Slovene phonology

Slovene has many dialects, which have their own consonant changes. Some of the changes that impact only one consonant are already listed above and more general changes that impact more consonants, as well as two distinctions that are not present in standard language anymore are listed here.

Alpine Slovene, the transitional language between Proto-Slavic and Slovene, had five palatal consonants: j /j/, ĺ /ʎ/, ń /ɲ/, ŕ /ɟ̆/ and t’ /c/.[19] Sonorants /ʎ/, /ɲ/ and /ɟ̆/ all turned into sequences /lj/, /nj/ and /rj/, respectively if followed by a vowel. Before a consonant, /ɟ̆/ merged with /ɾ/ in all dialects, while /ʎ/ still retains its palatal pronunciation in Upper Savinja, Inner Carniolan, Karst, Soča, Istrian, Upper Carniolan around Bohinj, South White Carniolan, Kostel and southern part of Gail Valley dialects and /ɲ/ retains the pronunciation in Resian, Torre Valley, Natisone Valley, Karst, Inner Carniolan, Istrian, Brda, Soča, Gail Valley, Rosen Valley, Upper Carniolan around Bohinj, Prekmurje, Kostel and South White Carniolan dialects. In other dialects they either merged with their non-palatal counterparts, merged with /j/ or turned into sequences /jl/ and /jn/ (/j̃/).[19] Therefore, Standard Slovene allows three different pronunciations in this case:[20][21]

• Speakers of dialects which retained original pronunciation usually pronounce them as /lʲ/ and /nʲ/, respectively. Elsewhere, this pronunciation is considered archaic.
• Speakers of dialects which completely lost the distinction between palatal and non-palatal /l/ and /n/ pronounce them the same also in the Standard language.
• Other speakers can pronounce them either as one of the forms above, or as longer /lː/ and /nː/, respectively.

In the orthography, former /ʎ/, /ɲ/ and /ɟ̆/ are always represented by the sequences ⟨lj⟩, ⟨nj⟩ and ⟨rj⟩, respectively, except before a consonant /ɟ̆/ is represented by ⟨r⟩.

The tʼ–č distinction is one of the two distinctions that was present in Alpine Slovene and is still present in some dialects, but is not present in the standard language anymore. Dialects that still have this distinction (Resian and Torre Valley dialects, some Soča, Inner Carniolan and Istrian microdialects)[19] mostly do not pronounce the phoneme as /c/ anymore, but as /tɕ/, which was also the standard pronunciation during the Reformation. Therefore, this distinction is either dialectal or obsolete. In other dialects, /c/ merged with /tʃ/. Examples, where the difference can be observed are sveča [ˈsʋèːtɕá] (with distinction) [ˈsʋèːtʃá] (without distinction) 'candle', teči [ˈtɛ̀ːtɕí] (with distinction) [ˈtɛ̀ːtʃí] (without distinction) 'to run' and hočem [ˈxòːtɕɛ́m] (with distinction) [ˈxòːtʃɛ́m] (without distinction) '(I) want'.

In Alpine Slavic, *ł was an allophone of *l before consonants, back vowels and /a/, and before a stop.[19] Some dialects still retain the original pronunciation (e.g., Horjul, Lower Carniolan, Inner Carniolan and Upper Savinja dialects. Shvapanye (Slovene: švapanje) is the pronunciation of /l/ and /ʋ/ as [w] or [u̯] before all back vowels, consonants and /a/ (/ʌ/), which is present in the Carinthian dialects, Upper Carniolan dialect, some northern Lower Carniolan microdialects and the Čabranka dialect.[22] In standard language, shvapanye is only somewhat present, as described above. Elkanye (Slovene: elkanje) and vekanye (Slovene: vekanje) is the hypercorrect way of pronouncing words, without shvapanye.

Slekanye (Slovene: slekanje) is a phenomenon mostly limited to slovenized Germans, which live in around Rut (Bača subdialect) and is the merge of alveolar and post-alveolar fricatives and affricates into one phoneme, which is pronounced somewhere in between (/t͇s͇/, /s͇/ and /z͇/ for /ts/ and /tʃ/, /s/ and /ʃ/, and /z/ and /ʒ/, respectively).[23] Apart from that area, it is also known for a part of the Torre Valley dialect.[24]

Proto-Slavic consonant clusters *tl and *dl simplified quite soon in central, southern and eastern areas while it disappeared later from western and northern dialects. Today, the only dialect that still retains this distinction is the Gail Valley dialect. The clusters tl and dl that are nowadays present in the standard language became such after the omission of *ь/*ъ between the consonants. The distinction can be seen in the word vile [ˈʋìːdlɛ́] (Gail Valley dialect without any other dialectal changes) [ˈʋìːlɛ́] (all other dialects).

