Macedonian phonology

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This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

This article discusses the

stops
.

Vowels

Vowels[1][2]
Front Back
Close i u
Open-mid ɛ ɔ
Open a

Schwa

The

СССР
⟩ ([ɛs.ɛs.ɛs.ɛr]) and ⟨МТ⟩ ([ɛm.tɛ]) (a brand of cigarettes), are among the few exceptions.

Vowel length

Veles
'. The sequence /aa/ is often realized phonetically as [aː]; e.g. ⟨саат⟩ /saat/ [saːt] 'colloq. hour'.

Consonants

Map of the use of the intervocalic phoneme kj in Macedonian (1962)
Map of the use of the intervocalic phoneme gj in Macedonian (1962)
Consonants[3][4]
Place → Labial Dental Alveolar Postalveolar Palatal Velar Velar Alveolar
Manner ↓ hard soft
Nasal m n̪3 ɲ
Plosive
 voiceless p
t
 k c1
voiced b
d
 g ɟ1
Affricate
 voiceless ts tʃ
voiced dz dʒ
Fricative
 voiceless f s ʃ  x4
voiced v z ʒ
Approximant
 l2,3 l2 j
Trill r

^1 /c/ and /ɟ/ are officially 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 [t͡ɕ] and [d͡ʑ] (just like in Serbo-Croatian), while in the urban Prilep subdialect of the Prilep-Bitola dialect, they have merged into /t͡ʃ/ and /d͡ʒ/, respectively.

velarised dental lateral /ɫ/ (always written ⟨л⟩) and the non-velarised alveolar lateral /l/ contrast in minimal pairs
such as ⟨бела⟩ /ˈbɛɫa/ ('white') and ⟨беља⟩ /ˈbɛla/ ('trouble'). Before /ɛ/, /i/, and /j/, only /l/ occurs and is then written ⟨л⟩ instead of ⟨љ⟩.

^3 The alveolar trill (/r/) is syllabic between two consonants; for example, ⟨прст⟩ [ˈpr̩st] 'finger'. The dental nasal (/n/) and velarised lateral (/ɫ/) are also syllabic in certain foreign words; e.g. ⟨њутн⟩ [ˈɲutn̩] 'newton', ⟨Попокатепетл⟩ [pɔpɔkaˈtɛpɛtɫ̩] 'Popocatépetl', etc.

Church Slavonicisms: ⟨дух⟩ /dux/ 'spirit', (4) new literary words: ⟨доход⟩ /ˈdɔxɔt/ 'income', and (5) to disambiguate between potential homophones: ⟨храна⟩ /ˈxrana/ 'food' vs. ⟨рана⟩ /ˈrana/ 'injury, wound'.[5]

Phonological processes

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

Stress

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.

For example, ⟨дете⟩ [ˈdɛtɛ] 'child', ⟨мајка⟩ [ˈmajka] 'mother' and ⟨татко⟩ [ˈtatkɔ] 'father'.

  • polysyllabic
    words are stressed on the third-to-last syllable.

For example, ⟨планина⟩ [ˈpɫanina] 'mountain', ⟨планината⟩ [pɫaˈninata] 'the mountain' and ⟨планинарите⟩ [pɫaniˈnaritɛ] 'the mountaineers'.

Exceptions include:

  • Verbal adverbs (i.e. words suffixed with ⟨-jќи⟩): e.g. ⟨викајќи⟩ [viˈkajci] 'shouting', ⟨одејќи⟩ [ɔˈdɛjci] 'walking'.
  • Foreign loanwords: e.g. ⟨клише⟩ [kliˈʃɛ] 'cliché', ⟨генеза⟩ [ɡɛˈnɛza] 'genesis', ⟨литература⟩ [litɛraˈtura] 'literature', ⟨Александар⟩ [alɛkˈsandar], 'Alexander', etc.
  • Others.

References

  1. ^ a b Friedman (2001), p. 10.
  2. ^ Lunt (1952), pp. 10–11.
  3. ^ Friedman (2001), p. 11.
  4. ^ Lunt (1952), pp. 11–12.
  5. ^ Friedman (2001:11)

Bibliography

  • Bojkovska, Stojka; Minova-Ǵurkova, Liljana; Pandev, Dimitar (2008). Opšta gramatika na makedonskiot jazik [Grammar of the Macedonian language]. Skopje: Prosvetno Delo.
  • Friedman, Victor (2001). "Macedonian". In Garry, Jane; Rubino, Carl (eds.). Facts about the World's Languages: An Encyclopedia of the Worlds Major Languages, Past and Present. New York: Holt. pp. 435–439.
  • Friedman, Victor (2001). "Macedonian". SEELRC. Duke University. Archived from the original on 2023-08-15.
  • Lunt, Horace G. (1952). Grammar of the Macedonian Literary Language. Skopje.
    OCLC 5137976.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
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