Help:IPA/Belarusian

This is the pronunciation key for IPA transcriptions of Belarusian on Wikipedia.

It provides a set of symbols to represent the pronunciation of Belarusian 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.

For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

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H:IPA-BE

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

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

Consonants
IPA	Cyrillic	IPA	Cyrillic^[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	Spanish higo
k	к	kʲ	к	scold, skew
l	л^[2]	lʲ	л	loot; lute (in dialects without yod-dropping)
m	м	mʲ	м	moot; mute
n	н	nʲ	н	noon; canyon
p	п	pʲ	п	span, spew
r	р			trilled r, like in Spanish
s	с	sʲ	с	soup; assume (in dialects without yod-dropping)
ʂ	ш			shore
t	т			stool
t͡s	ц	t͡sʲ	ц	cats
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 (in dialects without yod-dropping)
ʐ	ж			rouge

Marginal consonants
IPA	Cyrillic	IPA	Cyrillic	English approximation
ɡ	г, ґ	ɡʲ	г, ґ	goo; argue

Vowels
IPA	Cyrillic	English equivalent
a	а, я^[3]	between fat and father^[4]
ɛ	э, е^[3]	met
i	і^[5]	meat
ɨ	ы^[5]	roses (for some dialects)
ɔ	о, ё^[3]	born
u	у, ю	cool

Semivowels
IPA	Cyrillic	English equivalent
j	й^[6]	yes, boy
w	ў^[2]	water, cow

Other symbols
IPA	Explanation
ˈ	Stress (placed before the stressed syllable)
ː	Gemination^[7] (doubled consonant)

^ Belarusian has a contrast 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 always soft, but /d, t, d͡ʐ, t͡ʂ, r, ʂ, and ʐ/ are always hard.
^ ^a ^b ^c /v/ and /l/ merge into /w/ ⟨ў⟩ before consonants and at the end of words.
^ ^a ^b ^c Unstressed /ɛ/ and /ɔ/ are reduced to [a]. Unlike Russian, this is reflected in writing.
^ Closer to fat in most accents of British and Irish English; closer to father in most accents of North American, Australian and New Zealand English.
^ ^a ^b [i] and [ɨ] are in complementary distribution: [i] occurs 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.
^ Ten Belarusian consonants can be contrastively geminated: /d͡zʲː, d͡ʐː, lʲː, nʲː, sʲː, ʂː, t͡sʲː, t͡ʂː, zʲː, ʐː/.

[1] Belarusian has a contrast 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 always soft, but /d, t, d͡ʐ, t͡ʂ, r, ʂ, and ʐ/ are always hard.

[w-2] /v/ and /l/ merge into /w/ ⟨ў⟩ before consonants and at the end of words.

[reduced-3] Unstressed /ɛ/ and /ɔ/ are reduced to [a]. Unlike Russian, this is reflected in writing.

[4] Closer to fat in most accents of British and Irish English; closer to father in most accents of North American, Australian and New Zealand English.

[i-5] [i] and [ɨ] are in complementary distribution: [i] occurs after soft consonants; [ɨ] occurs after hard consonants.

[6] The "soft" vowel letters ⟨я, е, і, ё, ю⟩ represent a /j/ and a vowel when they are initial or after other vowels.

[7] Ten Belarusian consonants can be contrastively geminated: /d͡zʲː, d͡ʐː, lʲː, nʲː, sʲː, ʂː, t͡sʲː, t͡ʂː, zʲː, ʐː/.

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