be necessary for native Suret speakers, as they would be able to pronounce words correctly, but it can be very helpful for those not quite familiar with Syriac and more informed with the Latin script. Phonology Consonants Notes: In all NENA dialects, voiced, voiceless, aspirated and emphatic consonants are recognised as distinct phonemes, though there can be an overlap between plain voiceless and voiceless emphatic in sound quality. In Iraqi Koine and many Urmian & Northern dialects, the palatals [], [] and aspirate [] are considered the predominant realisation of //, // and aspirate //. In the Koine and Urmi dialects, velar fricatives / / are typically uvular as [ ]. The phoneme // is only used by Suret speakers under larger Arabic influence. In most dialects, it is realised as []. The one exception to this is the dialect of Hértevin, which merged the two historical phonemes into [ħ], thus lacking [x] instead. The pharyngeal //, represented by the letter 'e, is a marginal phoneme that is generally upheld in formal or religious speech. Among the majority of Suret speakers, [[ayin|e]] would be realised as [], [], [], [], deleted, or even geminating the previous consonant, depending on the dialect and phonological context. // may also be heard as a tap sound []. // is a phoneme heard in the Tyari, Barwari and Chaldean dialects. In most of the other varieties, it merges with //, though [] is found in loanwords. The phonemes and have allophonic realisations of [] and [] (respectively) in most Lower Tyari, Barwari and Chaldean dialects, which is a carryover of begadkefat from the Ancient Aramaic period. In the Upper Tyari dialects, /θ/ is realised as [] or []; in the Marga dialect, the /t/ may at times be replaced with []. In the Urmian dialect, // has a widespread allophone [] (it may vacillate to [] for some speakers). In the Jilu dialect, // is uttered as a tense []. This can also occur in other dialects. In the Iraqi Koine dialect, a labial-palatal approximant sound [] is also heard. // is affricated, thus pronounced as [] in some Urmian, Tyari and Nochiya dialects. // would be affricated to [] in the same process. // is a marginal phoneme that occurs across all dialects. Either a result of the historic splitting of /g/, through loanwords, or by contact of [] with a voiced consonant.