Belarusian phonology

The phonological system of the modern Belarusian language consists of 45 (54) phonemes: 6 vowels and 39 (48) consonants.

Some of the Belarusian consonants may form complemental pairs, differing only in palatalisation (called hard vs soft consonants). In some of such pairs, the place of articulation is additionally changed (see distinctive features below). Some of the consonants are always palatalised, and some are always unpalatalised. The phonetic transcription of Belarusian denotes the palatalised ("soft") consonants with the symbol <ʲ>.

Distinctive features

As an East Slavic language, Belarusian differs from closely related languages in a number of ways:

• Akannye (аканне) – the pronunciation of unstressed /o/ and /a/ as clear open front unrounded vowel [a]. Unlike Russian akanye, [a] also appears after /j/. However, there is no emphasised separation after the /j/ in the pronunciation of the iotified /ja/, /jo/, /je/ and /ji/.
• Dzyekanye (дзеканне) – the pronunciation of Old East Slavic /dʲ/ as a soft affricate [ʣʲ].
• Tsyekannye (цеканне) – the pronunciation of Old East Slavic /tʲ/ as a soft affricate [ʦʲ].
• Strong palatalization of /sʲ/ and /zʲ/.
• Postalveolar consonants are all hard (laminal retroflex) while Russian and Ukrainian have both hard and soft postalveolars.
• /rʲ/ has hardened and merged with /r/.
• After vowels /u/ transforms to semivowel [u̯], e.g. воўк [vɔu̯k] ('wolf').
• Both [j] and [w] are considered semi-vowels or glides. Also reflected in the formal names of these phonemes: respectively, "non-syllabic I" and "non-syllabic U" (нескладовы).

Vowels

Belarusian script	IPA	Description	Belarusian example
i	/i/	close front unrounded	лiст ('leaf')
э	/ɛ/	open-mid front unrounded	гэты ('this one')
ы	[ɨ]	close central unrounded	мыш ('mouse')
a	/ä/	open central unrounded	кат ('executioner')
у	/u/	close back rounded	шум ('noise')
о	/ɔ/	open-mid back rounded	кот ('cat')

It is considered by some, that the sound /ɨ/ is not a separate phoneme, but an allophone of /i/ occurring after non-palatalized consonants.

Consonants

The consonant of Belarussian are as follows:

Place of articulation →	Labial				Coronal			Dorsal
Manner of articulation ↓	Bilabial	Palatalized bilabial	Labio- dental	Palatalized labio- dental	Dental/ Alveolar	Palatalized Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar
Plosive	p b	pʲ bʲ			t d			c ɟ	k g
Affricate					ts dz	tsʲ dzʲ	tʂ dʐ
Fricative			f v	fʲ vʲ	s z	sʲ zʲ	ʂ ʐ	ç ʝ	x ɣ
Nasal	m	mʲ			n	nʲ
Trill					r
Approximant					l	lʲ		j	w

The rare phoneme /g/ is present only in several borrowed words, e.g. ганак [ˈganak], however, геаграфія [ʝea'ɣrafʲija] ('geography').

The geminated variations are transcribed as followed: падарожжа [padaˈroʐʐa], ззяць [zʲzʲatsʲ], стагоддзе [staˈɣodzʲdzʲe], каханне [kaˈxanʲnʲe], рассячы [rasʲˈsʲatʂɨ], ліхалецце [lʲixaˈlʲetsʲtsʲe], сярэднявечча [sʲarɛdnʲaˈvʲetʂtʂa].

Notes

Sources

• Беларуская граматыка. У 2-х ч. / АН БССР, Ін-т мовазнаўства імя Я. Коласа; [Рэд. М. В. Бірыла, П. П. Шуба]. – Мн. : Навука і тэхніка, 1985.
• Беларуская мова: Вучэб. дапам. / Э. Д. Блінава, Н. В. Гаўрош, М. Ц. Кавалёва і інш.; Пад рэд. М. С. Яўневіча. — Мн. : Выш. школа, 1991. ISBN 5-339-00539-9.
• (Padluzhny) Фанетыка беларускай літатурнай мовы / І. Р. Бурлыка, Л. Ц. Выгонная, Г. В. Лосік, А. І. Падлужны; Рэд. А. І. Падлужны. — Мн.:Навука і тэхніка, 1989. — 335 с. ISBN 5-343-00292-7.