Editing Chuvash language (section)

==Phonology==
===Consonants===
The consonants are the following (the corresponding Cyrillic letters are in brackets): The [[stop consonant|stop]]s, [[sibilant]]s and [[affricate]]s are [[voiceless]] and [[fortis and lenis|fortes]] but become [[fortis and lenis|lenes]] (sounding similar to [[voiced]]) in intervocalic position and after [[liquid consonant|liquid]]s, [[nasal stop|nasals]] and [[semi-vowel]]s. Аннепе sounds like ''annebe'', but кушакпа sounds like ''kuzhakpa''. However, [[geminate consonant]]s do not undergo this lenition. Furthermore, the voiced consonants occurring in [[Russian language|Russian]] are used in modern Russian-language loans. Consonants also become [[Palatalization (phonetics)|palatalized]] before and after [[front vowel]]s. However, some words like пульчӑклӑ "dirty", present palatalized consonants without preceding or succeeding front vowels, and should be understood that such are actually phonemic:
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
! rowspan="2" |
! rowspan="2" |[[Labial consonant|Labial]]
! colspan="2" |[[Dental consonant|Dental]]/<br>[[Alveolar consonant|Alveolar]]
! rowspan="2" |[[Postalveolar consonant|Post-<br>alveolar]]
! rowspan="2" |[[Palatal consonant|Palatal]]
! rowspan="2" |[[Velar consonant|Velar]]
|-
!<small>plain</small>
!<small>[[Palatalization (phonetics)|pal.]]</small>
|-
![[Stop consonant|Stop]]
| {{IPA link|p}} {{grapheme|п}}
| {{IPA link|t}} {{grapheme|т}}
|{{IPA link|tʲ}} {{grapheme|ть}}
|
| {{IPA link|tɕ}} {{grapheme|ч}}
| {{IPA link|k}} {{grapheme|к}}
|-
![[Fricative]]
|
| {{IPA link|s}} {{grapheme|c}}
|
| {{IPA link|ʃ}} {{grapheme|ш}}
| {{IPA link|ɕ}} {{grapheme|ҫ}}
| {{IPA link|x}} {{grapheme|x}}
|-
![[Nasal consonant|Nasal]]
| {{IPA link|m}} {{grapheme|м}}
| {{IPA link|n}} {{grapheme|н}}
|{{IPA link|nʲ}} {{grapheme|нь}}
|
|
|
|-
![[Approximant]]
| {{IPA link|ʋ}} {{grapheme|в}}
| {{IPA link|l}} {{grapheme|л}}
|{{IPA link|lʲ}} {{grapheme|ль}}
|
| {{IPA link|j}} {{grapheme|й}}
|
|-
![[Trill consonant|Trill]]
|
| {{IPA link|r}} {{grapheme|p}}
|
|
|
|
|}

* {{IPAslink|x}} can have a voiced allophone of {{IPAblink|ɣ}}.

===Vowels===
[[File:Diachronic development of Chuvash vowels.jpg|thumb|upright=1.59|A possible scheme for the diachronic development of Chuvash vowels {{Citation needed|date=October 2016}} (note that not all the sounds with an asterisk are necessarily separate [[phoneme]]s).]]
According to Krueger (1961), the Chuvash vowel system is as follows (the precise [[International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA]] symbols are chosen based on his description since he uses a different transcription).

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
! rowspan="2" |
! colspan="2" | [[Front vowel|Front]]
! colspan="2" | [[Back vowel|Back]]
|-
! {{small|unrounded}} || {{small|rounded}}
! {{small|unrounded}} || {{small|rounded}}
|-
! [[High vowel|High]]
| {{IPA link|i}} {{grapheme|и}} || {{IPA link|y}} {{grapheme|ӳ}}
| {{IPA link|ɯ}} {{grapheme|ы}} || {{IPA link|u}} {{grapheme|у}}
|-
! [[Low vowel|Low]]
| {{IPA link|e}} {{grapheme|е}} || {{IPA link|ø̆}} {{grapheme|ӗ}}
| {{IPA link|a}} {{grapheme|а}} || {{IPA link|ŏ}} {{grapheme|ӑ}}
|}

András Róna-Tas (1997)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lingfil.uu.se/afro/turkiskasprak/IP2007/NUTSHELLCHUVASH.pdf|title=Nutshell Chuvash|author=András Róna-Tas|work=Erasmus Mundus Intensive Program Turkic languages and cultures in Europe (TLCE)|access-date=31 August 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110807192758/http://www2.lingfil.uu.se/afro/turkiskasprak/IP2007/NUTSHELLCHUVASH.pdf|archive-date=7 August 2011}}</ref> provides a somewhat different description, also with a partly idiosyncratic transcription. The following table is based on his version, with additional information from Petrov (2001). Again, the IPA symbols are not directly taken from the works so they could be inaccurate.

