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Belarusian phonology

Phonology of the Belarusian language From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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The phonological system of the modern Belarusian language consists of at least 44 phonemes: 5 vowels and 39 consonants. Consonants may also be geminated. There is no absolute agreement on the number of phonemes; rarer or contextually variant sounds are included by some scholars.[citation needed]

Many consonants may form pairs that differ only in palatalization (called hard and soft consonants, the latter being represented in the IPA with the symbol ʲ). In some of such pairs, the place of articulation is additionally changed (see distinctive features below). Some consonants do not have palatalized counterparts.

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Distinctive features

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As an East Slavic language, Belarusian phonology is very similar to both Russian and Ukrainian phonology. The primary differences are:[1]

Unlike in Russian but like in Ukrainian, Belarusian spelling closely represents surface phonology rather than the underlying morphophonology. For example, akannye, tsyekannye, dzyekannye and the [w] allophone of /v/ and /l/[example needed] are all written. The representation of akannye in particular introduces striking differences between Russian and Belarusian orthography.

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Vowels

More information Front, Central ...
More information IPA, Description ...

As with Russian, [ɨ] is not a separate phoneme, but an allophone of /i/ occurring after non-palatalized consonants.[7]

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Consonants

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The consonants of Belarusian are as follows:[8]

More information Labial, Alveolar/Dental ...

The rare phonemes /ɡ/ and /ɡʲ/ are present only in several borrowed words: ганак [ˈɡanak], гузік [ˈɡuzik], and in some native words containing the combinations /zɡ⁽ʲ⁾/, /dzɡ/, /dʐɡ/: мазгі [mazˈɡʲi], джгаць [d͡ʐɡat͡sʲ]. Other borrowed words have the fricative pronunciation: геаграфія [ɣʲeaˈɣrafʲija] ('geography'). In addition, [ɡ] and [ɡʲ] are allophones of /k/ and /kʲ/ respectively, when voiced by regressive assimilation, as in вакзал [vaɡˈzal] 'train station'.

In the syllable coda, /v/ is pronounced [w] or [u̯], forming diphthongs, and is spelled ў.[9] [w] sometimes derives etymologically from /l/, as with воўк [vɔwk] ('wolf'), which comes from Proto-Slavic *vьlkъ. Similar to Ukrainian, there are also alternations between [w] and /l/ in the past tense of verbs:[10] for example, ду́маў /ˈdumaw/ "(he) thought" versus ду́мала /ˈdumala/ "(she) thought". This evolved historically from a form with /l/ (as in Russian: ду́мал) which vocalized like the Ł in Polish (cognate dumał, "he mused").

The geminated variations are transcribed as follows:

  • падарожжа [padaˈroʐːa]
  • ззяць [zʲːatsʲ]
  • стагоддзе [staˈɣodzʲːe]
  • каханне [kaˈxanʲːe]
  • калоссе [kaˈlosʲːe]
  • ліхалецце [lʲixaˈlʲetsʲːe]
  • сярэднявечча [sʲarɛdnʲaˈvʲetʂːa].

Those sounds arose from assimilation of consonant+/j/ combinations.

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