is a relatively wide degree of allophonic variation. The transcription system, which is phonemic, does not reflect this variation; nor does it reflect sporadic assimilations, deletions, and other features that are typical of allegro speech. Consonants Neo-Mandaic has 28 distinctive consonantal segments, including four loan-phonemes: the postalveolar affricates č and j and the pharyngeal fricatives and ḥ , which are found only in vocabulary of foreign origin, particularly Arabic and Persian. Two pharyngealized segments (a voiced alveolar stop ḍ and a voiced alveolar fricative ẓ ) are found in a few Arabic loan words. They have been excluded from the phonemic inventory of Neo-Mandaic due to their marginal status. Voiceless stops are lightly aspirated. Vowels The vowel system in Neo-Mandaic is composed of seven distinct vowels, of which six (i , u , e , o , a , and ɔ ) are principal phonemes, and one (ə ) is marginal. The vowels are distinguished by quality rather than quantity. Three of the principal vowels, the "tense" vowels i, u, and ɔ, are lengthened in open accented syllables to , , and or . and are realized as and whenever they occur in closed syllables, either accented or unaccented (exceptions are Persian loanwords (e.g. gush "ear") and contextual forms such as asut, from asuta "health"). The other three principle vowels, the "lax" vowels o, e, and a, appear only exceptionally in open accented syllables. is realized as in open syllables and in closed syllables. is realized as in open syllables and as in closed syllables. is realized as in closed accented syllables, and as or elsewhere. Schwa has the widest allophonic variation of all the vowels. It is regularly fronted, backed, raised, or lowered in harmony with the vowel of the following syllable. When it is followed by , it is regularly raised and backed to . When the accent falls on a closed syllable containing schwa, it becomes fronted and raised to . There are also five diphthongs, ey , ay , aw , ɔy , and ɔw . The diphthongs and , which had already collapsed in closed accented syllables to and in the classical language, have collapsed in all accented syllables in the dialects of Ahwāz and Khorramshahr, apart from those in words of foreign origin. The collapse of diphthongs appears to be further advanced in the dialect of Ahvāz; compare Khorramshahr gɔw ‘in’ with Ahwāz gu