Appendix:Tuvan pronunciation

The charts below show the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) should represent Tuvan pronunciations.

Vowels edit

IPA Phoneme Example
/a/[1] акша [aqˈʃa] 'money'
/aː/ аарыг [ˌaːˈrɯʁ] 'ill'
/ɛ/ эртен [ɛrˈtɛn] 'morning'
/ɛː/ бээр [pɛːr] 'give'
/ɪ/ ижер [ɪˈʒɛr] 'to drink'
/ɪː/ диис [tɪːs] 'cat'
/ɔ/ болур [pɔˈɫʊr] 'to be'
/ɔː/ ооң [ɔːŋ] 'his'
/ʊ/ куш [kʊʃ] 'bird'
/ʊː/ номчуур [nɔmˈd͡ʒʊːr] 'to read'
/ø/ бөгүн [pøˈɣʏn] 'today'
/øː/ көөр [køːr] 'to see'
/ʏ/ күш [kʏʃ] 'strength'
/ʏː/ үстүү [ʏsˈtʏː] 'upper'
/ɯ/ адым [aˈdɯm] 'my name'
/ɯː/ чалбарыыр [t͡ʃaɫ.baˈrɯːr] 'to pray'

Consonants edit

IPA Phoneme Example
/b/[2] бөмбүк [pømˈbʏk] 'ball'
/β/ Тыва [tʰɯˈβa] 'Tuva'
/d/ өөредир [ˌøː.rɛˈdɪr] 'to teach'
/d͡ʒ/[3] кончуг [qɔnˈd͡ʒʊʁ] 'very'
/ɡ/[4] мөңгүн [møŋˈgʏn] 'silver'
/ɢ/ чаңгыс [t͡ʃaŋˈɢɯs] 'alone'
/ɣ/[5] өг[6] [øɣ] 'yurt'
/j/ аймак [ajˈmaq] 'tribe'
/ʒ/ ажыл [aˈʒɯɫ] 'job'
/k/[7] кирер [кɪˈrɛr] 'to enter'
/l/ алыр [aˈɫɯr] 'to take'
/m/ мал [maɫ] 'cattle'
/n/ сен [sɛn] 'you'
/ŋ/ мээң [mɛːŋ] 'my'
/p/ апаар [aˈpaːr] 'to become'
/pʰ/[8] пага [pʰaˈʁa] 'frog'
/q/ карак [qaˈraq] 'eye'
/r/ бар [par] 'there is'
/ʁ/ агаар [aˈʁaːr] 'air'
/s/ суг [sʊʁ] 'water'
/ʃ/ болгаш [pɔɫˈɢaʃ] 'and'
/t/ даарта[9] [taːrˈta] 'tomorrow'
/t͡ʃ/ чараш [t͡ʃaˈraʃ] 'beautiful'
/tʰ/[8] тараа [tʰaˈraː] 'wheat'
/w/[10] хову [χɔˈwʊ] 'steppe'
/x/[11] хем [xɛm] 'river'
/χ/ хоорай [χɔːˈraj] 'city'
/z/ изиг [ɪˈzɪɣ] 'warm'

Accents edit

IPA Accent Example Explanation
/ă/, /à/ ъ аът [ăt] 'horse' Indicates low-to-high variation of pitch on a vowel.

Stress edit

  • Stress usually falls on the last syllable of a word, with some exceptions:
  • When the word has an allative suffix (-че, -же), it will always fall on the syllable before it (e.g. Тываже [tʰɯˈβa.ʒɛ])
  • When the word has a negative suffix (-па, -ба, etc.), stress will always fall on the suffix (e.g. кылбадым [qɯɫˈba.dɯm])

Notes edit

  1. ^ Central.
  2. ^ Allophone of [β] when not preceded by a nasal consonant.
  3. ^ Allophone of [tʃ] after nasal and lateral consonants.
  4. ^ Retracted to [ɢ] in back-vocalic contexts.
  5. ^ Retracted to [ʁ] in back-vocalic contexts.
  6. ^ г is pronounced as a fricative between vowels and at the end of syllables (e.g. агаар [aˈʁaːɾ], суг [sʊʁ], өгбе [øɣˈbe̞]).
  7. ^ Retracted to [q] in back-vocalic contexts.
  8. 8.0 8.1 In most cases, п and т are aspirated when at the beginning of words (e.g. пага [pʰaˈʁa], Тыва [tʰɯˈβa]).
  9. ^ At the beginning of words, б and д are pronounced almost voicelessly (e.g. бурган [pʊrˈɢan], довурак [tɔ.wʊˈraq]).
  10. ^ Allophone of [β] in rounded vowel contexts when it is not preceded by a nasal consonant.
  11. ^ Retracted to [χ] in back-vocalic contexts.

References edit