The phonology of the Persian language varies betweenregional dialects andstandard varieties. Persian is apluricentric language and countries that have Persian as an official language have separate standard varieties, namely: StandardDari (Afghanistan), StandardIranian Persian (Iran) and StandardTajik (Tajikistan).^[1] The most significant differences between standard varieties of Persian are theirvowel systems. Standard varieties of Persian have anywhere from 6 to 8 vowel distinctions, and similar vowels may be pronounced differently between standards. However, there are not many notable differences when comparing consonants, as all standard varieties have a similar number ofconsonant sounds. Though, colloquial varieties generally have more differences than their standard counterparts. Most dialects feature contrastivestress andsyllable-finalconsonant clusters. Linguists tend to focus on Iranian Persian, so this article may contain less adequate information regarding other varieties.

The graph to the right reflects the vowels of many educated Persian speakers from Tehran.^[2][3]

In Iranian Persian there are three short vowels:/æ/,/e/ and/o/, and three long vowels:/ɒː/,/iː/ and/uː/. The three short vowels are only short when in an open syllable (i.e., without acoda) that is non-final (regardless of stress); e.g.,صِدا[seˈdɒː] "sound",خُدا[xoˈdɒː] "God". In an unstressed closed syllable, they are around 60 percent as long as a long vowel. Otherwise all vowels are long; e.g.,سِفْت‌تَر[seˑfˈtʰtæːɾ] "firmer".^[4] When the short vowels are in open syllables, they are also sometimes unstable and may tend to assimilate in quality to the following long vowel (both in informal and formal speech). Thus,دِوِیسْت/deˈviːst/ "two hundred" ranges between[de̝ˈviːstʰ] and[diˈviːstʰ];شُلُوْغ/ʃoˈluːɢ/ "crowded" ranges between[ʃo̝ˈluːɢ] and[ʃuˈluːɢ];رَسِیدن/ræsiːˈdæːn/ "to arrive" ranges between[ræ̝siːˈdæːn] and[resiːˈdæːn]; and so on.^[4]

In Dari the short vowels are/a/,/ɪ/ and/ʊ/ in Kabul, however/ɪ/ is pronounced as/ɛ/ in other regions such as Herat.^[5] In Dari and Tajik/a/ is the most common vowel and at the end of a word may be pronounced as/æ/.^[a] Unlike Iranian Persian, Dari has 5 long vowels/ɑː/,/eː/,/iː/,/oː/, and/uː/. The Dari vowel/ɑː/ and the Iranian vowel/ɒː/ are, respectively, the unrounded and rounded versions of the same vowel. ('roundedness' refers to the shape of the lips during pronunciation)

In Iranian Persian word-final/o/ is rare except forتُو[tʰo] "you" and nouns of foreign origin. Word-final/æ/ is very rare in Iranian Persian, with the exception beingنَه[næ] "no". The word-final/æ/ in Early New Persian mostly shifted to/e/ in contemporary Iranian Persian, and[e] is also an allophone of/æ/ in word-final position./e/ is the most common short vowel that is pronounced in final open syllables.

The status ofdiphthongs in Persian is disputed.^[6][7] Some authors list/ei,ou,ɒi,oi,ui/,^[6] others list only/ej/ and/ou/, but some do not recognize diphthongs in Persian at all.^[6][7] A major factor that complicates the matter is the change of two classical and pre-classical Persian diphthongs:/ai/>/ei/ and/au/>/ou/. This shift occurred in Iran but not in some modern varieties (particularly in Afghanistan).^[6] Morphological analysis also supports the view that the alleged Persian diphthongs are combinations of the vowels with/j/ and/w/.^[7]

The Persian orthography does not distinguish between the diphthongs and the consonants/j/ and/w/; that is, they are both respectively written asی andو.

/ou/ becomes[oː] in the colloquial Tehran dialect but is preserved in other Western dialects and standard Iranian Persian.^{[citation needed]}

In the modernPerso-Arabic alphabet, the short vowels/a/,/i/ and/u/ are usually left unwritten, as is normally done in theArabic alphabet. (SeeArabic phonology § Vowels.)

