Help:IPA for Belarusian

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The charts below show the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents Belarusian language pronunciations in Wikipedia articles.

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

Consonants
IPA Examples IPA Examples[1] English approximation
b б б boot; beautiful
d д do
d͡z дз d͡zʲ дз birds, adze
d͡ʐ дж jug
f ф ф fool; few
ɣ г ɣʲ г roughly like go but without completely
blocking the air flow
k к к cooter; cute
l л[2] л loot; lute (for some dialects)
m м м moot; mute
n н н noon; canyon (for some dialects)
p п п paw; pew
r р trilled r, like in Spanish
s с с soup; super (for some dialects)
ʂ ш shore
t т tool
t͡s ц t͡sʲ ц cats; quartz
t͡ʂ ч child
v в[2] в voodoo; view
x х х bach; huge (for some dialects).
z з з zoo; amazing
ʐ ж rouge


Marginal consonants
IPA Examples IPA Examples English approximation
ɡ г, ґ ɡʲ г, ґ goo; argue
Vowels
IPA Examples English equivalent
a а, я [3] father
ɛ э, е [3] met
i і [4] meat
ɨ ы [4] roses
ɔ о, ё [3] born
u у, ю choose


Semivowels
IPA Examples English equivalent
j й[5] yes, boy
w ў[2] water


Other symbols
IPA Explanation
ˈ Stress (placed before the stressed syllable)
ː Gemination[6] (doubled consonant)

Notes

  1. Belarusian contrasts 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 also soft, but /d, t, d͡ʐ, t͡ʂ, r, ʂ, ʐ/ are always hard.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 /v/ and /l/ merge into /w/ ‹ў› in the syllable coda.
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 Unstressed /ɛ/ and /ɔ/ are reduced to [a]. Unlike Russian, that is reflected in writing.
  4. 4.0 4.1 [i] and [ɨ] are in complementary distribution: [i] occurs at the beginning of words and after soft consonants; [ɨ] occurs after hard consonants.
  5. The "soft" vowel letters ‹я, е, і, ё, ю› represent a /j/ and a vowel when they are initial or after other vowels.
  6. Nine Belarusian consonants can be contrastively geminated: /d͡zʲː, lʲː, nʲː, sʲː, ʂː, t͡sʲː, t͡ʂː, zʲː, ʐː/.