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.
Read more about this topic: Ossetic Language