Slovene national phonetic transcription ( ) is a group of four closely related and similar phonetic alphabets used to write pronunciations of Slovene and its dialects, as well as Alpine Slavic. The alphabet was first used by Fran Ramovš in 1937 to transcribe Freising manuscripts, and was later slightly changed to more closely resemble the International Phonetic Alphabet. The old transcription is called "Ramovš transcription" and the new one "the new Slovene national phonetic transcription" or "Logar transcription". From those transcriptions, "tonal transcription" (used for tonal orthography) and "non-tonal transcription" (used for non-tonal orthography), which also has a simplified form that can be implemented without changing the spelling of most of the words and only shows the accent ("Stress notation") were derived, although the ununified predecessors were already used before.
In dialectology, it is known as "national transcription" (), since it is the only appropriate way to write dialects.
Non-tonal and tonal transcription
Whether formal Slovene is a tonal language or not is still debated; however, non-tonal transcription is used more frequently than the tonal one. It can be used to fully transcribe a word, but its diacritical marks can be added to a normally-written word to only denote the stress and the length of the vowel, because the pronunciation of other letters can already be evident from the spelling of most words. However, this cannot be applied to loanwords or to words that already have diacritical marks. This transcription is commonly added to words in books that are pronounced differently, but written the same to differentiate between them, such as môra "a nightmare" and móra "(he) has to". Additionally, mid central vowel can also be written with ə and when l is pronounced as , it can be represented with ł, however such representation is mostly reserved for dictionaries and study books meant for non-native speakers.
Tonal transcription differs from non-tonal only in diacritical marks. +Long stressed vowelsIn a wordNon-tonalTonalIPAìːíːèːéː / ɛ̝̀ːɛ̝́ːɛ̀ːɛ́ːàːáːɔ̀ːɔ́ː / ɔ̝̀ːɔ̝́ːòːóːùːúː
+Short stressed vowelsIn a wordNon-tonalTonalIPAíɛ̝́ɛ́è / ə̀ə̀ə́ / / / áɔ́ɔ̝́ú / ə̀ɾə́ɾə́l
+Short unstressed vowelsIn a wordNon-tonalTonalIPAiɛ̝ɛe / əəaoɔɔ̝uəɾənəm
+SemivowelsIn a wordNon-tonalTonalIPAj / / l / łw / u̯ +ConsonantsSNPTIPASNPTIPAmt̪nɱt̪ⁿn̪n̪ʲd̪ŋd̪ⁿllʲkɾ / rgjt͡ʃʋd͡ʒvswzʍʃpʒpⁿt͡sp̪dzd͡zbfb̪xbⁿɣɣ Notes:
and are in a word usually marked with , but few dictionaries mark them with acute accent. is preferred to if following the Jurgec vowel system. An acute accent is placed on in a word if it is followed by a consonant that is in the same morpheme. is only present in . is in a word written with u only in some old Slavic words, such as "moral" and is usually transcribed into IPA as [w], but the distinction between the semivowel and consonant is then lost, so u̯ʷ, or simply u̯ is favored. On computers, can be used to represent .
+Diacritical marks (non-tonal)MarkPositionUseaboveDenotes short vowel; it also denotes an open-mid or a mid vowel when combined with and .aboveDenotes long vowel; it also denotes a close-mid vowel when combined with and . Exception is when combined with r or l (see above)aboveDenotes long open-mid vowel.belowDenotes mid vowel and can only be combined with and .aboveDenotes long vowel and can only be combined with and . Can also be present on consonants. +Diacritical marks (tonal)MarkPositionUseaboveDenotes short vowel and low pitch. It is only combined with .̏aboveDenotes short vowel and high pitch.aboveDenotes long vowel and low pitch.̑aboveDenotes long vowel and high pitch.aboveDenotes that both pitches are allowed. It is usually reserved only for long vowels. Can also be present on consonants.̣belowIt denotes a close-mid vowel.^belowIt denotes a mid vowel. The different letters for nasal and lateral stops were only added later and are only rarely used (the usual , , , and are used).