The pronunciation of a consonant can be influenced by its surroundings, which is not necessarily reflected in the orthography.

The first Slavic palatalization in nowadays Slovene exists only for /k/, /g/, /x/, and /ts/, which turn into /tʃ/, /ʒ/, /ʃ/, and /tʃ/, respectively:[25]

The second Slavic palatalization in today's Slovene exists only for /k/ and /g/, which turn into /ts/ and /z/, respectively:[25]

Iotation is the change of a consonant when /j/ follows and they merge together in one or more sounds:[25]

When a stop or affricate is followed by another stop or affricate, it dissimilates into a fricative, e. g. bedak [beˈdǎːk] 'idiot' + -ski [ski] → bedaški [beˈdàːʃkí] 'idiotic' and k [k] 'to' + grobu [ˈgrɔ̀ːbú] 'grave' → h grobu [x‿ˈgɾɔ̀ːbú] 'to the grave'.

There are two types of assimilation in Slovene; a consonant can either match the following consonant by voice or by the place of articulation (or both).

All voiced obstruents are devoiced at the end of prosodic words unless immediately followed by a word beginning with a vowel or a voiced consonant. In consonant clusters, voicing distinction is neutralized and all consonants assimilate the voicing of the rightmost segment. The consonant pairs are given in this table:

In this context, [v] and [ɣ] may occur as voiced allophones of /f/ and /x/, respectively (e.g., vŕh drevésa [ˈʋə̂ɾɣ dɾeˈʋéːsà] 'top of a tree'),[26] while [gɣ] and [bv] would be hardly ever used allophones of /kx/ and /pf/, respectively. Consonant clusters in non-assimilated words can be excluded from this rule, for example podcast [ˈpóːdˌkàst] 'podcast'.[27]

When a dental/alevolar fricative or affricate are followed by a postalveolar fricative, affricate or ⟨nj⟩/⟨lj⟩/⟨rj⟩, they usually become postalveolar; e.g., stric Žan 'uncle, whose name is Žan' [ˈstrîːdzˈʒâːn] or [ˈstrîːdʒˈʒâːn] or [ˈstrîːˈdʒːâːn].[28]

Nasal /m/, /n/ also match the place of articulation with the following consonant: Istanbul 'Istanbul' [ˈíːstamˌbùl], informacija 'information' [ˌiɱfoɾˈmàːtsijà], banka 'bank' [ˈbáːŋkà] (but they do not change change articulation before post-alveolar consonants and /m/ also does not have allophone [ŋ]).[29]

Several consonant clusters also get simplified into geminated consonants. In fast speech, however, they change into usual, non-geminated consonants.[28]

• When two or (rarely) more of the same consonants are pronounced one after another, they become geminated, taking the allophone of the first one; e.g., brezzob 'toothless' [breˈzːôp]. Stops and affricates can be geminated or pronounced separately; e.g., oddati 'to hand in' [odˈdàːtí] or [oˈdːàːtí]. Labialized consonants can also lose labialization after [u̯]; e.g., siv vzorec 'gray pattern' [ˈsîːu̯ˈʷzóːɾə̀ts] or [ˈsîːˈu̯ːzóːɾə̀ts] (of course vzorec can also be acute).
• When a dental/alveolar stop is followed by a dental/alveolar affricate, then they can be pronounced separately or combine into a geminated affricate; e.g., od čebele 'from a bee' [ʔottʃeˈbéːlɛ̀] or [ʔotʃːeˈbéːlɛ̀].
• When a dental/alveolar stop or affricate is followed by a dental/alveolar fricative, they combine into a geminated affricate or are pronounced separately; e.g., podse 'under itself' [ˈpóːtsɛ̀] or [ˈpóːtsːɛ̀].

