Sonqori dialect

Sonqori, also known as Sonqori Turkic, is a Turkic dialect spoken in Sonqor (Sunqur), east of Kermānšāh, in a large valley separated from the rest of Kurdistan.^[3]

Sonqori
سؤنقؤر دیلی
Native to	Iran
Region	Sonqor County
Native speakers	(undated figure of about 40,000)[1]
Language family	Turkic Common Turkic Oghuz Southern Oghuz[2] Sonqori
Language codes
ISO 639-3	(included in South Azerbaijani azb)
Linguist List	1ab
Glottolog	sonq1234

According to the Turkologist Michael Knüppel, Sonqori is one of the Southern Oghuz dialects of Iran alongside Qashqai and Äynallu. He notes that K. H. Menges had already characterized Sonqori, together with Qashqai and Äynallu, as a transitional form between Azerbaijani and Khorasani Turkic.^[2]

Turkologist Gerhard Doerfer identifies Sonqori as a possible dialect of Azerbaijani, or as a distinctive variety of Southern Oghuz/Afshar.^[4][5] Ethnologue and Glottolog list it as a South Azerbaijani dialect.^[6][7]

Knowledge of the dialect was scant prior to the expeditions of the University of Göttingen.^[2]

About 40,000 speakers of Sonqori exist in the Sonqor area.^[1]

Phonology

Consonant phonemes

	Labial		Alveolar		Palatal		Velar		Uvular		Glottal
Plosive	p~pʰ	b~p	t~tʰ	d~t			k~kʰ	ɡ~k	q~ɢ
Affricate					t͡ʃ/t͡ʃʰ	d͡ʒ/t͡ʃ
Fricative	f	v~w	s	z	ʃ	ʒ	x	ɣ			h
Nasal	m		n		ɲ		ŋ
Flap			r~ɾ
Lateral			l
Approximant					j

Vowels

Vowels

	Front		Back
	unrounded	rounded	unrounded	rounded
Close	i	y	ɯ	u
Mid	e	ø		o
Open	æ		ɑ	ɒ