Logar and Ramovš transcription The Logar transcription is the full new national phonetic transcription and the Ramovš transcription is the "old" one, both of which can also be used for all Slovene dialects and Alpine Slavic. Logar transcription was designed by Valentin Logar and used in his works. It was implemented mainly because Ramovš transcription was not standardized and to make national transcription more similar to the International Phonetic Alphabet. However, it failed to do that and both transcriptions are in use today.
The transcriptions used for written Slovene are a simplification of these two transcriptions; the letters stayed the same, apart from those added later, and the diacritical marks mimicked the ones from Ramovš transcription, but some were also changed and added.
The transcriptions really detail some sounds, and is therefore more appropriate to use for Slovene dialects than IPA and does not have a perfect IPA substitute for every letter. +Logar and Ramovš transcriptions+VowelsRTLTIPADescriptionExample (Logar transcription)iClose front unrounded vowel (Upper Carniolan)*yClose front labialized (rounded) vowel (South White Carniolan)ʏ͉Hollow, velar, rounded, non-tense vowel between and (Upper Carniolan – Kropa)i̠Close near-front unrounded vowel (Inner Carniolan)uClose back rounded vowel (Upper Carniolan)*y̠͈Close tense near-front rounded vowel (Lower Carniolan)ɪ̟͉Near-close non-tense front unrounded vowel (Eastern Lower Carniolan subdialect)ɪNear-close near-front unrounded vowel (Upper Carniolan)i͈Close tense (Prekmurje)ɨ̟̞Reduced -like vowel (Rižana subdialect)*ɨ̞Reduced -like vowel (Karst)ʉ̠̞Reduced -like vowel (South Pohorje)ʊ̠͉Near-close non-tense back rounded vowel (Eastern Lower Carniolan subdialect)*ʊ̠̝͈Almost-close tense (Prekmurje)ɪ̟͈Near-close tense front unrounded vowel (Upper Savinja)ʊ̠͈Near-close tense back rounded vowel (Upper Savinja)eClose-mid front unrounded vowel (Upper Carniolan)*e̠Close-mid near-front unrounded vowel (Gail Valley)oClose-mid back rounded vowel (Upper Carniolan)e̞Mid front unrounded vowel (Inner Carniolan)ɘ̞Reduced -like vowel (Inner Carniolan)ɵ̞Reduced -like vowel (Inner Carniolan)o̞Mid back rounded vowel (Kranjska Gora subdialect) / ɛOpen-mid front unrounded vowel (Upper Carniolan)ɛːYat (long open front vowel) that was present in Alpine SlavicøOpen- and close-mid front rounded vowel (Inner Carniolan)œə̞Open-mid central vowel (Upper Carniolan)*ə̟?Further reduction of and (Lower Carniolan) / ɔOpen-mid back rounded vowel (Upper Carniolan)æNear-open front unrounded vowel (South White Carniolan)*æ̠?Reduced (Resian)*ɐReduced a-like vowel (Karst)ɒ̝Near-open back rounded vowel (South Pohorje)*ɒ̟̝?Reduced (some speakers)a̝(not fully) Open front unrounded vowel (Inner Carniolan)äOpen mid unrounded vowel (Upper Carniolan)ãNasal a (Jaun Valley)ɔ̃Nasal (Jaun Valley)õNasal (Jaun Valley)*ʊ̠͈̃Nasal (Jaun Valley; rarely)Breathy i (Resian)ʉ̤Breathy u (Resian)ɛ̤̈Breathy (Resian)œ̤̈Breathy (Resian)ɵ̤*ə̤Breathy (Resian; rarely)+Non-sonorantsRTLTIPAExample (Logar transcription)Further detailsp (Karst)b (Prekmurje)*ɸ (Upper Carniola)bʲ (Upper Savinja)Palatalized b͉ (Jaun Valley)Spirantized f (Lower Carniola)*θ̪͆ (Jaun Valley)*ð̪͆ (some speakers)d̻͉̄ (Jaun Valley)Spirantized t̻̄ (Prekmurje)t̻̄ʲ (Torre