Ossetic Language - Phonology

Phonology

Ossetic has 7 vowels:

Front Central Back
Close и /i/ ы /ɨ/ у /u/
Mid е /e/ æ ə о /o/
Open а /a/

Ossetian researcher V.I. Abaev distinguishes 26 consonants, to which five labialized consonants and two semivowels may be added. Unusually for an Indo-European language, there is a series of glottalized (ejective) stops and affricates. This can be considered an areal feature of languages of the Caucasus.

Labial Dental/
alveolar
Postalveolar
/palatal
Velar Uvular
Stops б /b/ д /d/ г /ɡ/ гу /ɡʷ/
п /p/ т /t/ к /k/ ку /kʷ/ хъ /q/ хъу /qʷ/
пъ /pʼ/ тъ /tʼ/ къ /kʼ/ къу /kʷʼ/
Affricates дз /dz/ дж /dʒ/
ц /ts/ ч /tʃ/
цъ /tsʼ/ чъ /tʃʼ/
Fricatives в /v/ з /z/ гъ /ʁ/
ф /f/ с /s/ х /χ/ ху /χʷ/
Nasals м /m/ н /n/
Lateral л /l/
Rhotic р /r/
Approximants й /j/ у /w/

The phonetic realization of /s/ and /z/ varies between, and, . Voiceless consonants become voiced word-medially (this is reflected in the orthography as well). /tʃ/, /dʒ/, and /tʃʼ/ were originally allophones of /k/, /ɡ/, and /kʼ/ when followed by /e/, /i/ and /ɨ/; this alternation is still retained to a large extent.

Stress normally falls on the first syllable, unless it has a "weak" vowel (/ə/ or /ɨ/), in which case it falls on the second syllable. In the Iron dialect, definiteness is expressed in post-initially stressed words by shifting the stress to the initial syllable. This reflects the fact that historically they received a syllabic definite article (as they still do in the Digor dialect), and the addition of the syllable caused the stress to shift.

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