Esfahani accent

Esfahani Persian
Esfahani Persian
Esfahani Accent, Esfahani Dialect
لهجه اصفهانی, گویش اصفهانی
Pronunciation	Pārsi-e Esfāhāni, Pārsi-e Esfehuni
Native to	Iran
Region	Isfahan Province
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranic Iranic Western Iranic Southwestern Iranic Persian Iranian Persian Esfahani Persian; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Writing system	Persian alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	esfa1238

The Esfahani accent (Persian: لهجه اصفهانی), or Esfahani dialect (گویش اصفهانی), is a dialect of Persian spoken in Isfahan.^[1]

Phonology

The following are phonological differences between Esfahani and Standard Iranian Persian:^[2]

Voicing assimilation of /q/:
- Example: /ta:qtʃe/ ↔ [taxtʃe] 'shelf'
Vowel lengthening before the loss of glottal consonants /ʔ/ and /h/, as well as /w/:
- Examples: /baʔzi/ ↔ [baːzi] 'some'; /maʔreke/ ↔ [maːreke] 'crowd of people'
Lenition of /d/ before /r/ to /z/:
- Examples: /tʃeqadr/ ↔ [tʃeqaz] 'how much/how many?'
Voicing dissimilation:
- Example: /vaqt/ ↔ [vaxd] 'time'
Final devoicing:
- Example: /ziyaːd/ ↔ [ziyaːt] 'much/many'
Vowel raising before nasal consonants:
- Examples: /xaːnom/ ↔ [xaːnum] 'lady'; /xaːne/ ↔ [xune] 'lady'

Stilto, Donald (2007). "Isfahan xxi. PROVINCIAL DIALECTS". iranicaonline.org. Encyclopaedia Iranica. Retrieved 2026-06-26.
Soheili, A. (2025). "The Dialect of Esfahan Revisited Phonological Analysis". Springer (Korangy, A., Mahmoodi–Bakhtiari, B. (eds) The Handbook of Persian Dialects and Dialectology). doi:10.1007/978-981-99-8151-9_17. Retrieved 2026-06-26.