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Bulgarian

VOWELS
The vowel system of Contemporary Standard Bulgarian comprises 6 phonemes, as follows.

SYMBOL GLOSS TRANSCRIPTION
i peak pik
e sunshine pek
a again pak
@ but p@k
O under pOt
u crack! puk

In unstressed positions there is considerable qualitative reduction of vowels.

CONSONANTS
The consonant system comprises 21 ``hard'' (non-palatalised) phonemes, as follows.

SYMBOL GLOSS TRANSCRIPTION
p again pak
b ball bal
t there tam
d I give dam
k how kak
g gas gas
ts czar tsar
dz clang dz@n
tS teak tSam
dZ glass dZam
f fall fal
v wall val
s alone sam
z dice zar
S shawl Sal
Z pity Zal
x bad luck xal
m displacement max
n us nas
l polish lak
r once ras

There are also 18 ``soft'' (palatalised or palatal) consonants, which are shown by the symbol ``''' (ASCII 39) written after the consonant symbol. Before /i, e/ they do not contrast with the corresponding ``hard'' consonants, but elsewhere they do.

SYMBOL GLOSS TRANSCRIPTION
p' sang p'al
b' white b'al
t' them t'ax
d' apart d'al
k' prophet k'ar
g' rose g'ul
ts' whole ts'al
dz' have bad luck dz'an
f' Fyut (name) f'ut
v' feeble v'al
s' sowed s'al
z' be badly off z'an
x' Hume (name) x'um
m' wineskin m'ax
n' mute n'am
l' poured l'ax
r' cut r'as
j ate jal



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