Macedonian Phonology - Consonants

^1 According to Lunt (1952:1), /n t d t͡s d͡z s z l/ (he transcribes the last consonant as /ɫ/) are dental. /r ʎ/ (the latter transcribed /l/) are described by him as simply "alveolar".

^2 Depending on dialect, /c/ /ɟ/ may be alveolo-palatal affricates and (, respectively).

^3 Neither Lunt (1952) nor Friedman (2001) recognize the existence of a palatalised (/lʲ/) or palatal (/ʎ/) lateral in standard Macedonian. This is in contrast with the surrounding related languages (Bulgarian and Serbo-Croatian). Instead, a /lj/ cluster occurs, except in rapid speech where they coalesce.

Both of these scholars also assert that there is a phonemic contrast between the velarised lateral /ɫ/ and the nonvelarised /l/. While they admit that /l/ and /ɫ/ (as Л) occur mainly before front and non-front vowels, respectively, they state that, at least in the prescribed norm or in some words, /l/ (as Љ) may also occur before non-front vowels. Hence minimal pairs like бела /bɛɫa/ ('white'), fem.) versus беља /bɛla/ ('trouble') express this phonemic contrast.

The labiodental nasal occurs as an allophone of /m/ before /f/ and /v/ (e.g. трамвај, 'tram'). The velar nasal similarly occur as an allophone of /n/ before /k/ and /ɡ/ (e.g. англиски, 'English'). The latter realization is avoided by some speakers who enunciate.

The velar fricative /x/ does not occur natively in the language. It has been introduced or retained in Literary Macedonian under the following circumstances: (1) new foreign words: hotel ‘hotel’, (2) toponyms: Ohrid, (3) Church Slavonicisms: duh ‘spirit’, (4) new literary words: dohod ‘income’, and (5) disambiguation: hrana ‘food’, rana ‘injury’.