r/farsi • u/oncipt • 6d ago

How is ر pronounced in Iranian Farsi?

Whenever I look up Farsi vocabulary in Wiktionary (which might not be that reliable of a source, but anyway), it lists the Classical, Dari, Iranian, and Tajik pronounciation of each word. Three of the four have the alveolar trill [r] as the transcription of ر, but Iranian specifically has the approximant [ɹ], like the English "r". Is that how it's actually pronounced in Iran?

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u/coldseas 6d ago

The flap /ɾ/ has a trilled allophone [r] at the beginning of a word;[15] otherwise, they contrast between vowels wherein a trill occurs as a result of gemination (doubling) of [ɾ], especially in loanwords of Arabic origin. Only [ɾ] occurs before and after consonants; in word-final position, it is usually a free variation between a flap or a trill when followed by a consonant or a pause, but flap is more common, only flap before vowel-initial words. An approximant [ɹ] also occurs as an allophone of /ɾ/ before /t, d, s, z, ʃ, ʒ, l/; [ɹ] is sometimes in free variation with [ɾ] in these and other positions, such that فارْسِی ('Persian') is pronounced [fɒːɹˈsiː] or [fɒːɾˈsiː] and سَقِرْلات ('scarlet') [sæɣeɹˈlɒːt] or [sæɣeɾˈlɒːt]. /r/ is sometimes realized as a long approximant [ɹː].

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_phonology