Kabyle phonology

The phonemes below reflect the pronunciation of Kabyle.

Vowels
Kabyle has three phonemic vowels:

$⟨e⟩$ is used to write the epenthetic schwa vowel which occurs frequently in Kabyle. Historically it is thought to be the result of a pan-Berber reduction or merger of three other vowels.

The phonetic realization of the vowels, especially, is influenced by the character of the surrounding consonants; emphatic consonants invite a more open realization of the vowel, e.g. =  'stone' vs. amud =  'seed'. Often /a, i, u/ are realized as

Assimilation
Inside the Kabyle language there are various accents which are the result of assimilations (these accents are generally divided into western and eastern Kabyle). Some of these assimilations are present among all Kabyle "dialects" and some not. These assimilations are not noted in writing, such as:


 * Axxam n wergaz ("the house of the man") is pronounced either « axxam n wergaz », « axxam bb wergaz » or « axxam pp wergaz ». (N+W=BB)
 * D taqcict ("it's a girl") is pronounced « tsaqcict ». (D+T=TS)
 * Here is a list of some of these assimilations: D/T+T=TS, N+W=BB/PP, I+Y=IG.

Gemination affects the quality of certain consonants, turning semivowels and fricatives into stops; in particular, geminated ɣ becomes qq, geminated y becomes gg, and geminated w becomes bb.

Fricatives vs. Stops
Kabyle is mostly composed of fricatives, phonemes which are originally stops in other Berber languages, but in writing there is no difference between fricatives and stops. Below is a list of fricatives vs. stops and when they are pronounced (note that gemination turns fricatives into stops).