How ethnic languages are pronounced is determined by their native speakers. This goes for Interslavic as well: although it is neither an ethnic language nor a language intended to serve as a standard language for Slavs, it should be comfortable and familiar to pronounce for Slavs. All Slavic accents are equally correct: just like the British, American and Australian pronunciations are all equally correct in English, a Russian pronunciation of Interslavic is by no means better or worse than a Serbian or Polish pronunciation. As a result, the pronunciation of most sounds (phonemes) is variable, depending on the nationality of the speaker, and any pronunciation given below is just an approximation. The fact that pronunciation is fairly free, however, does not mean that there cannot be an „ideal” pronunciation for every phoneme.
All letters can be pronounced as they are pronounced in any Slavic alphabet. In the following table, exceptions are given in the third column:
Letter | Equivalent in Slavic | IPA | Pronunciation (English) | |
---|---|---|---|---|
A | А | [ɑ] ~ [a] | as a in English „father” | |
B | Б | [b] | as in English | |
C | Ц | [t͡s] | as ts in English „bits” | |
Č | Ч | Pol. cz | [t͡ʃ] ~ [t͡ʂ] | as ch in English „church” |
D | Д | [d] | as in English | |
DŽ | ДЖ | Pol. dż, Srb./Mac. џ | [d͡ʒ] ~ [d͡ʐ] | as j in English „John” |
E | Е | Rus./Bel. э | [ɛ] ~ [e] | as e in English „best” |
Ě | Є | Pol./Slk. ie, Slv./SCr. je, Rus./Bel. е, Blg. йе | [jɛ] ~ [je] | as ye in English „yet” |
F | Ф | [f] | as in English | |
G | Г | Ukr./Bel. ґ | [g] ~ [ɦ] | as g in English „good” |
H | Х | Pol./Cz./Slv. ch | [x] | as ch in Scottish „loch” |
I | И | Ukr./Bel. і | [i] ~ [ɪ] | as ea in English „beat” |
J | Ј | Rus./Ukr./Bel./Blg. й | [j] | as y in English „yard” |
K | К | [k] | as in English, but without aspiration | |
L | Л | [l] ~ [ɫ] | as in English | |
LJ | Љ | Pol./Cz. l, Rus./Ukr./Bel./Blg. ль | [lʲ] ~ [ʎ] | as li in English „million” |
M | М | [m] | as in English | |
N | Н | [n] | as in English | |
NJ | Њ | Pol. ń, Cz./Slk. ň, Rus./Ukr./Bel./Blg. нь | [nʲ] ~ [ɲ] | as ny in English „canyon” |
O | О | [ɔ] ~ [o] | as o in English „or” | |
P | П | [p] | as in English, but without aspiration | |
R | Р | [r] | rolled r | |
S | С | [s] | as s in English „spin” | |
Š | Ш | Pol. sz | [ʃ] ~ [ʂ] | as sh in English „shop” |
T | Т | [t] | as in English, but without aspiration | |
U | У | [u] | as oo in English „book” | |
V | В | Pol. w | [v] ~ [ʋ] | as v in English „avoid” |
Y | Ы | Ukr./Slv./Scr./Mac./Blg. и | [i] ~ [ɨ] | as i in English „bit” |
Z | З | [z] | as in English | |
Ž | Ж | Pol. ż | [ʒ] ~ [ʐ] | as si in English „vision” |
Notes:
Apart from the standard alphabet given above, the Interslavic Latin alphabet also has a set of optional characters that basically do two things. First of all, they represent phonemes that evolved into different directions in the Slavic languages, and secondly, they link directly to their Proto-Slavic origins. For example, the vowel å in kråva „cow” indicates that this word derives from Proto-Slavic *korva, which became krova in Polish and Sorbian, korova in East Slavic, and krava in Czech, Slovak and South Slavic. The most extreme case is undoubtedly đ (from Proto-Slavic dj), which in various languages evolved into [d͡z], [z], [ʒ], [ʒd], [j], etc.
These characters belong to the etymological alphabet. They are not used in ordinary written Interslavic, i.e. they are written, but without the diacritics (except for ć and đ, which are written č and dž respectively), and can of course also be pronounced as such. However, it is also possible to try for an „average” pronunciation that does more justice to the Slavic majority. In the case of aforementioned kråva, for example, that would mean a sound somewhere between a and o (in IPA: [ɒ]).
Letter | IPA | Pronunciation (English) |
---|---|---|
Å å | [ɑ] ~ [ɒ] | as o in English „mother” |
Ć ć | [t͡ʃ] ~ [t͡ɕ] | as ch in English „cheap” |
D́ d́ | [dʲ] ~ [ɟ] | as d in English „duke” |
Ð đ | [d͡ʒ] ~ [d͡ʑ] | as j in English „jeep” |
Ė ė | [ɛ] ~ [ǝ] | as e in English „better” |
Ę ę | [jæ] ~ [jɛ] | as ya in English „yam” |
Ĺ ĺ | like lj, usually before j, n or s | |
Ń ń | like nj, usually before j or s | |
Ȯ ȯ | [ə] ~ [ʌ] | as o in English „memory” |
Ŕ ŕ | [rʲ] ~ [r̝] | raised alveolar trill |
Ś ś | [sʲ] ~ [ɕ] | as sh in English „sheet” |
T́ t́ | [tʲ] ~ [c] | as t in English „tube” |
Ų ų | [o] ~ [ʊ] | between ow in American English „mow” and ew in „hew” |
Ź ź | [zʲ] ~ [ʑ] | voiced equivalent of ś |
Notes:
Accentuation is free. However, if you want to stay on the safe side, it would deserve recommendation to follow as guidelines:
When it comes to speaking, one has always to remember that the listener is probably not familiar with Interslavic, and even if he is, he is not used to hearing it spoken. Whenever you use Interslavic in a conversation, always make sure that the person you are talking to actually understands you. Speak slowly, keep eye-contact, articulate clearly, and always be a good listener. After all, communication is not just a matter of language, the non-verbal part is equally important.
The same, perhaps even more so, goes when you are addressing an audience. Interslavic has been constructed to maximise intelligibility, but that does not mean every Slav can understand every word of it. Listening to Interslavic is a matter of constantly making connections and connotations, and whenever a person hears a word he doesn't understand—which is quite inevitable—the odds are that he starts pondering about it and misses the rest of your sentence. It is necessary that you always give your audience all the time it needs to process your information, to let it sink in. So don't speak fast, speak clearly, take a deep breath between sentences, use prosody as well as you can, and so on...