Afghan Folktales from Herat: Persian Texts in Transcription and T ...

2. The phoneme [ê] may have a more close and a more open articulation, cf. dệg-“pot, cauldron,” dεwâ-“demons.”

3. The vowel “i” may change into more open sounds, especially into “ê.” This alteration occurs mostly when “i” is followed or (more rarely) preceded by “n”, “x”, “k”, “g”, “ġ”: êngeč, cf. LK in gašt-“this time”; rεxšan, cf. LK rišxand-“mockery”; ġil/ġêl, cf Kb qil-“high.” This alteration also strengthens the tendency toward the merging together of the phonemes [ê] and [i].

4. The contraction of the combinations “eh” and “ee” (“εe”) results in these combinations changing into “ê”/“ệ”/“i”: bệtar, cf. LK behtar-“better”; di, cf. LK deh-“village”; bačêm/bačim (< bačε + em)-“my son”; xosorbori to (< xosorborε + (y)e to)-“your wife's brother” (for the ezâfe, see the alternative and more common tendency below in number 7).

5. The phoneme [e] has a more open and a more closed variant. The first appears in an unstressed open syllable most regularly under the influence of “k”, “g”, “ġ”, “n”: kεtâb-“book,” ġεssε-“story,” nεkâ-“marriage,” while the second normally appears in a closed stressed syllable: dẹl-“heart,” nẹsf/nιs-“half” or in an open unstressed syllable in an initial position: ιdâ, cf. LK, LP edde'â-“claim; implication,” ιjârε, cf. LK ejâra, LP ejâre-“rent.”

6. The phoneme [a] has variants-more front vowels: “ä”, “æ”, and the reduced “ə”, cf. gäp/gæp-“word, speech,” arruzä-“every day,” ġərân-name of currency.

7. There is a progressive tendency toward “a”/“ä” changing into “ε” at the end of words: riša/rišε, cf. LK riša, LP riše-“root”; češmε, cf. LK češma, LP češme-“fountain, source”; bε/bə/bεm/bəm, cf. LK ba, LP be-preposition. Under the influence of “y” occurring between the word ending in -ε and the ezâfe or copula joined to the word, -ε often assumes a more close articulation, changing into -e/-ẹ: afte-ye digε, cf. LK hafta-ye digar, LP häfte-ye digär-“next week”; pičidẹ-yε-past participle of the verb “to twist” with the third pers. sing. of the present copula.