Appendix:Slovene pronunciation

The charts below show how Slovene words are pronounced and how this is represented in Wiktionary.

Accent and tone marks are not part of standard orthography, but are found in dictionaries and other reference works. The vowel spellings are shown here in standard orthography, stress-based diacritic orthography, and tonal diacritic orthography, respectively. Other symbols that are not used in standard orthography, but are included in some reference works, are placed in parentheses. Tonal symbols, as well as the symbols in parentheses, are used in Wiktionary entries. See Wiktionary:About Slovene for more details.

English approximations are in some cases very loose, and only intended to give a general idea of the pronunciation. See w:Slovene phonology for a more thorough look at the sounds.

Consonants
IPA Letter Examples nearest English equivalent
b b biti beet
d d dan done
dz dz dzer dzer
ez jazz
f f film film
ɡ g gora gore
j j jaz yaw
k k kola cola
l l les less
m m morje more
n n ne no
p p pet pet
r r robot robot (trilled)
ər vrba US: verb (trilled)
s s stol stole
ʃ š šola shell
t t tata tatoo
ts c car tsar
č čas chess
ʋ[1] v voda van
v, l (ł) bił, cerkev water
x h hiba huge
z z zima zoo
ʒ ž žaba vision
Vowels
IPA Letter Stress
orth.
Tonal
orth.
Examples nearest English equivalent
a a à, a ȁ, a jȁz car
á á, ȃ žába father
ə e è, e (ə̀, ə) ȅ, è, e (ə̏, ə̀, ə) pə̏s about
ɛ è, e ȅ, e mȅt let
ɛː ê é, ȇ zémlja there
é ẹ́, ẹ̑ krẹ̑da late
i i ì, i ȉ, i bȉk happy
í í, ȋ lȋst least
ɔ o ò, o ȍ, o ȍn spot
ɔː ô ó, ȏ pótok thought
ó ọ́, ọ̑ mọ̑rje goat
u u ù, u ȕ, u krȕh book
ú ú, ȗ trȗp scoop

Tones

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Tones and vowel length
IPA Stress
orth.
Tonal
orth.
Examples explanation
àː á á ā bráti long vowel with low/rising tone
áː ȃ brȃt long vowel with high/falling tone
ə̀ à ə̀ tèmen short vowel with low/rising tone (appears only on /ə/)
á ȁ brȁt short vowel with high/falling tone

When both a low/rising and high/falling tone are possible on a vowel, the macron is used. Thus, ā stands for both ȃ and á, while ə̄ stands for both ə̏ and ə̀.

The following tables show the possible combinations of tone/length and vowel quality, given in the three representations used in Wiktionary entries:

IPA
a ɛ e i ɔ o u ər ə
Long low/rising tone àː ɛ̀ː èː ìː ɔ̀ː òː ùː ə̀r
Long high/falling tone áː ɛ́ː éː íː ɔ́ː óː úː ə́r
Short low/rising tone ə̀
Short high/falling tone á ɛ́ í ɔ́ ú ə́
Unstressed a ɛ i ɔ u ər ə
Tonal diacritics
a e i o u r ə
Long low/rising tone á é ẹ́ í ó ọ́ ú ŕ
Long high/falling tone ȃ ȇ ẹ̑ ȋ ȏ ọ̑ ȗ ȓ
Short low/rising tone ə̀
Short high/falling tone ȁ ȅ ȉ ȍ ȕ ə̏
Unstressed a e i o u r ə
Stress diacritics
a ê/e é i ô/o ó u r ə
Long low/rising tone á ê é í ô ó ú ŕ
Long high/falling tone
Short low/rising tone à è ì ò ù ə̀
Short high/falling tone
Unstressed a e i o u r ə

Notes

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  1. ^ In the onset, v is a light fricative, more precisely transcribed [v] or [v̞]. However, it does not behave as a fricative, in that it does not devoice to [f] before a voiceless consonant, and does not cause preceding voiceless consonants to become voiced. In the coda, v is a bilabial approximant [w].