Aimaq dialect

Vowels

• The "majhul" vowels ē and ō are kept separate in Aimaq, whereas in western Persian they are merged with ī and ū respectively. For instance, the identically written words شیر 'lion' and 'milk' are in western Persian both pronounced [šīr], but in Aimaq [šēr] for 'lion' and [šīr] for 'milk'. The long vowel in زود 'quick' [zūd] and زور 'strong' [zūr] is realized as [ū] in western Persian, whereas these words are pronounced as [zūd] and [zōr] respectively by Aimaq speakers.
• The diphthongs of early Classical Persian aw (as ow in Engl. cow) and ay (as i in English ice) have in Aimaq become [ow] (as in Engl. low) and [ej] (as in Engl. day). Dari and Iranian Persian, on the other hand, are more archaic, e.g. نوروز 'Persian New Year' is realized as [nowrūz], and نخیر 'no' is uttered as [naχejr] in Dari and Iranian Persian, and as [naχajr] in Aimaq.
• /æ/^{[clarification needed]} and /e/ are kept separate in word-final positions in Aimaq, whereas in western Persian, /æ/ has [e] as a word-final allophone.

Consonants

• Aimaq pronounces و as a bilabial consonant [w], which is realized as a voiced labiodental fricative [v] in western Persian. [v] is found in Aimaq as an allophone of f before voiced consonants.
• The voiceless uvular plosive /q/ (ق) and voiced velar fricative /ɣ/ (غ) are treated as separate phonemes in Aimaq whereas in western Persian they are merged as one.

Footnotes

Notations

• Clifton, John M. (ed.) (2005) Studies in languages of Tajikistan North Eurasia Group, SIL International, St Petersburg, Russia, OCLC 122939499

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