Magin_Edward-thesis

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a, A [ɑ] like ‘a’ in ‘father’ dar (tree, wood), dawat (wedding, dance)
e, E 33 [ə] like ‘u’ in ‘cup’ bez (fat, grease), neh (nine)
[æ] like ‘a’ in ‘cap’ her (each, every), pel (coal, ember)
[ɛ] like ‘e’ in ‘bet’ feqî (fruit), gelek (much, many, very)
ê, Ê [e] like ‘ai’ in ‘bait’ mêj (the past, old times), pê (foot, leg)
i, I [ɪ] like ‘i’ in ‘bit’ cih (place), fil (elephant)
î, Î [i] like ‘ee’ in ‘deep’ pîs (dirty), sîk (market area)
o, O [o] like ‘o’ in ‘boat’ roj (day), kor (blind)
u, U [ʊ] like ‘u’ in ‘cook’ guh (ear), du (two)
û, Û [u] like ‘u’ in ‘boot’ mûz (banana), kûr (deep)
4.2.2 Consonants
The consonants of Northern Kurdish are as follows:
b, B [b] like ‘b’ in ‘boy’ baran (rain), rîbar (river)
c, C [ʤ] like ‘j’ in ‘jam’ can (beautiful), pênc (five)
ç, Ç [ʧ] and [ʧʰ] 34 like ‘ch’ in ‘cherry’ çav (eye), maç (kiss)
d, D [d] like ‘d’ in ‘dog’ dem (time), sed (hundred)
33 Regarding the Northern Kurdish dialect known as Kurmanji (referring to the dominant Kurdish language
in Turkey), Thackston (2006:1) states that “the [æ] pronunciation of this vowel is taken as standard; for
many speakers, however, it is closer to [ɛ], the vowel of English ‘bet,’ in all environments.” I have
observed, however, that in the Bahdini dialect, the sound represented by the letter e is often closer to [ɜ] or
[ə], or somewhere between [æ] and [ə]. I would consider [ɜ], then, to be closer to the medial pronunciation
of the vowel. Variation, however, does exist even among the speakers of Bahdini.
34 In the writing system, there is no difference between the aspirated and unaspirated ç, k, p, and t.