ОД ФОНОТАКТИКАТА НА МАКЕДОНСКИОТ ЈАЗИК
On the phonetics of Macedonian language

Summary/Abstract: The subject of analysis in this article is assimilation of voice in Macedonian: in cases of contact between obstruents with different voice features (within the word or at word boundaries), voicing and devoicing of obstruents, or regressive sandhi, occurs. But this rule does not apply to /v/ because this obstruent allows both progressive assimilation (for example [sfet], [sfat], [sfaca], [sfeca], [sfari], [sfekor], [sfekrva]) and regressive assimilation before a sonant in inflectional morphemes for imperfect and aorist ([imafme], [dojdofme]). In the phonetic system of some Western Macedonian dialects there is no voiceless fricative /f/ and in past tense inflections a voiced /v/ is pronounced ([imavme] / [imavne], [bevme]/ [bevne], etc.). As far as the sandhi in final position is concerned, a few characteristics should be pointed out. Final obstruents are often voiceless before initial voiced obstruents ([ubaf graf si kupil], [so blagoslof za bericet]), although obstruents remaining unchanged is also a regular feature ([Belov gi posakuva] [ Belov bese…] [takov zakon], [sakav da kaèam], [izlez od drèavata]). Final voiced consonant is also devoiced if followed by a word with initial sonant or vowel ([nadvor ot periot na kampaÜa], [Belgrat izrazuva...], [upravniot sut ja poniʃti..], [snek na planinite], etc.). In Macedonian, there is a new tendency to keep voiced obstruents in final position or before a long break ([izlez], [vlez], [prihod], [red], [sud], [strav], [izgrev], [l'ubov], [potsmev], [ekskluziv] [adev], [nosev], [piev]) especially in words with final /v/. This kind of pronunciation can be attributed to the influence of orthography, but we cannot exclude the influence of the neighbouring languages, such as Serbian, for example, a Slavic language without sandhi.

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