It provides a set of symbols to represent the pronunciation of Ukrainian in Wikipedia articles, and example words that illustrate the sounds that correspond to them. Integrity must be maintained between the key and the transcriptions that link here; do not change any symbol or value without establishing consensus on the talk page first.
Ukrainian distinguishes hard (unpalatalized or plain) and soft (palatalized) consonants (both phonetically and orthographically). Soft consonants, most of which are denoted by a superscript ⟨ʲ⟩, are pronounced with the body of the tongue raised toward the hard palate, like the articulation of the y sound in yes.
gemination (the consonant is pronounced twice as long)[6]
◌⁽ʲ⁾
optional nature of consonant palatalization before /i/
References
123456789101112Voiceless obstruents/pttʲtstsʲtʃkxfssʲʃ/ are voiced [bddʲdzdzʲdʒɡɣvzzʲʒ] before other voiced obstruents. [ɣ] and [v] only ever occur in this case.
123456789/bʲmʲpʲwʲ/ occur in a small number of native words and loanwords before /ɑɛɔu/. /kʲfʲɡʲɦʲxʲ/ may only occur in loanwords in the same environment. Optional palatalization of /bkfɡɦmpwx/ before /i/ is weak and is omitted from this help page.
123456789101112Before coronalfricatives and affricates/dzdzʲdʒssʲʃtstsʲtʃzzʲʒ/, dental plosives/ddʲttʲ/ become equivalent affricates and assimilate their degree of palatalization, while other coronals only assimilate their place of articulation and palatalization; if this results in two identical sounds, the sequence is further simplified to a geminate. In casual speech, prescribed sequences [dztsdzʲtsʲdʒtʃtʃʃʒʃ] also fully assimilate, e.g. відчини́ти[witʃːɪˈnɪtɪ]ⓘ, ви́візши[ˈwɪwiʃːɪ].
123The phoneme /w/ (spelled ⟨в⟩) has variable pronunciation, but is generally labiodental [ʋ]; it is [w] before /ɔ/ or /u/ and is vocalized to [u̯] before a consonant at the beginning of a word, after a vowel before a consonant or after a vowel at the end of a word. For simplicity, we will use ⟨w⟩ for both [ʋ] and [w].
↑In Ukrainian, geminates are found between vowels: бага́ття[bɐˈɦɑtʲːɐ]ⓘ 'bonfire', подру́жжя[poˈdruʒːɐ]ⓘ 'married couple', обли́ччя[oˈblɪtʃːɐ]ⓘ 'face'. Geminates also occur at the beginning of a few words: лля́ний[ˈlʲːɑnɪj] 'flaxen', forms of the verb ли́ти 'to pour' (ллючи́[lʲːʊˈtʃɪ]ⓘ, ллю[lʲːu], ллєш[lʲːɛʃ], etc.), сса́ти[ˈsːɑtɪ]ⓘ 'to suck' and derivatives.[citation needed]