Early New Persian inherited fromMiddle Persian eight vowels: three shorti, a, u and five longī, ē, ā, ō, ū (inIPA:/iau/ and/iːeːɑːoːuː/). It is likely that this system passed into the common Persian era from a purely quantitative system into one where the short vowels differed from their long counterparts also in quality:i >[ɪ];u >[ʊ];ā >[ɑː]. These quality contrasts have in modern Persian varieties become the main distinction between the two sets of vowels.^[8]

The inherited eight-vowel inventory is retained without major upheaval inDari, which also preserves quantitative distinctions.^[9]

InWestern Persian, two of the vowel contrasts have been lost: those between the tense mid and close vowels. Thusē,ī have merged as[iː], whileō,ū have merged as[uː]. In addition, the lax close vowels have been lowered:i >[e],u >[o]; this vowel change has also happened in many dialects of Dari. The lax open vowel has become fronted:a >[æ], and in word-final position further raised to[e]. Modern Iranian Persian does not feature distinctive vowel length.^[10]

In both varieties,ā is more or less labialized and raised in Dari. Dariō is also somewhat fronted.^[9]

Tajiki has also lost two of the vowel contrasts, but differently from Western Persian. Here, the tense/lax contrast among the close vowels has been eliminated. That is,i andī have merged as/ɪ/, andu andū as/ʊ/. The back vowels havechain shifted as well. Openā has been rounded and raised to an open-mid vowel/ɔ/ (compare withCanaanite shift). In northern dialects, midō (transcribed phonologically as⟨ӯ⟩ in the Cyrillic script and "ū" in the Latin script) has shifted to/ɵ/, while in southern dialects, midō has shifted upward and merged withū (andu) as/ʊ/.

A feature of Eastern Persian^[a] dialects is the systematiclowering ofi andī (both⟨и⟩ in Tajiki) toe andē (both⟨е⟩ in Tajiki), andu andū (both⟨у⟩ in Tajiki) too andō (both⟨ӯ⟩ in Tajiki), directly before aglottal consonant (/h/ or/ʔ/) that is in the same syllable; loanwords fromArabic generally undergo these changes as well. However, since⟨ӯ⟩ (o,ō) has merged into⟨у⟩ (u,ū) in most dialects of southern and central Tajikistan,⟨у⟩ (/ʊ/) is realized before the glottal consonants in those dialects instead. (This phenomenon also occurs in neighbouringUrdu andHindi, but it is only theshort vowelsi andu that are lowered toe ando before/h/ and/ʔ/.)

The following chart summarizes the later shifts into modern Tajik, Dari, and Western Persian.^{[9][11][1][12]}

Notes:

1. In CentralIranian Persian/ɣ/ and/q/ have merged into [ɣ~ɢ]; as a voiced velar fricative[ɣ] when positionedintervocalically and unstressed, and as a voiced uvular stop[ɢ] otherwise. Many dialects within Iran have well preserved the distinction.^[2][13][14]
2. While a single phoneme across all dialects, it may be interpreted as phonemic /w/ in Dari and Classical Persian, and phonemic /v/ in Iranian Persian. In Dari and Classical Persian, this phoneme is fairly stable; it is exclusively realized as [w] without any notable allophonic variations. In Iranian Persian, this phoneme is a stable [v] in the onset, but less stable in the coda, where [w] may occur after certain vowels. In Tajik, it varies freely between [w~v] most of the time, but [v] is more common in the syllable onset.^[15][16]

Alveolar stops/t/ and/d/ are eitherapicalalveolar orlaminaldenti-alveolar. Thevoicelessobstruents/p,t,t͡ʃ,k/ areaspirated much like their English counterparts: they become aspirated when they begin a syllable, though aspiration is notcontrastive.^[17] The Persian language does not have syllable-initial consonant clusters (see below), so unlike in English,/p,t,k/ are aspirated even following/s/, as inهَسْتَم/ˈhæstæm/ ('I exist').^[18] They are also aspirated at the end of syllables, although not as strongly.

Thevelar stops/k,ɡ/ arepalatalized beforefront vowels or at the end of a syllable.

In Classical Persian, theuvular consonantsغ andق denoted the original Arabic phonemes, the fricative[ʁ] and the plosive[q], respectively. In modernTehrani Persian (which is used in the Iranian mass media, both colloquial and standard), there is no difference in the pronunciation ofغ andق. The actual realisation is usually that of a voiced stop[ɢ], but a voiced fricative [ɣ~ʁ] is common intervocalically. The classical pronunciations ofغ andق are preserved in the eastern varieties,Dari andTajiki, as well as in the southern varieties (e.g.Zoroastrian Dari language and other Central / Central Plateau orKermanic languages).

Some Iranian speakers show a similar merger ofج andژ, such that[d͡ʒ] alternates with[ʒ], with the latter being restricted to intervocalic position.