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
! rowspan="2" |
! colspan="2" | [[Front vowel|Front]]
! colspan="2" | [[Back vowel|Back]]
|-
! {{small|unrounded}} || {{small|rounded}}
! {{small|unrounded}} || {{small|rounded}}
|-
! [[High vowel|High]]
| {{IPA link|i}} {{grapheme|и}} || {{IPA link|y}} {{grapheme|ӳ}}
| {{IPA link|ɯ}} {{grapheme|ы}} || {{IPA link|u}} {{grapheme|у}}
|-
! [[Close-mid vowel|Close-mid]]
| {{IPA link|ӗ}} {{grapheme|ĕ}} ||
| {{IPA link|ɤ̆}} {{grapheme|ӑ}} ||
|-
! [[Open-mid vowel|Open-mid]]
|  {{IPA link|ɛ}} {{grapheme|е}} ||
| ||
|-
! [[Low vowel|Low]]
| ||
|  {{IPA link|a}} {{grapheme|а}} ||
|}

The vowels ӑ and ӗ are described as [[reduced vowel|reduced]], thereby differing in [[vowel quantity|quantity]] from the rest. In unstressed positions, they often resemble a [[schwa]] or tend to be dropped altogether in fast speech. At times, especially when stressed, they may be somewhat rounded and sound similar to {{IPA|/o/}} and {{IPA|/ø/}}.

Additionally, {{IPA|ɔ}} (о) occurs in loanwords from Russian where the syllable is stressed in Russian.

===Word accent===
The usual rule given in grammars of Chuvash is that the last full (non-reduced) vowel of the word is stressed; if there are no full vowels, the first vowel is stressed.<ref>Dobrovolsky (1999), p. 539.</ref> Reduced vowels that precede or follow a stressed full vowel are extremely short and non-prominent. One scholar, Dobrovolsky, however, hypothesises that there is in fact no stress in disyllabic words in which both vowels are reduced.<ref>Dobrovolsky (1999), p. 541.</ref>

=== Morphonology ===

==== Vowel harmony ====
[[Vowel harmony]] is the principle by which a native Chuvash word generally incorporates either exclusively back or hard vowels (а, ӑ, у, ы) and exclusively front or soft vowels (е, ӗ, ӳ, и). As such, a Chuvash suffix such as -тен means either -тан or -тен, whichever promotes vowel harmony; a notation such as -тпӗр means either -тпӑр, -тпӗр, again with vowel harmony constituting the deciding factor.

Chuvash has two classes of vowels: ''front'' and ''back'' (see the table [[#Vowels|above]]). Vowel harmony states that words may not contain both front and back vowels. Therefore, most grammatical suffixes come in front and back forms, e.g. Шупашкар'''та''', "in Cheboksary" but кил'''те''', "at home".

Two vowels cannot occur in succession.

=====Exceptions=====

Vowel harmony does not apply for some invariant suffixes such as the plural ending -сем and the 3rd person (possessive or verbal) ending -ӗ, which only have a front version.<ref>Rona-Tas 1997: 3</ref> It also does not occur in loanwords and in a few native Chuvash words (such as анне "mother"). In such words suffixes harmonize with the final vowel; thus Анне'''пе''' "with the mother".

Compound words are considered separate words with respect to vowel harmony: vowels do not have to harmonize between members of the compound (so forms like сӗтел|пукан "furniture" are permissible).

====Other processes====
The consonant т often alternates with ч before ӗ from original *''i'' (ят 'name' - ячӗ 'his name'). There is also an alternation between т (after consonants) and р (after vowels): тетел 'fishing net (nom.)' - dative тетел-те, but пулӑ 'fish (nom.)' - dative пулӑ-ра.<ref name="Róna-Tas 1997: 4">Róna-Tas (1997: 4)</ref>

'''Consonants'''

In the Chuvash orthography, the fortis and lenis consonants are not differentiated, because their changes are very straightforward. Therefore, only voiceless consonants are written. 

{| class="wikitable"
! English word !! Written Chuvash !! IPA 
!Notes
|-
| plowing || ака (aka) || {{IPA|[ɑˈk̬ɑ]}}
|
|-
| I, me || эпӗ (epĕ) || {{IPA|[ˈep̬ʲɘ̆]}}
|Notice the palatalization on /p/.
|-
|ancient || авалхи (avalxi) || {{IPA|[ɑʋɑl̴ˈx̬ɨ]}}
|Notice the centralization of /i/ in a back vowels word, and the lack of palatalization on /x/.
|-
| glorious || хӳхӗм (xüxĕm) || {{IPA|[ˈxʲyx̬ʲɘ̆mʲ]}}
|Notice the palatalization on /m/.
|-
| nine || тӑххӑр (tăxxăr) || {{IPA|[ˈtŏxːŏr]}}
|
|-
| three || виҫҫӗ (viccĕ) ||  {{IPA|[ˈʋʲiɕːɘ̆]}}
|
|}
Voicing also occurs on word boundaries: 
{| class="wikitable"
!English phrase
!Written Chuvash
!IPA
!Notes
|-
|Good day!
|Ырӑ кун! (Iră kun!)
|{{IPA|[ˈɯrŏ‿k̬un]}}
|
|-
|Is it okay?
|Юрать-и? (Yuraty-i?)
|{{IPA|[juˈrɑt̬ʲ.i]}}
| -i is a question suffix.
|}