Macedonian phonology

This article discusses the phonological system of Standard Macedonian (unless otherwise noted) based on the Prilep-Bitola dialect. For discussion of other dialects, see Macedonian dialects. Macedonian possesses five vowels, one semivowel, three liquid consonants, three nasal stops, three pairs of fricatives, two pairs of affricates, a non-paired voiceless fricative, nine pairs of voiced and unvoiced consonants and four pairs of stops.

Schwa
The schwa is phonemic in many dialects (varying in closeness to or ) but its use in the standard language is marginal. It is written with an apostrophe: $\langle’рж, за’ржи, В’чков, К’чев, К’шање, С’лп\rangle$. It can also be used for dialectal effect; for example, $⟨к’смет⟩$, $⟨с’нце⟩$, etc. When spelling aloud, each consonant is followed by the schwa. The individual letters of acronyms are pronounced with the schwa in the same way: $⟨МПЦ⟩$. The lexicalized acronyms $⟨СССР⟩$ and $⟨МТ⟩$  (a brand of cigarettes), are among the few exceptions.

Vowel length
Vowel length is not phonemic. Vowels in stressed open syllables in disyllabic words with stress on the penult can be realized as long, e.g. $⟨Велес⟩$ 'Veles'. The sequence is often realized phonetically as ; e.g. $⟨саат⟩$   'colloq. hour'.

Consonants


and are officially dorsal-palatal plosives, and some speakers pronounce them that way. They have various other pronunciations, depending on dialect. In some Northern Macedonian dialects they are alveolo-palatal affricates and  (just like in Serbo-Croatian), while in the urban Prilep subdialect of the Prilep-Bitola dialect, they have merged into  and, respectively.

The velarised dental lateral (always written $\langleл\rangle$) and the non-velarised alveolar lateral  contrast in minimal pairs such as $⟨бела⟩$  ('white') and $⟨беља⟩$  ('trouble'). Before, , and , only occurs and is then written $\langleл\rangle$ instead of $\langleљ\rangle$.

The alveolar trill is syllabic between two consonants; for example, $⟨прст⟩$  'finger'. The dental nasal and velarised lateral  are also syllabic in certain foreign words; e.g. $⟨њутн⟩$  'newton',  $⟨Попокатепетл⟩$  'Popocatépetl', etc.

The velar fricative /x/ does not occur natively in the language. It has been introduced or retained in Standard Macedonian under the following circumstances: (1) new foreign words: $⟨хотел⟩$ 'hotel', (2) toponyms: Ohrid, (3) Church Slavonicisms: $⟨дух⟩$  'spirit', (4) new literary words: $⟨доход⟩$  'income', and (5) to disambiguate between potential homophones: $⟨храна⟩$  'food' vs. $⟨рана⟩$  'injury, wound'.

Phonological processes
At morpheme boundaries (represented in spelling) and at the end of a word (not represented in spelling), voicing opposition is neutralized.

Stress
The word stress in Macedonian is antepenultimate, meaning it falls on the third from last syllable in words with three or more syllables, and on the first or only syllable in other words. This is sometimes disregarded when the word has entered the language more recently or from a foreign source. The following rules apply:
 * Disyllabic words are stressed on the second-to-last syllable.

For example, $⟨дете⟩$ 'child', $⟨мајка⟩$  'mother' and $⟨татко⟩$  'father'.
 * Trisyllabic and polysyllabic words are stressed on the third-to-last syllable.

For example, $⟨планина⟩$ 'mountain', $⟨планината⟩$  'the mountain' and $⟨планинарите⟩$  'the mountaineers'.

Exceptions include:
 * Verbal adverbs (i.e. words suffixed with $⟨-jќи⟩$): e.g. $⟨викајќи⟩$ 'shouting', $⟨одејќи⟩$  'walking'.
 * Foreign loanwords: e.g. $⟨клише⟩$ 'cliché', $⟨генеза⟩$  'genesis', $⟨литература⟩$  'literature', $⟨Александар⟩$, 'Alexander', etc.