Some speakers front/h/ to avoiceless palatal fricative[ç] in the vicinity of/i/, especially in syllable-final position. The velar/uvular fricatives are never fronted in such a way.

The flap/ɾ/ has atrilled allophone [r] at the beginning of a word;^[17] otherwise, they contrast between vowels wherein a trill occurs as a result of gemination (doubling) of [ɾ], especially in loanwords of Arabic origin. 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. Anapproximant[ɹ] also occurs as an allophone of/ɾ/ before/t,d,s,z,ʃ,ʒ,l/;[ɹ] is sometimes in free variation with[ɾ] in these and other positions, such thatفارْسِی ('Persian') is pronounced[fɒːɹˈsiː] or[fɒːɾˈsiː] andسَقِرْلات ('scarlet')[sæɣeɹˈlɒːt] or[sæɣeɾˈlɒːt]./r/ is sometimes realized as a long approximant[ɹː].

Thevelar nasal[ŋ] is an allophone of/n/ before/k,ɡ/, and theuvular nasal[ɴ] before/q/.

/f,s,ʃ,x/ may be voiced to, respectively,[v,z,ʒ,ɣ] before voiced consonants;/n/ may be bilabial[m] beforebilabial consonants. Also/b/ may in some cases change into[β], or even[v]; for exampleباز ('open') may be pronounced[bɒːz] as well as[βɒːz] or[vɒːz] and/or[vɒː], colloquially.

The pronunciation ofو[w] in Classical Persian shifted to[v] in Iranian Persian and Tajik, but is retained in Dari. In modern Persian[w] may be lost if preceded by a consonant and followed by a vowel in one whole syllable, e.g.خواب/xwɒb/~[xɒb] 'sleep', as Persian has no syllable-initial consonant clusters (see below).

Before every initial vowel onset, a glottal stop/ʔ/ is pronounced (e.g.,ایران[ʔiˈɾɒn]'Iran').

In standard Iranian Persian, the consonants/ʁ/ and/ɢ/ are pronounced identically.

Consonants, including/ʔ/ and/h/, can begeminated, often in words fromArabic. This is represented in the IPA by doubling the consonant,سَیِّدсаййид[sejˈjed].^[19][20]

Syllables may be structured as (C)(S)V(S)(C(C)).^[17][13]

Persiansyllable structure consists of an optional syllable onset, consisting of one consonant; an obligatory syllable nucleus, consisting of a vowel optionally preceded by and/or followed by asemivowel; and an optional syllable coda, consisting of one or two consonants. The following restrictions apply:

• Onset
  • Consonant (C): Can be any consonant. (Onset is composed only of one consonant; consonant clusters are only found in loanwords, sometimes an epenthetic/æ/ is inserted between consonants.)
• Nucleus
  • Semivowel (S)
  • Vowel (V)
  • Semivowel (S)
• Coda
  • First consonant (C): Can be any consonant.
  • Second consonant (C): Can also be any consonant (mostly/d/,/k/,/s/,/t/, &/z/).

The Persian word-accent has been described as astress accent by some,^[21] and as apitch accent by others.^[22] In fact, the accented syllables in Persian are generally pronounced with a raised pitch as well as stress; but in certain contexts words may become deaccented and lose their high pitch.^[23][24]

From an intonational point of view, Persian words (or accentual phrases) usually have the intonation (L +) H* (where L is low and H* is a high-toned stressed syllable), e.g.کِتاب/keˈtɒ́b/ 'book'; unless there is a suffix, in which case the intonation is (L +) H* + L, e.g.کتابم/keˈtɒ́bæm/ 'my book'. The last accent of a sentence is usually accompanied by a lowboundary tone, which produces a falling pitch on the last accented syllable, e.g.کِتاب بُود/keˈtɒ̂bbuːd/ 'it was a book'.^[23][24]

When two words are joined in anاِضافَهezafe construction, they can either be pronounced accentually as two separate words, e.g.مَرْدُمِ اِینْجا/mærˈdómeinˈd͡ʒɒ́/ 'the people (of) here', or else the first word loses its high tone and the two words are pronounced as a single accentual phrase:/mærˈdomeinˈd͡ʒɒ́/. Words also become deaccented following afocused word; for example, in the sentenceنامَهٔ مامانَم بُود رُو میز/nɒˈmejemɒˈmɒnæmbudrumiz/ 'it was mymom's letter on the table' all the syllables following the wordمامان/mɒˈmɒn/ 'mom' are pronounced with a low pitch.^[23]

Knowing the rules for the correct placement of the accent is essential for proper pronunciation.^[25]

