Ukrainian phonology

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This article deals with the phonology of the Ukrainian language.

1 Vowels
2 Consonants
3 Historical phonological changes
4 References
5 Bibliography

[edit] Vowels

	Front	N-front	Back
Close	i	ɪ	u
Mid	ɛ		ɔ
Open			ɑ

Here <ɔ> is used to represent a mid back rounded vowel ([o̞]) to distinguish it from the closer unaccented allophone [o].

[edit] Consonants

Place of articulation →	Labial		Coronal			Dorsal		(none)
Manner of articulation ↓	Bilabial	Labio- dental	Dental/ Alveolar	Palatalized Alveolar	Post- alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m		n̪	nʲ
Plosive	p b		t̪ d̪	tʲ dʲ			k ɡ
Affricate			ts dz	tsʲ dzʲ	tʃ dʒ
Fricative		f	s z	sʲ zʲ	ʃ ʒ		x	ɦ
Trill			r	rʲ
Approximant		ʋ	l	lʲ		j

Ukrainian, like Russian, has a non-syllabic [i̯] as an allophone of /j/.

Voiceless obstruents are voiced when preceding voiced ones, but the reverse is not true.^[1]

[nɑʃ] ('our')
[nɑʒdid] ('our grandfather')

[bɛrɛzɑ] ('birch')
[bɛrɛzkɑ] ('bindweed')

Only postalveolar and dental consonants (other than /r/) can be geminated.

When two or more consonants occur word-finally, then a vowel is epenthesized under the following conditions. ^[2] Given a consonantal grouping C₁(ь)C₂(ь), where C is any consonant. The vowel is inserted between the two consonants and after the ь. A vowel is only inserted if C₂ is either /k/, /ʋ/, /l/, /m/, /r/, or /ʦ/. In this case:

If C₁ is either /ʋ/, /ɦ/, /k/, or /x/, then the epenthisized vowel is always [o]
1. No vowel is epenthesized if the /ʋ/ is derived from a Common Slavic vocalic *l, for example, /ʋoʋk/ (see below)
If C₂ is /l/, /m/, /r/, or /ʦ/, then the vowel is /ɛ/. The only known exception is /ʋidm/ which simply doesn't have an epenthesized vowel.
The combinations, /-stʋ/ /-sk/ are not broken up
If the C₁ is /j/ (й), then the above rules can apply. However, both forms (with and without the fill vowel) often exist

[edit] Historical phonological changes

Main article: Proto-Slavic language

In the Ukrainian language, the following sound changes have occurred between the Common Slavic period and current Ukrainian:

In a newly closed syllable, that is, a syllable that ends in a consonant, Common Slavic *o and *e mutated into *i if the next vowel was one of the yers (*ǐ/ь or *ǔ/ъ).
Pleophony: The Common Slavic combinations, CoLC and CeLC, where L is either *r or *l become in Ukrainian
1. CorC gives CoroC (Common Slavic *borda gives Ukrainian boroda)
2. ColC gives ColoC (Common Slavic *bolto gives Ukrainian boloto)
3. CerC gives CereC (Common Slavic *berza gives Ukrainian bereza)
4. CelC gives ColoC (Common Slavic *melko gives Ukrainian moloko)
The Common Slavic nasal vowel *ę is reflected as /jɑ/; a preceding labial consonant generally was not palatalized after this, and after a postalveolar it became /ɑ/ Examples: Common Slavic *pętĭ became Ukrainian /pjɑt/ (п’ять); Common Slavic *telę became Ukrainian /tɛlʲja/; and Common Slavic *kyrčę became Ukrainian /kɪrtʃɑ/.
Common Slavic *ě (Cyrillic ѣ), generally became Ukrainian /i/ except:
1. word-initially, where it became /ji/: Common Slavic *ěsti became Ukrainian /jistɪ/
2. after the post-alveolar sibilants where it became /ɑ/: Common Slavic *ležěti became Ukrainian /lɛʒɑtɪ/
Common Slavic *i and *y are both reflected in Ukrainian as /ɪ/
The Common Slavic combination -CǐjV, where V is any vowel, became -CʲCʲV, except
1. if C is labial or /r/ where it became -CjV
2. if V is the Common Slavic *e, then the vowel in Ukrainian mutated to /ɑ/, e.g., Common Slavic *žitĭje became Ukrainian /ʒɪttjɑ/
3. if V is Common Slavic *ĭ, then the combination became /ej/, e.g., genitive plural in Common Slavic *myšĭjĭ became Ukrainian /mɪʃɛj/
4. if one or more consonants precede C then there is no doubling of the consonants in Ukrainian
Sometime around the early thirteenth century, the voiced velar plosive lenited to [ɣ] (except in the cluster *zd).^[3] Within a century, /g/ was reintroduced from Western European loanwords and, around the sixteenth century, [ɣ] debuccalized to [ɦ].^[4]
Common Slavic combinations *dl and *tl were simplified to /l/, for example, Common Slavic *mydlo became Ukrainian /mɪlo/
Common Slavic *ǔl (vocalic *l̥) and *ǐl (vocalic ĺ̥) became /oʋ/, while word-final *lǔ became /ʋ/. For example, Common Slavic *vĺ̥kǔ became /ʋoʋk/ in Ukrainian.

[edit] References

^ (Mascaró & Wetzels 2001, p. 209)
^ Carlton, T.R. A Guide to the Declension of Nouns in Ukrainian. Edmonton, Alberta: University of Alberta Press, 1972
^ Shevelov (1977:145)
^ Shevelov (1977:148)

[edit] Bibliography

Ukrainian IPA by Tonia Bilous, Весна, December 05, 2005, retrieved December 05, 2005 (Ukrainian language: UkrIPA.pdf, UkrIPA.doc)
Mascaró, Joan & W. Leo Wetzels (2001), "The Typology of Voicing and Devoicing", Language 77(2): 207-244
Shevelov, George Y. (1977), "On the Chronology of h and the New g in Ukrainian", written at Cambridge, in Harvard Ukrainian Studies, vol. vol 1, Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, 137–52
Zilyns'kyj, I. (1979). A Phonetic Description of the Ukrainian Language.. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-66612-7. .