The Ukrainian letter и, which looks like an uppercase “N” written backwards, is pronounced like the “i” sound in “pit” (IPA: /ɪ/). Note that this is not the same sound as the Ukrainian letter і. To distinguish these two letters, и will be represented in this book as “y” as this is standard practice when writing Ukrainian words in English. Remember however that this is a short “i” sound and not a “y” sound or an “ee” sound. The uppercase form is И.
The letter ч is pronounced like the “ch” sound in “church” (IPA: /tʃ/). Although written with two letters in English, it is really a single sound and is only written with one letter in Ukrainian. This letter will be represented in this book by č. The uppercase form is Ч.
The letter ц is pronounced like the “ts” sound in “cats” (IPA: /ts/). This is really two sounds, a “t” sound followed by an “s” sound, but it is written with only one letter in Ukrainian. When writing Ukrainian words in English this letter is often represented by a “c”, but in this book I will use “ts” to avoid confusion with the English “c” sound. Unlike English, in Ukrainian this letter can be used at the beginning of a word and is still pronounced “ts”. The uppercase form is Ц.
The letter ж is pronounced like the “s” sound in “pleasure” or “measure” (IPA: /ʒ/). This letter will be represented in this book as ž. The uppercase form is Ж.
PRACTICE
Try to read these Ukrainian words. The English translation is given next to each word. The correct pronunciations are given in the answers below.
1. риба (fish)
2. син (son)
3. ринок (market)
4. сорочка (shirt)
5. чотири (four)
6. сонце (sun)
7. серце (heart)
8. жінка (woman)
9. книжка (book)
10. університет (university)
ANSWERS
1. rýba
2. syn
3. rýnok
4. soróčka
5. čotýry
6. sóntse
7. sértse
8. žínka
9. knýžka
10. universytét