink|z}}
|ж {{IPAslink|ʒ}}
|
|ғ {{IPAslink|ʁ}}
|
|-
! colspan="2" |[[Approximant consonant|Approximant]]
|
|л {{IPAslink|l}}
|й {{IPAslink|j}}
|
|
|
|-
! colspan="2" |[[Trill consonant|Trill]]
|
|р {{IPAslink|r}}
|
|
|
|
|}

At least in the dialect of [[Bukhara]], ⟨Ч ч⟩ and ⟨Ҷ ҷ⟩ are pronounced {{IPAslink|tɕ}} and {{IPAslink|dʑ}} respectively, with ⟨Ш ш⟩ and ⟨Ж ж⟩ also being {{IPAslink|ɕ}} and {{IPAslink|ʑ}}.<ref>Ido, Shinji. 2014. Illustrations of the IPA: Bukharan Tajik. Journal of the International Phonetic Association 44. 87–102. Cambridge University Press.</ref>

===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.<ref name="Khojayori, Nasrullo 2009"/> 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 [[enclitic]]s, nor on the marker of the direct object.