Help:IPA/Persian

The charts below show the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents Persian, Dari, and Tajik language pronunciations in Wikipedia articles. For a guide to adding IPA characters to Wikipedia articles, see Template:IPA, and Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation § Entering IPA characters.

See Persian phonology for a more thorough look at the sounds of Persian.

IPA Consonants[1]
Iran
Farsi
Afghanistan
Dari
Tajikistan
Tajik
Arabic
letter
Cyrillic
letter
Example word English approximation
Arabic script Cyrillic script
b ب б برادر бародар beet[2] - boy
d د д د‫وست‬ дӯст den - Daniel
ج ҷ جوان ҷавон jazz - joy
f ف ф فشار фишор fast - festival
ɡ گ г گروه гуруҳ gate[3] - gooseberry
ɣ , q
ɢ[4]
ɣ غ
[5]
ғ باغ боғ Either:
  • Spanish fuego ([ɣ]),
  • Similar to cost (but deeper in the throat) ([q]),
  • Similar to got (but deeper in the throat) ([ɢ])
q ق қ قلم қалам
h ه
ح
ҳ هفت ҳафт hat
j ی й یا ё yard
ک к کشور кишвар cat[6]
l ل л لب лаб land
m م м مادر модар man[7]
n ن н نان нон neck
‫پ‬ п ‫پدر‬ пидор pen[6]
ɾ ر р ایران Эрон Flapped or rolled R[8]
ɹ ring
s س
ص
ث
с سایه сойа sock
ʃ ‫ش‬ ш ‫شاه‬ шоҳ shake
ت
ط
т تا то tall[6]
tʃʰ چ ч چوب чӯб chip[6]
v w v و в ویژه вижа Farsi & Tajik: oven, Dari: wet[9][10]
x خ х خانه хона loch (Scottish)
z ز
ذ
ض
ظ
з آزاد озод jazz[11]
ʒ ژ ж ژاله жола vision[12]
ʔ ع
ء[13]
ъ معنا маъно As in water, better, Let's go! (Cockney); button (GA and RP; see T-glottalization)
Marginal consonants
ŋ نگ нг رنگ ранг sing[14]
Stress
ˈ [15] э ایران
[ʔiːˈɾɒːn]
Эрон about
/əˈbt/
IPA Vowels
Iran
Farsi
Afghanistan
Dari
Tajikistan
Tajik
Arabic
letter
Cyrillic
letter
Example word English approximation
Arabic script Cyrillic script Farsi Dari Tajik
Monophthongs
æ[16] æ, a َ[17]
ه
а نه на bat
e[16][18] ɪ i ِ[17]
ه[19]
и که ки between bait and bet[20] bit beat
o[16] ʊ u [21]ُ
و[17]
у تو ту story pull cool
ɒː[22] ɑː ɔ آ
َا
о تا то off, but longer father off
ی е شیر шер beat bait bet
i ِی и, ӣ شیر шир beat
ɵ̞, و ӯ رو рӯ cool story bet, story
u ُو у رو ру cool
Diphthongs[23]
ej æj َی ай کی кай bay buy
ow[24] æw æʋ َو ав نو нав goal loud
  1. ^ Persian consonants can be geminated (doubled), especially in words from Arabic. This is represented in IPA by doubling the consonant: [sejjed].
  2. ^ Also an allophone of /p/ before voiced consonants.
  3. ^ Also an allophone of /k/ before voiced consonants.
  4. ^ Also an allophone of /x/ before voiced consonants.
  5. ^ غ and ق denoted the original Arabic phonemes in Classical Persian, the voiced velar fricative [ɣ] and the voiceless uvular stop [q] (pronounced in Persian as voiced uvular stop [ɢ]), respectively. In the modern Tehrani accent (both colloquial and standard dialects), the phonemes of غ and ق are allophones; when /ɣ/ (spelled either غ or ق) occurs at the beginning or the end of a word, after a consonant and at the end of a syllable, it is realized as a voiced uvular plosive [ɢ]. When /ɢ/ (also spelled either غ or ق) occurs intervocalically, it is realized as a voiced velar fricative [ɣ]. The allophone is probably influenced by Turkic languages like Azeri and Turkmen. The sounds remain distinct in Persian dialects of southern Iran and Eastern Persian dialects (Dari and Tajik).
  6. ^ a b c d The unvoiced stops /p, t, tʃ, k/ are aspirated much like their English counterparts: they become aspirated when they begin a syllable, but aspiration is not contrastive.
  7. ^ Also an allophone of /n/ before bilabial consonants.
  8. ^ A trilled allophone [r] occurs word-initially (Spanish, Italian, or Russian r; it can be in free variation between a trill [r] and a flap [ɾ]); trill [r] as a separate phoneme occurs word-medially especially in loanwords of Arabic origin as a result of gemination (doubling) of [ɾ]. Only [ɾ] occurs before and after consonants; in word-final position it is usually a free variation between a flap or a trill when followed by a consonant or a pause, but flap is more common, only flap before vowel-initial words.
  9. ^ While و is pronounced [v] in Iranian Persian, it is pronounced as [w] in Dari.
  10. ^ [v] is also an allophone of [f] before voiced consonants.
  11. ^ Also an allophone of /s/ before voiced consonants.
  12. ^ Also an allophone of /ʃ/ before voiced consonants.
  13. ^ Moreover spoken before all initial vowel onsets (as in ایران [ʔiːˈɾɒːn] (Iran))
  14. ^ Velar nasal [ŋ] is an allophone of /n/ before [g], [k], [ɣ], [ɢ], and [x] in native vocabulary.
  15. ^ Stress falls on the last stem syllable of most words. For the various exceptions and other clarifications, see Persian phonology § Word accent.
  16. ^ a b c The three short or unstable vowels are actually short only in open, non-final syllables. In other environments, their length is equal to the long vowels (Toosarvandani, Maziar Doustdar (9 November 2004). "Vowel Length in Modern Farsi" (PDF). Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 14 (03): 241–251. doi:10.1017/S1356186304004079.).
  17. ^ a b c In the modern Persian script, the "short" vowels /æ/, /e/, /o/ are usually not written, like in the Arabic alphabet; only the long vowels /ɒː/, /iː/, /uː/ are represented in the text. That, of course, creates certain ambiguities.
  18. ^ [e] is also a word-final allophone of /æ/ in contemporary Iranian Persian.
  19. ^ Only word finally, when it forms the silent he.
  20. ^ The Farsi /e/ is different from any English vowel, but the nearest equivalents are the vowel of bait (for most English dialects) and the vowel of bet; the Persian vowel is usually between the two.
  21. ^ Only when it forms the silent vav.
  22. ^ The level of roundedness may vary. Campbell (1995) writes simply /ɔː/, but Majidi & Ternes (1999) describe it as "underrounded" but write /ɒ/ anyway. The vowel may be written as /ɑ/ as well.[1][dead link][2][dead link]
  23. ^ The number and even the existence of diphthongs in Persian are disputed (Alamolhoda, Seyyed Morleza (2000). "Phonostatistics and Phonotactics of the Syllable in Modern Persian". Studia Orientalia. 89: 14–15. ISSN 0039-3282.).
  24. ^ /ou/ becomes [o] in the colloquial Tehrani dialect but is preserved in other Western dialects and standard Eastern Persian.