Phones are unitary segments of sound or speech. The phonetic inventory of Persian languages consists of different types of phones including consonants and vowels. The Persian language has six vowels and two diphthongs. Diphthongs are a combination of two adjacent vowels within the same syllable. Furthermore, Persian has 23 constant phonemes. Some of the letters in Persian don’t exist in English such as the letters ق (qahf), خ (kheh), or غ (ghain). The closest letter to ق in English would be Q.
Also, there are also a difference between Dari and Farsi. The long vowels of “e, i and o, u “ merge together in Farsi while they remain separate in Dari. For example, the word (شیر) (Sheer) for lion and milk is pronounced the same way in Farsi. However, in Dari, there is a difference in pronunciation. Also, the high short vowels of “i” and “u” ar lowered to “e” and “o” in Faris. One major difference between Faris and Dari is in the degree of stress or the intensity of how the vowels in a syllabus are pronounced. Furthermore, I think in Farsi, usually, the stress falls on the last stem syllable of most words whereas, in English, word stress is not on the same syllable.
Furthermore, similar to other languages, depending on the word Farsi/Dari has stops, fricatives, affricates, nasals, and approximants. For example, articulations of certain words that obscure the airstreams completely, cause stops, affricates, and fricatives. However, this is an area that I will continue to learn about in my target language. I know for my language, it’s important to be familiar with the letters and pay particular attention to the point of articulation when those letters come together. Also, it’s essential to pay attention to different types of approximants and the best way for me to improve in this area is to pay close attention to how words are pronounced through hearing others speak.
Sources:
Zari Hunter and https://www.asian-efl-journal.com/Thesis-M-Hall.pdf
Replies
I am working with a Dari language partner presently and he does not make clear distinctions between qaf and ghaf. I get away with saying these letters as if they were Arabic, with the distinctions, but he says the letters as if they were the same. Do you know why this is?