Macedonian phonology

This article discusses the phonological system of Standard Macedonian (unless otherwise noted) based on the Prilep-Bitola dialect.

The schwa is phonemic in many dialects (varying in closeness to [ʌ] or [ɨ]) but its use in the standard language is marginal.

[1] The lexicalized acronyms СССР ([ɛs.ɛs.ɛs.ɛr]) and МТ ([ɛm.tɛ]) (a brand of cigarettes), are among the few exceptions.

The dental nasal (/n/) and velarised lateral (/ɫ/) are also syllabic in certain foreign words, e.g., њутн [ˈɲutn̩] 'newton', Попокатепетл [pɔpɔkaˈtɛpɛtɫ̩] 'Popocatépetl'.

It has been introduced or retained in Standard Macedonian under the following circumstances: (1) new foreign words: хотел /xɔˈtɛɫ/ 'hotel', (2) toponyms: Охрид /ˈɔxrit/ 'Ohrid', (3) Church Slavonicisms: дух /dux/ 'spirit', (4) new literary words: доход /ˈdɔxɔt/ 'income', and (5) to disambiguate between potential homophones: ⟨храна⟩ /ˈxrana/ 'food' vs. ⟨рана⟩ /ˈrana/ 'injury, wound'.