This article deals with the phonology of the standard Ukrainian language.
Vowels[]
Ukrainian has six vowel phonemes: /i, u, ɪ, ɛ, ɔ, ɑ/.
/ɪ/ may be classified as a retracted high-mid front vowel,[1] transcribed in narrow IPA as [e̠], [ë], [ɪ̞] or [ɘ̟].
| Front | Central | Back | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| unrounded | rounded | unrounded | rounded | ||
| Close | i | ʉ | ɯ | u | |
| Close-mid | ɪ | ø | ɤ | ʊ | |
| Open-mid | ɛ | œ | ə | ʌ | ɔ |
| Open | æ | a | ɑ | ||
Ukrainian has no phonemic distinction between long and short vowels; however, unstressed vowels are somewhat reduced in time and, as a result, in quality.
- In unstressed position /ɑ/ has an allophone [ɐ].
- Unstressed /ɔ/ has an allophone [o] that slightly approaches /u/ if it is followed by a syllable with /u/ or /i/.
- Unstressed /u/ has an allophone [ʊ].
- Unstressed /ɛ/ and /ɪ/ approach [e] that may or may not be a common allophone for the two phonemes.
- /i/ has no notable variation in unstressed position.
Consonants[]
| Labial | Dental/Alveolar | Post- alveolar |
Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hard | Soft | |||||||
| Nasal | m | n | nʲ | ɲ | ŋ | |||
| Stop | p b |
t d |
tʲ dʲ |
c ɟ |
k ɡ | |||
| Affricate | t͡s d͡z |
t͡sʲ d͡zʲ |
t͡ɕ d͡ʑ |
ʈ͡ʂ ɖ͡ʐ |
||||
| Fricative | f v |
s z |
sʲ zʲ |
ɕ ʑ |
ʂ ʐ |
ç ʝ |
x ɣ | |
| Approximant | Central | w | j | ɰ | ||||
| Lateral | l | lʲ | ʎ | |||||
| Trill | ʙ | r | rʲ | |||||