Last Updated: 2019-08-05
Background
Language Family: Indo-European / Balto-Slavic / Slavic / East Slavic / Ukrainian
- Ukrainian is spoken throughout Ukraine and in several other Baltic states.
Phonology
Consonants
- Pompino-Marschall, Steriopolo, and Żygis (2016) argue for /ʋ/ rather than /v/ (p. 350).
- Any Ukrainian consonant can be allophonically palatalized, but this palatalization is only phonemic for alveolar consonants (Pompino-Marschall, Steriopolo, and Żygis 2016, 350).
- Consonant gemination exists, but it is controversial whether consonant length is contrastive; Pompino-Marschall, Steriopolo, and Żygis (2016) dispute it, arguing instead for simple consonant sequences (p. 353).
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Place of Articulation
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Manner of Articulation
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Labial
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Alveolar (plain)
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Alveolar (palatalized)
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Postalveolar
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Palatal
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Velar
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Glottal
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Stops
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p b
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t d
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tʲ dʲ
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k ɡ
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Affricates
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ts dz
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tsʲ dzʲ
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tʃ dʒ
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Fricatives
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f v
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s z
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sʲ zʲ
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ʃ ʒ
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x
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ɦ
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Nasals
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m
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n
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nʲ
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Trills
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r
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rʲ
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Approximants
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l
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lʲ
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j
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Note: For phonemes that share a cell, those on the left are voiceless, whereas those on the right are voiced.
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Vowels
- Vowel length is not contrastive in Ukrainian. (Pompino-Marschall, Steriopolo, and Żygis 2016, 353)
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Front
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Central
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Back
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High
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i ɪ
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u
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Mid
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ɛ
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ɔ
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Low
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a
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Note: The high front vowels are tense and lax, respectively..
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Alphabet
- NOTE: During the Soviet period, the character ⟨ґ⟩ was not used, and ⟨г⟩ represented both /ɦ/ and /ɡ/. Although /ɡ/ is relatively rare in Ukrainian, this conflict still compromises the language for corpora that are based on Soviet-era texts (Pugh and Press 1999, 20; Humesky 1980, 17).
- Acute accents are sometimes used to mark stress, but these seem to be rare outside of academic/didactic sources (Pugh and Press 1999, 24).
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Grapheme
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Phoneme
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Comment
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а
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/a/
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б
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/b/
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в
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/v/
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г
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/ɦ/
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ґ
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/ɡ/
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д
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/d/
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е
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/ɛ/
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є
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/jɛ/
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palatalizes preceding consonant
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ж
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/ʒ/
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з
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/z/
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и
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/ɪ/
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і
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/i/
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palatalizes preceding consonant
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ї
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/ji/
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always indicates two separate sounds (Medushevsky and Zyatkovska 1963, 11)
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й
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/j/
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к
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/k/
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л
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/l/
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м
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/m/
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н
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/n/
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о
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/ɔ/
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п
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/p/
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р
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/r/
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с
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/s/
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т
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/t/
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у
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/u/
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ф
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/f/
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х
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/x/
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ц
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/ts/
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ч
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/tʃ/
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ш
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/ʃ/
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щ
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/ʃtʃ/
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ь
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marks palatalization of preceding consonant
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ю
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/ju/
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palatalizes preceding consonant
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я
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/ja/
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palatalizes preceding consonant
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’
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marks non-palatalization of preceding consonant in an otherwise palatalizing environment
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Digraph
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дж
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/dʒ/
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дз
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/dz/
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Lenition Rules
- The palatalized trill, /rʲ/, tends to flap to [ɾʲ] [Pompino-Marschall, Steriopolo, and Żygis (2016), p. 352].
- /v/ approximantizes to [w] before rounded back vowels (ibid.).
- /v/ approximantizes to [w] when preconsonantal or word-final (Pugh and Press 1999, 27; Humesky 1980, 18).
Misc. Rules
- Non-palatalized /l/ tends to velarize to [ɫ] (Pompino-Marschall, Steriopolo, and Żygis 2016, 352).
- /ɦ/ fronts to [x] before /k/ (ibid.).
- Syllable-final glides become the non-syllabic vowels [i̯] and [u̯] (ibid.).
References
Humesky, Assya. 1980. Modern Ukrainian. Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies.
Medushevsky, A., and R. Zyatkovska. 1963. Ukrainian Grammar. State Textbook Publishing House.
Pompino-Marschall, Bernd, Elena Steriopolo, and Marzena Żygis. 2016. “Ukrainian.” Journal of the International Phonetic Association 47 (3). Cambridge University Press (CUP): 349–57. doi:10.1017/s0025100316000372.
Pugh, Stefan M., and Ian Press. 1999. Ukrainian: A Comprehensive Grammar. Routledge.