1. Accent is heard on the last stem-syllable of most words.
2. Accent is heard on the first syllable ofinterjections,conjunctions andvocatives. E.g.بله/ˈbæle/ ('yes'),نَخَیْر/ˈnæxeir/ ('no, indeed'),وَلِی/ˈvæli/ ('but'),چِرا/ˈtʃerɒ/ ('why'),اَگَر/ˈæɡær/ ('if'),مِرْسِی/ˈmersi/ ('thanks'),خانُم/ˈxɒnom/ ('Ma'am'),آقا/ˈɒɢɒ/ ('Sir'); cf.4-4 below.
3. Never accented are:
   1. personal suffixes on verbs (/-æm/ ('I do..'),/-i/ ('you do..'), ..,/-ænd/ ('they do..') (with two exceptions, cf.4-1 and5 below);
   2. the possessive and pronoun-object suffixes,/-æm/,/-et/,/-eʃ/, &c.
   3. a small set of very common nounenclitics: the/ezɒfe/اضافه (/-e/,/-je) ('of'),/-rɒ/ a definite direct object marker,/-i/ ('a'),/-o/ ('and');
4. Always accented are:
   1. the personal suffixes on the positive future auxiliary verb (exception to3-1 above);
   2. the negative verb prefix/næ-/,/ne-/;
   3. if/næ-/,/ne-/ is not present, then the first non-negative verb prefix (e.g./mi-/ ('-ing'),/be-/ ('do!') or the prefix noun in compound verbs (e.g.کار/kɒr/ inکار می‌کَرْدَم/ˈkɒrmi-kærdæm/);
   4. the last syllable of all other words, including the infinitive ending/-æn/ and the participial ending/-te/,/-de/ in verbal derivatives, noun suffixes like/-i/ ('-ish') and/-eɡi/, all plural suffixes (/-hɒ/,/-ɒn/), adjective comparative suffixes (/-tær/,/-tærin/), and ordinal-number suffixes (/-om/). Nouns not in the vocative are stressed on the final syllable:خانُم/xɒˈnom/ ('lady'),آقا/ɒˈɢɒ/ ('gentleman'); cf.2 above.
5. In the informal language, the present perfect tense is pronounced like the simple past tense. Only the word-accent distinguishes between these tenses: the accented personal suffix indicates the present perfect and the unstressed one the simple past tense (exception to3-1 above):

When spoken formally, Iranian Persian is pronounced as written. But colloquial pronunciation as used by all classes makes a number of very common substitutions. Note that Iranians can interchange colloquial and formalsociolects in conversational speech. They include:^[25][26]

• In the Tehran accent and also most of the accents in Central and Southern Iran, the sequence/ɒn/ in the colloquial language is nearly always pronounced[un]. The only common exceptions are high prestige words, such asایران[ʔiˈɾɒn] ('Iran'), and foreign nouns (both common and proper), like the Spanish surnameبِلْتْرانBeltran[belˈtrɒn], which are pronounced as written. A few words written as/ɒm/ are pronounced[um], especially forms of the verbآمَدَن/ɒmæˈdæn/ ('to come').
• In the Tehran accent, the unstressed direct object suffix markerرا/ɾɒ/ is pronounced/ɾo/ after a vowel, and/o/ after a consonant.
• /h/ can be deleted in syllable-final position; e.g.کوه/kuːh/ ('mountain') ->[kuː].
• Some consonant clusters, especially/st/, can be simplified in syllable-final position; e.g.دَسْت/dæst/ ('hand') ->[dæːs].
• The 2nd and 3rd person pluralverb subject suffixes, written/-id/ and/-ænd/ respectively, are pronounced[-in] and[-æn].
• The stems of many frequently-occurring verbs have a short colloquial form, especiallyاَسْت/æst/ ('he/she is'), which is colloquially shortened to/e/ after a consonant or/s/ after a vowel. Also, the stems of verbs which end in/h/,/v/ or a vowel are shortened; e.g.می‌خواهَم/ˈmixɒːhæm/ ('I want') →[ˈmixɒːm], andمی‌رَوَم/ˈmirævæm/ ('I go' →[ˈmiræm]).

• Korangy, Alireza;Mahmoodi-Bakhtiari, Behrooz, eds. (2025).The Handbook of Persian Dialects and Dialectology. Singapore: Springer Nature.doi:10.1007/978-981-99-8151-9.ISBN 978-981-99-8150-2.

• Persian to Persian dictionary with IPA pronunciation

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