Assyrian Neo-Aramaic phonology

Phonology
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic has 22 consonants and 3 vowels. The consonantal phonemes are:

Consonants

 * The pharyngeal, as heard in ayin (ܥ), is a marginal phoneme that is generally upheld in education or religious speech (such as by Assyrian priests in church mass) and in hymns. Among the majority of Assyrian speakers, ayin (occurring in words) would be realized as diphthongs or , and even /ɛ/, depending on the dialect. However, the letter itself is still usually uttered with.


 * Unlike the other Semitic languages (including Chaldean Neo-Aramaic), the pharyngeal is nonexistent.


 * is a phoneme only in the Tyari dialects. In most of the other Assyrian varieties it merges with.


 * and are strictly used in the Tyari and Barwari dialects, which respectively merge with  and  in standard Assyrian (Iraqi Koine/Urmian) and other Ashiret dialects.


 * In the Urmian dialect has a widespread allophone  (it may vacillate to  for some speakers).


 * In some Urmian and Jilu speakers, may merge with  into.


 * In the Urmian and some Tyari dialects, merges with  into.


 * may be merge with into  in Urmian and Nochiya speakers.


 * is a marginal phoneme that occurs in some words, albeit only for some speakers. For others, it is realized the same as.


 * In some Tyari dialects (such as Ashita), may be realized as . This is a feature also present in Chaldean Neo-Aramaic.

Vowels
Vowel phonemes of Assyrian Neo-Aramaic (Standard Urmian/Iraqi Koine) are as follows:


 * can be realized as either open-mid or close-mid . The Urmian dialect would generally diphthongize  to.


 * may be realized as in the Tyari, Barwari and Baz dialects.


 * (a schwa) is mostly realized as in the Tyari and Barwari dialects.


 * may be realized as in the Tyari, Baz and Barwari dialects. The Urmian dialect may diphthongize  to.


 * may be diphthongized to in the Tyari dialects.


 * , which is normally central, is usually front in the Urmian and Nochiya dialects. For some Urmian speakers,  may be used instead. In some Jilu speakers, this vowel is mostly fronted and raised to . In the Tyari and Barwari dialects, it is usually more back.


 * may also be realised as, depending on the speaker. It is more rounded and higher in the Urmian dialect, where it is realized as.

Two basic diphthongs exist, namely and. For some words, many dialects have converted them to e and o respectively.

Phonetics of Iraqi Koine

 * Iraqi Koine, like the majority of the Assyrian dialects, realizes as  instead of.
 * Iraqi Koine generally realizes the fricatives in words like "mata" (village in English) and "r'qada" (dancing) as stops.
 * Predominantly, in words like "qalama" (pen) doesn't merge with.
 * The diphthongs and  in words like "qayta" (summer) and "tawra" (cow) are realized as long  and, respectively.
 * The diphthong in "beyta" ('house') realized as.
 * The diphthong in zuyzeh (money) is realised as.
 * in verbs like "chi'akhla" (she eats) is realized as.