Standard Slovene does not really have diphthongs. The closest to a diphthong are combinations of vowel + [u̯] or [j]. In all other cases, two following vowels form two different syllables, e. g. poenostaviti 'simplify' [po.ˌenoˈstàːʋiˌtí]. Often, these clusters simplify into one vowel (which is reflected in the orthography) or insert [j] (always after /i/, which is not necessarily reflected in the orthography) or [ʔ].[52] When two vowels are pronounced one after another, they are usually pronounced as would be expected. Exceptions are unstressed /i/ and /u̯/, which are pronounced as usual or turn into [j] and [u̯], respectively if preceded by a vowel, e.g, bo imela '(she) will have' [bo‿iˈméːlà] or [bo‿jˈméːlà].[28]

Number of vowels varies drastically between dialects. For example, Tolmin dialect has 3 long vowels, while some Carinthian microdialects can have 15 or even more long vowels. Alpine Slavic had three distinct long e-like vowels (which are in standard language all represented by /eː/) and two distinct long o-like vowels (which are in standard language all represented by /oː/. However, most dialects at least differentiate between one e-like vowel and the other two. In fact, Standard Slovene has one of the most simplified vowel systems of all dialects. Also not common for other dialects is that it does not contain any diphthongs as they all monophthongized. The only vowels that consistently merged with other vowels is *ə̄, which turned into /aː/ in the west and south (and in standard language) and to /eː/ in the north and east.[53]

While long vowels tend to be diphthongized, short vowels tend to be reduced because of modern vowel reduction, which is also common in colloquial spoken language. Apart from centralization, /e/ is commonly pronounced as /a/ (akanye) or as /i/ (ikanye) and /o/ is commonly pronounced as /a/ (akanye) or /u/ (ukanye).[54]

The most common pronunciation difference between speakers is /e/ vs. /ɛ/ and /o/ vs. /ɔ/ as the dialectal distribution is inconsistent with the distribution in Standard Slovene. This influences the way speakers of such dialects speak Standard Slovene.[55]

A new change that is currently happening most notably around Ljubljana is the pronunciation of /ə/ as [ɛ] or [e], eliminating another distinction between vowels.[56]

Historically, [ˈsɛm] is the pronunciation of sem in the meaning 'here' and [ˈsəm] for sem in the meaning '(I) am', but due to modern vowel reduction, which is the most prominent in monosyllabic words, and the recent development of /ə/ → /ɛ/ , the roles are nowadays mostly switched, i. e. '(I) am' is now pronounced [ˈsɛm] and 'here' is now pronounced [ˈsəm].[56]

Slovene is traditionally analysed as having a distinction between long and short vowels. Stress and vowel length are closely intertwined:[57]

• A non-final syllable that bears stress will automatically have a long vowel. Conversely, at most one vowel in a Slovene word is long, and it automatically bears the stress.
• If a word has no long vowels, the stress usually falls on the final syllable. However, a limited number of words have non-final stress on short syllables.
• Schwa /ə/ can also be stressed non-finally, but has no length distinctions.

Vowel length carries a low functional load: it is distinctive only in stressed final syllables, which can be either long or short. In other syllables, however, whether vowel length or stress, or both, are phonemic depends on the underlying phonological analysis. Generally speaking, stress and length co-occur in all but the final syllable, so one feature or the other is phonetically redundant in those words.

Recently, scholars[58] have found that vowel length in standard Slovene is no longer distinctive,[5][43][44][59] and that the only differences in vowel length are that the stressed vowels are longer than the unstressed ones,[44][60] and that stressed open syllables are longer than stressed closed syllables.[44] Stressed syllables are characterized by amplitude and pitch prominence.[60]

Standard Slovene has undergone two accent shifts since Alpine Slovene. The first one, which happened in the 15th century, is from open short final syllables to the mid-close syllable before in words with two syllables, e. g. žena 'wife' [ʒeˈnâ] → [ˈʒɛ̀ːná]. The original accentuation is retained in a part of Rosen Valley, Resian, Natisone Valley, Torre Valley and southern part of Soča dialects and is considered obsolete in Standard Slovene.[61]

The second accent shift was from short final syllable to the mid vowel /ə/ in the syllable before, e. g. megla 'fog' [məˈglâ] → [ˈmə̀glá] (→ [ˈmɛ̀glá]). This change did not happen in all the aforementioned dialects, as well as Upper and Lower Carniolan dialects. Standard language allows both accents, but the unshifted one is considered archaic or high literary, as with the pronunciation of /ə/ as [ɛ] or [e], the shift occurs also in Upper and Lower Carniolan dialects.[61]

Other two common accent shifts, that are not present in Standard Slovene are from all short final ([ʋiˈsɔ̂k] → [ˈʋìːsɔ́k]) and from all long circumflex final ([seˈnôː] → [ˈsèːnɔ́]). The first one happened in Tolmin, Cerkno, Črni Vrh, Horjul, Karst, Inner Carniolan, Istrian, Kostel, Čabranka, South White Carniolan and North White Carniolan dialects, as well as all Styrian dialects, except Lower Sava Valley dialect and the second one happened in Gail Valley dialect without the subdialect, Resian, Torre Valley, Črni Vrh, Poljane, eastern part of Rosen Valley, Jaun, Mežica, North Pohorje–Remšnik, Upper Savinja, Central Savinja, South Pohorje, Kostel, Čabranka, North White Carniolan and South White Carniolan dialects.[61]

