Slovenian

Note: in the representation of Slovenian orthography below, c^ z^ s^ stand for c z s with a superscript hacek (caron).

Vowels

In Standard Slovenian there are long and short vowels. The former are stressed only and the latter may be stressed or unstressed.

Long vowels (7):

SAMPA Symbol    Orthography     Transcription   English gloss

i:              pila            "pi:la          file

e:              pet             "pe:t           five

E:              teta            "tE:ta          aunt

a:              mama            "ma:ma          mother

O:              voda            "vO:da          water

o:              pot             "po:t           path

u:              sus^a           "su:Sa          drought

Short vowels:

stressed (7):

SAMPA Symbol    Orthography     Transcription   English gloss

i               sit             "sit            full, satiated

I               lajna           "laIna          barrel-organ

E               zelen           zE"lEn          green

a               c^as            "tSas           time

O               potop           pO"tOp          flood

u               kruh            "krux           bread

@               tema            "t@ma           darkness

unstressed (6):

SAMPA Symbol    Orthography     Transcription   English gloss

i               prijava         pri"ja:va       application

E               zelen           zE"lEn          green

a               tema            "t@ma           darkness

O               potop           pO"tOp          flood

u               konzul          "ko:nzul        consul

@               veter           "ve:t@r         wind

Consonants

The Standard Slovenian consonant system comprises 6 sonorants, 6 fricatives, 6 plosives and 3 affricates.

Sonorants:

In Standard Slovenian the sonorants do not affect the voicing of the non-sonorant consonants standing in front of them. The sonorants are all voiced and do not have voiceless counterparts (the only exception is the allophone of /v/: [W]).

SAMPA Symbol    Orthography     Transcription   English gloss

m               miza            "mi:za          table

n               noc^            "no:tS          night

l               leto            "le:tO          year

r               riba            "ri:ba          fish

v               voda            "vO:da          water

j               jeza            "je:za          anger

The sonorants have positional allophones as follows:

/m/ is [F] before /f/ and /v/;
/n/ is

[N] before /k/, /g/, /x/;
[F] before /f/, /v/;
[n'] before a consonant and at the end of a word;

/l/ is [l'] before a consonant and at the end of a word;
/v/ is

[w] before voiced consonants not after a vowel;
[W] before voiceless consonants not after a vowel

Obstruents

The non-sonorants undergo changes of voice according to their position. Voiced obstruents can stand only before vowels, sonorants and voiced obstruents in the same word. Final obstruents are obligatorily voiceless. Prepositions, however, are treated as enclitics, belonging phonetically with the following word, and may therefore end with a voiced obstruent.

Plosives: There are three voiceless plosives, /p t k/, and three voiced, /b d g/.

SAMPA Symbol    Orthography     Transcription   English gloss

p               pipa            "pi:pa          faucet

b               beda            "be:da          misery

t               teta            "tE:ta          aunt

d               delo            "de:lO          work

k               kolo            kO"lo:          wheel

g               goba            "go:ba          mushroom

/p/ is [p_n] before /m/, [p_f] before /f/, /v/;
/b/ is [b_n] before /m/, [b_f] before /f/, /v/;
/t/ is [t_l] before /l/, [t_n] before /n/;
/d/ is [d_l] before /l/; [d_n] before /n/.

Fricatives:

f s S x

z Z

  

SAMPA Symbol    Orthography     Transcription   English gloss

f               figa            "fi:ga          fig

s               soba            "sO:ba          room

z               zima            "zi:ma          winter

S               s^oba           "So:ba          pout

Z               z^oga           "Zo:ga          ball

x               his^a           "xi:Sa          house

Affricates:

ts tS

dz dZ

SAMPA Symbol    Orthography     Transcription   English gloss

ts              cula            "tsu:la         bundle

tS              c^elo           "tSE:lO         forehead

dz              odzivi          O"dzi:vi        responses

dZ              dz^ungla        "dZu:Ngla       jungle

Stress and Accent

In Standard Slovenian, the accent is possible on every syllable of a word. The position of the accent in some cases, however, depends on certain rules.

In Slovenian, there are two types of accentuation defined as standard. One involves differences in stress (as exemplified above), the other is tonal. Depending on regional background, speakers use one or the other, but not both. The four possibilities in the second, tonal, type of accentuation are as follows:

long fall or long circumflex (high pitch)
short fall or short circumflex (high pitch)
long rise or long acute (low pitch)
short rise or short acute (low pitch).

The above account was written by Zdravko Kacic and Melita Zemljak.

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Maintained by J.C. Wells. Created 1998 Dec 04

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