Valley)Palatalized d̻̄ (Jaun Valley)d̻̄ʲ (Prekmurje)Palatalized t̪̻͡s̪̻ (Karst)Dentalized []t̪̻͡s̪̻ʲ (Upper Savinja)Palatalized d̪̻͡z̪̻ (Natisone Valley)Dentalized []s̪̻ (Selca)Dentalized []s̪̻ʲ (Upper Savinja)Palatalized z̪̻ (Rižana subdialect)Dentalized []z̪̻ʲ (Upper Savinja)Palatalized / t͇͡s͇ (Bača subdialect)Between and / s͇ (Bača subdialect)Between and / z͇ (Bača subdialect)Between and c? (Prekmurje)Palatal *ɟ? (Prekmurje)Palatal dt͡ɕ (Inner Carniolan)Palatal d͡ʑ (Torre Valley)Palatal ɕ (Torre Valley)Palatal ʑ (Torre Valley)Palatal t͡ʃ (Karst)*t͡ʃʲ (some speakers)Palatalized d͡ʒ (Torre Valley)*d͡ʒʲ (Prekmurje; rarely)Palatalized ʃ (Karst)ʒ (Rosen Valley)t͡ɕ / t͡ʃʲ? (Torre Valley)Palatal / d͡ʑ / d͡zʲ? (some speakers)Palatal ɕ / ʃʲ? (Torre Valley)Palatal ʑ / ʒʲ? (Prekmurje)Palatal k (Prekmurje)kʲ (Upper Savinja)Palatalized g (Upper Carniola)gʲ (some speakers)Palatalized x (Rosen Valley)xʲ (Upper Savinja)Palatalized ɣ (Upper Carniola)g͉ (Rosen Valley)Spirantized ɟ? (Prekmurje)Palatal ç? (Inner Carniolan)Palatal ɣ̥᪽ (Torre Valley) that partially lost the voicingħ ~ ɦ (Rosen Valley)ʕ ~ h[ħ ~ ɦ] that lost voicing / / ʔ (Rosen Valley)+Sonorants and semivowelsRTLTIPADescriptionExample (Logar transcription)wBilabial approximant (Inner Carniolan)u̯ʷSemivowel (Upper Carniolan)mBilabial nasal (Upper Carniolan)ʋLabiodental approximant (Upper Carniolan)ʋʲPalatalized (Upper Savinja)*mʲPalatalized (Upper Savinja)lAlveolar continued lateral approximant (Upper Carniolan)l̪Dental continued lateral approximant (Haloze)ɾAlveolar discontinued approximant (Upper Carniolan)n̪Dental nasal (Central Styrian)lʲPalatalized (South White Carniolan)nʲPalatalized dental nasal (Upper Savinja)ʎPalatal lateral approximant (Karst)ɲPalatal nasal (Brda)jPalatal approximant (Upper Carniolan)i̯Semivowel (North White Carniolan)* / j̃Nasalized (Slovene Hills)ĩ̯Nasalized (Horjul)ʟVelar (Inner Carniola) / ʀUvular (Rosen Valley)ŋVelar (Upper Carniolan)+DiacriticsRTLTIPAFurther detailsTonesV́ːLong high-pitched vowelV́Short high-pitched vowelV̀ːLong low-pitched vowelV̀Short low-pitched vowelV̂High-low-pitched vowel (in Brdo dialect)V̆̀Extra-short low-pitched vowelStressVːLong stressed vowelVˑSemi-long stressed vowelVShort stressed vowelOther vowel diacriticsṼNasal vowelV̝͈Raised tense vowelsee aboveExtremely raised and tense vowelV̞Lowered vowelsee aboveNeutral (mid) vowelV̈Centralized vowelV̤Breathy vowelV̯Short implosive and explosive vowel or semivowel(V̆)Weak articulation, shortnessConsonantsCːLong consonant / C̃Nasal consonantC̥᪽Semi-voiced consonantC̩Syllabic consonantCʰAspirated consonant(C̆)Weak articulation, shortnessOtherDummy consonantDummy vowelA sound that is not present, null endingPhonemeAllophoneDerived fromOriginates from Notes:
Letters marked with * are not part of the standard transcription. Both Logar and Ramovš used , , , and , however it is unknown whether they are palatal or only palatalized and what is the difference between them and palatalized and , or palatal , , , and . IPA transcriptions followed by a question mark are presumed; there was not enough research done to fully determine the transcription. The IPA transcriptions given are exact. When writing pronunciation generally, not all diacritics have to be used. On computers, can be used to represent .
References