The standard language has two varieties, tonemic and non-tonemic. Tonemic varieties distinguish between two tones or pitch contours on stressed syllables, while non-tonemic varieties do not make this distinction. The tonemic varieties are found in a north–south band in the center of the country (Gail Valley, Rosen Valley, Ebriach, most of Jaun Valley, Natisone Valley, Torre Valley, Soča, a lesser part of Tolmin, Upper Carniolan without the subdialect, most of Selca, Horjul, Poljane, and Lower Carniolan dialects, a well as southwestern part of South White Carniolan dialect).[62][63] Dialects in the eastern and south-western part of Slovenia are non-tonemic. However, because the Slovenian capital city Ljubljana is located within the central tonemic dialect area, phonemic tone was included in the standard language, and in fact the tonemic variety is more prestigious and is universally used in formal TV and radio broadcasts.

The two tones are:

• A low-pitch contour, also known as "acute". It is indicated with an acute diacritic ⟨é⟩ on long syllables, a grave ⟨è⟩ on short syllables.
• A high-pitch contour, also known as "circumflex". It is indicated with an inverted breve diacritic ⟨ȇ⟩ on long syllables, a double grave ⟨ȅ⟩ on short syllables.

The exact distribution and phonetic realization of tonemes varies locally.[64] In Standard Slovene, some words may have either an acute or circumflex tone, with the chosen tone differing by speaker.[65] Unless otherwise noted, this article discusses the tonemes as they are realized in Standard Slovene spoken in Ljubljana.

Tone is differentiated only on the stressed and on the last syllables, where it is the opposite of the tone that stressed syllable has (except in some prepositions). If last syllable is stressed, then they merge and form rising (acute) or falling (circumflex) tone; e.g., pot [ˈpǒːt] / [ˈpôːt] 'path'. Other vowels have neutral (mid) tone.[66] vowels are mid tone in none-tonemic variety.

Not all types of syllables have a distinction between the two tones:

• All long vowels distinguish the two tones.
• Tautosyllabic stressed /əɾ/ (i.e., /əɾ/ not directly followed by a vowel in the same word) can also distinguish the two tones. It is considered "long" for this purpose, for example pȓstnica ('phalanx') with high/falling tone vs. pŕstanəc ('finger') with low/rising tone.
• For the schwa /ə/ (when not part of the /əɾ/ combination), the two tones are mostly in complementary distribution: it is circumflex in final syllables and acute elsewhere. This is the only case where a stressed short acute vowel can occur.
• All other stressed short vowels are always realised with a circumflex tone. They are mostly restricted to final syllables.

This leads to the following possible combinations of tone, length and vowel quality (note that unstressed vowels have diacritical marks often omitted):

The non-tonemic system is identical to the tonemic system above in terms of vowel length and stress, but lacks any phonemic tone. This means that, for those dialects, the first four rows merge, as do the next three. Similarly, for speakers who do not distinguish short and long vowels, the first and third rows merge, as do the second and fourth. An exception to this is the traditional /á/, which does not merge with /áː/. Instead, the former is realized as [ʌ́].[33]

Longer words, particularly loanwords, also have secondary stress. It always appears in words and word clusters when words do not have primary stress. Secondary stressed is usually every second syllable before and after the syllable with primary stress; e.g., aerofotogrametrija [ʔaˈɛ́ːrɔˌfotoˌgɾameˈtríːjà] 'aerophotogrammetry'. Secondarily stressed open-mid vowels also become close-mid.[67]

The sample text is a reading of the first sentence of The North Wind and the Sun.

[ˈsèːʋɛrní ˈʋéːtə̀r ʔin ˈsóːntsɛ̀ sta ˌse pɾeˈpɪ̀ːralá – kaˈtɪ̀ːrí ʔod ˈnjìːjú ˌje motʃˈnèːjʃí – ˌko je ˈmìːmɔ́ priˈʃə̂u̯ poˈpòːtník – zaˈʋǐːt ˈʷtɔ̀ːpə́u̯ ˈplǎːʃtʃ]

Severni veter in sonce sta se prepirala, kateri od njiju je močnejši, ko je mimo prišel popotnik, zavit v topel plašč.