Macedonian phonology

This article discusses the phonological system of standard Macedonian (unless otherwise noted) based on the Prilep-Bitola dialect. For discussion of other dialects, see Macedonian dialects. Macedonian possesses five vowels, one semivowel, three liquid consonants, three nasal consonants, three pairs of fricatives, two pairs of affricates, a non-paired voiceless fricative, nine pairs of voiced and unvoiced consonants and four pairs of stops.

Vowels

The schwa IPA| [ə] may appear in certain dialects or loanwords.

Consonants

#Depending on dialect, Ѓ and Ќ may represent alveolo-palatal affricates (IPA| [ʥ] and IPA| [ʨ] , respectively).

The velar nasal IPA| [ŋ] occasionally occurs as an allophone of IPA|/n/ before IPA|/k/ and IPA|/g/. For example, англиски IPA| [ˈaŋgliski] ('English').

In cases when IPA|/r/ is syllabic, an apostrophe is used before the letter Р. Examples include 'рж IPA|/r̩ʒ/ ('rye'), за'ржи IPA|/zar̩ʒi/ ('to rust') and 'рбет IPA|/r̩bɛt/) ('backbone'), among others.

Neither Harvcoltxt|Lunt|1952 nor Harvcoltxt|Friedman|2001 recognize the existence of a palatalised (IPA|/lʲ/) or palatal (IPA|/ʎ/) lateral in standard Macedonian. This is in contrast with the surrounding related languages (Bulgarian and Serbian). Instead, a IPA|/lj/ cluster occurs, except in rapid speech where they coalesce.

Both of these scholars also assert that there is a phonemic contrast between the velarised lateral IPA|/ɫ/ and the nonvelarised IPA|/l/. While they admit that IPA|/ɫ/ and IPA|/l/ (as Л) occur mainly before front and non-front vowels, respectively. They state that, at least in the prescribed norm [Harvcoltxt|Friedman|2001|p=?] or in some words, [Harvcoltxt|Lunt|1952|p=?] IPA|/l/ (as Љ) may also occur before non-front vowels. Hence minimal pairs like бела IPA|/bɛła/ ('white'), fem.) versus беља IPA|/bɛla/ ('trouble') express this phonemic contrast.

Phonological processes

At the end of a word, the voicing opposition is neutralized.

Stress

The word stress in Macedonian is , meaning it falls on the third from last syllable in words with three or more syllables, and on the first or only syllable in other words. This is sometimes disregarded when the word has entered the language more recently or from a foreign source. The following rules apply:

* Disyllabic words are stressed on the second-to-last syllable.

For example, де́те IPA| [ˈdɛtɛ] ('child'), ма́jкa IPA| [majka] ('mother') and та́тко IPA| [ˈtatkɔ] ('father').

* Trisyllabic and polysyllabic words are stressed on the third-to-last syllable.

For example, та́ткото IPA| [ˈtatkɔtɔ] ('the father'), та́тковци (IPA| [ˈtatkɔvʦi] , 'fathers'), and татко́вците IPA| [tatˈkɔvʦitɛ] ('the fathers').

Exceptions include:

* Verbal adverbs: e.g. вика́јќи IPA| [viˈkajci] ('shouting'), оде́јќи IPA| [ɔˈdɛjci] ('walking').
* Foreign loanwords: e.g. клише́ IPA| [kliˈʃɛ] ('cliché'), гене́за IPA| [gɛˈnɛza] ('genesis'), литерату́ра IPA| [litɛraˈtura] ('literature').

See also

* Macedonian alphabet
* List of phonetics topics

References

Bibliography

*citation
last=Friedman
first=Victor
editor-last=Garry
editor-first=Jane
editor2-last=Rubino
editor2-first=Carl
year=2001
chapter=Macedonian
title=Facts about the World's Languages: An Encyclopedia of the Worlds Major Languages, Past and Present
place=New York
publisher=Holt
pages=435-439
*citation
last=Lunt
first=Horace G.
year=1952
title=Grammar of the Macedonian Literary Language
place=Skopje