Bulgarian

Unicode version with Cyrillic

Vowels

The vowel system of Contemporary Standard Bulgarian comprises 6 phonemes, as follows.

	SAMPA symbol	Gloss and... 	Transcription of keyword
	i		peak		pik
	e		heat		pek
	a		again		pak
	@		but		p@k
	O		under		pOt
	u		crack!		puk

In unstressed positions there is considerable qualitative reduction of vowels.

Consonants

The consonant system comprises 21 'hard' (non-palatalized) phonemes, as follows.

	p		again		pak		
	b		ball		bal
	t		there		tam
	d		give		dam
	k		how		kak
	g		gas		gas
	ts		tsar		tsar
	dz		ting		dz@n
	tS		pine		tSam
	dZ		glass		dZam
	f		foul		fal
	v		bank		val
	s		alone		sam
	z		dice		zar
	S		shawl		Sal
	Z		pity		Zal
	x		plight		xal
	m		swing		max
	n		us		nas
	l		varnish		lak
	r		once		ras

	j		eaten		jal

There are also 17 'soft' (palatalized or palatal) consonants, which are shown by the symbol ' (ASCII 39) written after the consonant symbol. Before /i, e/ they do not contrast with the corresponding 'hard' consonants, but elsewhere they do.

	p'		sung		p'al
	b'		white		b'al
	t'		them		t'ax
	d'		share		d'al
	k'		profit		k'ar
	g'		rose		g'ul
	ts'		whole		ts'al
	dz'		waste		dz'an
	f'		phew!		f'ut
	v'		apathetic	v'al
	s'		sown		s'al
	z'		waste		z'an
	x'		Hume (name)	x'um
	m'		wineskin	m'ax
	n'		dumb		n'am
	l'		poured		l'ax
	r'		cut		r'as

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Maintained by J.C. Wells. Last modified 1998 April 17