Help:IPA/Bulgarian

The charts below show the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents Standard Bulgarian pronunciations in Wikipedia articles. For a guide to adding IPA characters to Wikipedia articles, see {{IPA-bg}} and Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation § Entering IPA characters.

See Bulgarian phonology for a more thorough look at the sounds of Bulgarian.

Consonants

IPA	Examples	English approximation
b	баба	box
c	кьопоолу	cute
d	дом	dust
d͡z	дзифт	birds
d͡ʒ	джем	jab
f	филм	fact
ɡ	гарван	good
ɟ	гяур	argue
j	сойка	yes
k	къща	skill
l	лимон	leap
ɫ	лош	all (pronounced [w] by some speakers)
ʎ	любов	million
m	море	mocha
n	нос	north
ɲ	баня	canyon
ŋ	банка	sing
p	пет	speak
r	работа	trilled r, like in Spanish
s	стол	salt, mask
ʃ	шума	sugar
t	тайна	style
t͡s	цар	bats
t͡ʃ	чай	cheese
v	вода	view
x	хартия	loch (Scottish English)
z	зима	zoo
ʒ	жълт	pleasure

Marginal consonants

IPA	Examples	English approximation
ɣ	видях го	between go and ahold
ç	Хюз	huge
w	уиски	water

Vowels

IPA	Examples	English approximation
a	брат	father
ɤ	кът	plus (General American, Scottish English)
ɛ	цена	edge
i	сив	police
ɔ	слон	off
u	хубав	pool

Reduced vowels

IPA	Examples	English approximation
ɐ	щерка, камък	sofa
o	нещо, уста	thought (RP), coat (Scottish English)

Other symbols

IPA	Description
ˈ	Stress on the following syllable
ˌ	Secondary stress on the following syllable
◌ʲ	Palatalization of the preceding consonant

Sources

• Жобов, Владимир (2004), Звуковете в българския език
• Sabev, Mitko (2015), Reduction of unstressed central and back vowels in Contemporary Standard Bulgarian (PDF), Proceedings of the 18th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Glasgow, UK
• Scatton, Ernest A. (1984), A reference grammar of modern Bulgarian