Macedonian phonology

This article is about the Slavic language. For the non-Slavic language spoken in the ancient world, see Ancient Macedonian language.

This article discusses the phonological system of standard Macedonian (unless otherwise noted) based on the Prilep-Bitola dialect. For discussion of other dialects, see Macedonian dialects. Macedonian possesses five vowels, one semivowel, three liquid consonants, three nasal consonants, three pairs of fricatives, two pairs of affricates, a non-paired voiceless fricative, nine pairs of voiced and unvoiced consonants and four pairs of stops.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid	ɛ	(ə)	ɔ
Open		a

Consonants

	Bilabial		Labio- Dental		Dental		Alveolar		Post- Alveolar		Palatal		Velar
Nasal	m				n						ɲ
Plosive	p	b			t	d					c	ɟ	k	ɡ
Affricate					ts	dz			tʃ	dʒ
Fricative			f	v	s	z			ʃ	ʒ			x
Approximant											j
Trill					r
Lateral					ɫ		l

1. Depending on dialect, /c/ /ɟ/ may be alveolo-palatal affricates ([dʑ] and [tɕ], respectively).

The velar nasal [ŋ] occasionally occurs as an allophone of /n/ before /k/ and /ɡ/. For example, англиски [ˈaŋɡliski] ('English').

In cases when /r/ is syllabic, an apostrophe is used before the letter Р. Examples include 'рж /r̩ʒ/ ('rye'), за'ржи /zar̩ʒi/ ('to rust') and 'рбет /r̩bɛt/) ('backbone'), among others.

Neither Lunt (1952) nor Friedman (2001) recognize the existence of a palatalised (/lʲ/) or palatal (/ʎ/) lateral in standard Macedonian. This is in contrast with the surrounding related languages (Bulgarian and Serbian). Instead, a /lj/ cluster occurs, except in rapid speech where they coalesce.

Both of these scholars also assert that there is a phonemic contrast between the velarised lateral /ɫ/ and the nonvelarised /l/. While they admit that /ɫ/ and /l/ (as Л) occur mainly before front and non-front vowels, respectively. They state that, at least in the prescribed norm or in some words, /l/ (as Љ) may also occur before non-front vowels. Hence minimal pairs like бела /bɛɫa/ ('white'), fem.) versus беља /bɛla/ ('trouble') express this phonemic contrast.

Schwa

The schwa is phonemic in many dialects (varying in closeness to /ʌ/ or /ɨ/). When writing a dialectal word and keeping the schwa for aesthetic effect, an apostrophe is used (for example, к`смет, с`нце, etc.) However, its role in the standard language is minimal and limited to two environments:

• before a syllabic /r/ in absolute initial position when preceded by a morpheme ending in a vowel, and
• when spelling aloud, each consonant is followed by the schwa.

The individual letters of acronyms are pronounced with the schwa in the same way: МПЦ ([mə·pə·t͡sə]). The lexicalized acronyms СССР ([ɛs·ɛs·ɛs·ɛr]) and МТ (brand of cigarettes) ([ɛm·tɛ]) are among the few exceptions.

Phonological processes

At the end of a word, the 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, де́те [ˈdɛtɛ] ('child'), ма́jкa [majka] ('mother') and та́тко [ˈtatkɔ] ('father').

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

For example, та́ткото [ˈtatkɔtɔ] ('the father'), та́тковци ([ˈtatkɔvt͡si], 'fathers'), and татко́вците [tatˈkɔvt͡sitɛ] ('the fathers').

Exceptions include:

• Verbal adverbs: e.g. вика́јќи [viˈkajci] ('shouting'), оде́јќи [ɔˈdɛjci] ('walking').
• Foreign loanwords: e.g. клише́ [kliˈʃɛ] ('cliché'), гене́за [ɡɛˈnɛza] ('genesis'), литерату́ра [litɛraˈtura] ('literature').

See also

• Macedonian alphabet
• List of phonetics topics

Bibliography

• 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
• Lunt, Horace G. (1952), Grammar of the Macedonian Literary Language, Skopje{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)