Macedonian phonology

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:WikiIPA Template:IPA notice 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 stops, 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

VowelsTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp

	Front	Central	Back
Close	Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link
Mid	Template:IPA link	(Template:IPA link)	Template:IPA link
Open		Template:IPA link

Schwa

The schwa is phonemic in many dialects (varying in closeness to Template:IPAblink or Template:IPAblink) but its use in the standard language is marginal.Template:Sfnp It is written with an apostrophe: .Template:Sfnp It can also be used for dialectal effect, e.g., , . When spelling aloud, each consonant is followed by the schwa. The individual letters of acronyms are pronounced with the schwa in the same way: ().Template:Sfnp The lexicalized acronyms () and () (a brand of cigarettes), are among the few exceptions.Template:Sfnp

Vowel length

Template:Template other Vowel length is not phonemic. Vowels in stressed open syllables in disyllabic words with stress on the penult can be realized as long, e.g., 'Veles'. The sequence is often realized phonetically as ; e.g., Template:Gloss.

Consonants

File:LinguisticdivideinMacedonian1.png

Map of the use of the intervocalic phoneme kj in Macedonian (1962)

File:LinguisticdivideinMacedonian2.png

Map of the use of the intervocalic phoneme gj in Macedonian (1962)

ConsonantsTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp

		Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Post- alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal		Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink3			Template:IPAlink
Plosive	voiceless	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink			Template:IPAlink1	Template:IPAlink
	voiced	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink			Template:IPAlink1	Template:IPAlink
Affricate	voiceless		Template:IPAlink		Template:IPAlink
	voiced		Template:IPAlink		Template:IPAlink
Fricative	voiceless	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink		Template:IPAlink		Template:IPAlink4
	voiced	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink		Template:IPAlink
Approximant			Template:IPAlink2,3	Template:IPAlink2		Template:IPAlink
Trill				Template:IPAlink

^1 Template:IPAslink and Template:IPAslink are officiallyTemplate:According to whom? dorsal-palatal plosives, and some speakers pronounce them that way. They have various other pronunciations, depending on dialect. In some Northern Macedonian dialects they are alveolo-palatal affricates Template:IPAblink and Template:IPAblink (just like in Serbo-Croatian), while in the urban Prilep subdialect of the Prilep-Bitola dialect, they have merged into Template:IPAslink and Template:IPAslink, respectively.

^2 The velarised dental lateral (always written Template:Angle bracket) and the non-velarised alveolar lateral contrast in minimal pairs such as Template:Gloss and Template:Gloss. Before , , and , only occurs and is then written Template:Angle bracket instead of Template:Angle bracket.Template:Sfnp

^3 The alveolar trill (Template:IPAslink) is syllabic between two consonants, e.g., Template:Gloss. The dental nasal (Template:IPAslink) and velarised lateral (Template:IPAslink) are also syllabic in certain foreign words, e.g., Template:Gloss, Template:Gloss.

^4 The velar fricative Template:IPAslink does not occur natively in the language. It has been introduced or retained in Standard Macedonian under the following circumstances: (1) new foreign words: Template:Gloss, (2) toponyms: Template:Gloss, (3) Church Slavonicisms: Template:Gloss, (4) new literary words: Template:Gloss, and (5) to disambiguate between potential homophones: Template:Angbr Template:Gloss vs. Template:Angbr Template:Gloss.Template:Sfnp

Phonological processes

At morpheme boundaries (represented in spelling) and at the end of a word (not represented in spelling), voicing opposition is neutralized.

Stress

Template:Template other The word stress in Macedonian is antepenultimate, 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, e.g., Template:Gloss, Template:Gloss, and Template:Angbr Template:Gloss.
• Trisyllabic and polysyllabic words are stressed on the third-to-last syllable, e.g., Template:Gloss, Template:Gloss, and Template:Gloss.

Exceptions include:

• Verbal adverbs, which are suffixed with Template:Angbr: e.g., Template:Gloss, Template:Gloss.
• Foreign loanwords: e.g., Template:Gloss, Template:Gloss, Template:Gloss, , Template:Gloss.