bilabial | labio-velar | labio-dental | dental | alveolar | postalveolar | palatal | velar | uvular | glottal | |
stop | b, pʰ, p’ | d̪, t̪ʰ, t̪’ | g, kʰ, k’ | q | ʔ | |||||
trill | r | |||||||||
fricative | f, v | s, z | ʒ, ʃ | ʁ, χ | h | |||||
affricate | dz, ts, ts’ | dʒ, tʃ, tʃ’ | ||||||||
nasal | m | n | ||||||||
approximant | w | j | ||||||||
lateral approximant | l |
velar | uvular | |
stop | gʷ, kʷ, k’ʷ | qʷ |
fricative | ʁʷ, χʷ |
front | central | back | |
close | i | u | |
close-mid | e | o | |
mid | ə | ||
near-open | ɐ | ||
open | a |
ʃC
C, CC, C[-stop]ʃt
(ʃ)(C)V(C)(C)(C)
Source: David Erschler. 2017. Iron Ossetic. To appear in Polinsky, Maria (ed.) Handbook of the languages of the Caucasus. OUP. Draft
Comments: “In standard Iron, /ts/ only survives in certain clusters. Glottal consonants are marginal; the glottal stop /ʔ/ is automatically epenthesized before word-initial /a/, /ɐ/, and /ə/, and sometimes between vowels. The glottal fricative /h/ is present in very few words... Labialized consonants may be alternatively analyzed as sequences of the respective consonant and the labial glide /w/” (p. 4). “No processes are known that would target syllables. Word-initial clusters are of the form šC, a schwa may be inserted word-initially to resolve the cluster. A glottal stop is often inserted to avoid a null onset word-initially. Word-final clusters usually consist of two consonants (e.g. ruχš ‘light’; bərənk’ ‘tip’, kalm ‘snake’), although some triconsonantal ones exist as well: wɐχšk ‘shoulder’; ɐχšt ‘shot’” (p. 5).
Contributed by: Dmitry Nikolaev (dnikolaev@fastmail.com)