1 SOUNDS AND SPELLING 1.0 A GENERAL GUIDE TO THE UKRAINIAN ALPHABET AND PRONUNCIATION We begin with an informal presentation of the sounds of the Ukrainian language, which we will qualify in the subsequent more detailed examination. The outline in this chapter draws on works in the Bibliography. The transcription which we use is that of the International Phonetic Alphabet. The approximate pronunciation equivalents given are also meant as a rough, preliminary guide. Wherever in the present book we make transliterations for purposes other than jshonetic and phonological, we respectively replace [p/v, є, js, з, i, d, ts, tf, J, JtJ] with [w/v, e, je, z, y, o, c, c, s, sc], and the apostrophe and soft sign with an apostrophe. the Ukrainian alphabet - Українська абетка LETTERS AND SOUNDS - Літери та Звуки Printed Hand- Name written A a cA a a [a] Б б # f бе [b] В в ? 4, ве [p/v] Г г / і ге [h] Ґ ґ ґ * ге [д] Д д ? і де [d] Е є ? t e [є] Єє Є є є [je] Ж ж X ж, же [з] Approximate pronunciation a as in northern Engaish bad. b as in English bed. v as in English vet (but with perhaps more participation of both lips), close to English h in house, but with more voice and less aspiration (see the list of grammatical terms). g as in English get; quite a rare sound in native Ukrainian words. d as in English debt, e as in English get. May become и-like when unstressed (see below). ye as in English yet. s roughly as in English pleasure (keep your voice low and push out your lips).
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