short (e.g. 'horse'). However, Alexis Manaster Ramer challenges both the interpretation that Khalaj features three vowel lengths and that Proto-Turkic had the same three-way contrast. Some vowels of Proto-Turkic are realized as falling diphthongs, as in ('arm'). Grammar Morphology Nouns Nouns in Khalaj may receive a plural marker or possessive marker. Cases in Khalaj include genitive, accusative, dative, locative, ablative, instrumental, and equative. Forms of case suffixes change based on vowel harmony and the consonants they follow. Case endings also interact with possessive suffixes. A table of basic case endings is provided below: Verbs Verbs in Khalaj are inflected for voice, tense, aspect, and negation. Verbs consist of long strings of morphemes in the following array: Stem + Voice + Negation + Tense/Aspect + Agreement Syntax Khalaj employs subject–object–verb word order. Adjectives precede nouns. Vocabulary The core of Khalaj vocabulary is Turkic, but many words have been borrowed from Persian. Words from neighboring Turkic languages, namely Azerbaijani, have also made their way into Khalaj. For example, Khalaj numbers are Turkic in form, but some speakers replace the forms for "80" and "90" with Persian terms. Examples Excerpt from Doerfer & Tezcan 1994, transliterated by Doerfer: Notes References Sources Books Book chapters, journal articles, encyclopedia entries Further reading Bulut, Christiane. "The Turkic varieties of Iran". In: The Languages and Linguistics of Western Asia: An Areal Perspective. Edited by Geoffrey Haig and Geoffrey Khan. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Mouton, 2019. pp. 398-444. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110421682-013 Accessed 3 Jan. 2023. Accessed 3 Jan. 2023. Accessed 3 Jan. 2023. Accessed 3 Jan. 2023. External links Resources in and about the Turkic Khalaj language Khalaj language Agglutinative languages Turkic languages Languages of Iran