Help:IPA/Belarusian
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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.
| 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; resume (for some dialects) |
| ʐ | ж | rouge | ||
| IPA | Examples | IPA | Examples | English approximation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ɡ | г, ґ | ɡʲ | г, ґ | goo; argue |
| IPA | Examples | English equivalent |
|---|---|---|
| a | а, я [3] | father |
| ɛ | э, е [3] | met |
| i | і [4] | meat |
| ɨ | ы [4] | roses |
| ɔ | о, ё [3] | born |
| u | у, ю | choose |
| IPA | Examples | English equivalent |
|---|---|---|
| j | й[5] | yes, boy |
| w | ў[2] | water |
| 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.
- ^ a b c /v/ and /l/ merge into /w/ ‹ў› in the syllable coda.
- ^ a b c Unstressed /ɛ/ and /ɔ/ are reduced to [a]. Unlike Russian, this is reflected in writing.
- ^ a b [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/.