The charts below show the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents Belarusian language pronunciations in Wikipedia articles.
See Belarusian phonology for a more thorough look at the sounds of Belarusian.
Consonants
IPA |
Examples |
IPA |
Examples[1] |
English approximation |
b |
б |
bʲ |
б |
boot; beautiful |
d |
д |
do |
d͡z |
дз |
d͡zʲ |
дз |
birds, adze |
d͡ʐ |
дж |
jug |
f |
ф |
fʲ |
ф |
fool; few |
ɣ |
г |
ɣʲ |
г |
roughly like go but without completely
blocking the air flow |
k |
к |
kʲ |
к |
cooter; cute |
l |
л[2] |
lʲ |
л |
loot; lute (for some dialects) |
m |
м |
mʲ |
м |
moot; mute |
n |
н |
nʲ |
н |
noon; canyon (for some dialects) |
p |
п |
pʲ |
п |
paw; pew |
r |
р |
trilled r, like in Spanish |
s |
с |
sʲ |
с |
soup; super (for some dialects) |
ʂ |
ш |
shore |
t |
т |
tool |
t͡s |
ц |
t͡sʲ |
ц |
cats; quartz |
t͡ʂ |
ч |
child |
v |
в[2] |
vʲ |
в |
voodoo; view |
x |
х |
xʲ |
х |
bach; huge (for some dialects). |
z |
з |
zʲ |
з |
zoo; amazing |
ʐ |
ж |
rouge |
Marginal consonants
IPA |
Examples |
IPA |
Examples |
English approximation |
ɡ |
г, ґ |
ɡʲ |
г, ґ |
goo; argue |
Other symbols
IPA |
Explanation |
ˈ |
Stress (placed before the stressed syllable) |
ː |
Gemination[6] (doubled consonant) |
Notes
- ↑ Belarusian contrasts between palatalized ("soft") and unpalatalized ("hard") consonants. Palatalized consonants, denoted by a superscript j, ‹ʲ›,are pronounced with the body of the tongue raised toward the hard palate, like the articulation of the y sound in yes. /j/ is also soft, but /d, t, d͡ʐ, t͡ʂ, r, ʂ, ʐ/ are always hard.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 /v/ and /l/ merge into /w/ ‹ў› in the syllable coda.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Unstressed /ɛ/ and /ɔ/ are reduced to [a]. Unlike Russian, that is reflected in writing.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 [i] and [ɨ] are in complementary distribution: [i] occurs at the beginning of words and after soft consonants; [ɨ] occurs after hard consonants.
- ↑ The "soft" vowel letters ‹я, е, і, ё, ю› represent a /j/ and a vowel when they are initial or after other vowels.
- ↑ Nine Belarusian consonants can be contrastively geminated: /d͡zʲː, lʲː, nʲː, sʲː, ʂː, t͡sʲː, t͡ʂː, zʲː, ʐː/.