Allochronic and Diaphonic Variation

Language consists of a chain of phenomena and structures which, across multidimensional scientific processes and dimensions, form an unbroken scientific sequence. To understand one link in this chain, we must be familiar with its other links and return to each of them in order to comprehend the continuous whole. Allochronic and diaphonic processes form an inseparable part of this chain within the phonological rules of Kurdish.

Allochronic

This domain concerns what happens after phones, phonemes, and distinctive sounds are produced by the phonetic apparatus of a language and enter that language’s phonological sphere. When they are sequenced within a word or syllable, the articulatory and productive level of a phone, together with the process by which its quality and sound are prolonged in the phonetic domain, may be extended. Within the phonological process, however, this extension performs no distinctive function, does not distinguish meaning, and cannot alter the lexical or semantic meaning of the word. Conversely, shortening, weakening, or lowering the phone likewise has no effect on lexical meaning.

Examples include the neutral allophone [وو, uː] in لوت lʊt, لووت luːt, قول qʊl, قوول quːl, ڕێنوس reːnʊs, and ڕێنووس reːnuːs, and [یی, iː] in شیر ʃiːr, پیر piːr, شادیی ʃɑːdi, and بژیی bʒiː. In their paired relation to the vowels /و, ʊ/ and /ی, i/, these forms enter a process with no meaning-distinguishing function and no effect on word meaning. It is therefore unnecessary to represent every monophthong, or single vowel, with two letters.

The contrary impression arises from classical and older Kurdish orthography: because a phone or distinctive sound is prolonged within a word, it is thought that it must also be written in a prolonged form. Despite non-contrastive conditions and other phonological rules that produce the phenomenon, Kurdish speakers and Kurdish orthography have long behaved naturally, ecologically, and automatically in words such as پیر, شیر, میر, and ژیر. In these cases, /ی iː/ is phonetically long within its phonological domain and carries the sound value /iː/, yet Kurdish orthography uses only one /ی/. The same measure applies to /وو/, whose force may weaken and which may likewise be represented with a single /و/.

Diaphone

A related domain, similar in function and activity to the allochronic, is the diaphone. Here a phonetic difference appears: the relevant phone or sound differs in articulation, production, and phonetic realization, yet retains the same function and activity phonologically. It does not acquire the distinctive force required to alter the meaning of a word or syllable. In Kurdish, the neutral allophones [وو uː] and [یی iː] belong to this domain as diaphones and do not change the basic lexical meaning of the word. For example:

قووت quːt – قوت qʊt
جووت ʤuːt – جوت ʤʊt
بژی bʒi – بژیی bʒiː
شادی ʃɑːdi – شادیی ʃɑːdi

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Source:
Sabir Zhakaw, Kurdish Phonetics and Phonology, forthcoming.

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