Macedonian Dialectal Pronunciation

[Vulkos_Regs]

Greetings, I am new to this forum therefore I do not know if this is the right place to puts this topic, but here goes!

I am a student of the (Slavic) Macedonian language.
I discovered online (Wikipedia) that there is multiple dialects and some of the dialects pronounce things differently.
I am also struggling with the two consonants:

Ќ ќ (kj) pronounced /c/, but I cannot for the life of me hear the difference between Ч ч /tʃ/.

and

Ѓ ѓ (gj) is pronounced /ɟ/, but can't hear the difference between Џ џ /dʒ/.

I found this page on Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialects_of_Macedonian) and at the section: 'Variation in Consonants' there is two images.



and



I am wondering if this means I could pronounce the tricky consonants: 'Ќ' and 'Ѓ' as the pronunciations below and still be understood.

Gora:
č /tʃ/ and dj /dʒ/
('dj' represents /dʒ/ in Macedonian transliteration)

or

Pirin:
št /ʃt/ and žd /ʒd/

or

Korçë:
šč /ʃtʃ/ and ždž /ʒdʒ/

If there are any Macedonian (or other) speakers here that could help please answer.

Thanks in advance, Vulkos Regs.

[cHr0mChIk]

So, if I understood well, you are asking about the difference between "Ќ" and "Ч"; and also between "Ѓ" and "Џ".

The letters ч and џ are letters that pretty much exist in English as well. I don't know your native language, but if I knew, I could've made a parallel with your language as well.

"Ч" is a "ch" sound like in English words "Check", "Chips", or "T" in "Try", "counTry",...
while, "Џ" is like "J" in words "Job", "John", or "G" in "Gym", "German",...

As for the ќ and ѓ, these are the sounds that don't exist in English language. "Ќ" is pronounced as the letters "K" and "Y" merged together. For example, "браќа" (brothers) is pronounced as "braKYa". and "ѓавол" (devil) is "GYavol".

You merge these 2 letters into a single one.
If my explanation doesn't help, I can also enclose audio examples of the each letter:

Ч = https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... ricate.ogg
Џ = https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... ricate.ogg
Ќ = https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... losive.ogg
Ѓ = https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... losive.ogg

[Vulkos_Regs]

Thank you cHr0mChIk for your explanation, but I wasn't inquiring on how to pronounce the letters, but in other dialects do these consonants change and if they do could I pronounce them in that way and still be understood?

B.T.W.: I am a fluent speaker of British English.

[ling]

"Ч" is a "ch" sound like in English words "Check", "Chips", or "T" in "Try", "counTry",...

In what English dialect does a "t" before an "r" sound like a "ch"? I pronounce it like a "t" (West Coast American).

[cHr0mChIk]

Thank you cHr0mChIk for your explanation, but I wasn't inquiring on how to pronounce the letters, but in other dialects do these consonants change and if they do could I pronounce them in that way and still be understood?

In literary Macedonian, letters ќ and ѓ are pronounced as /c/ and /ɟ/. However, in some dialects, they are also pronounced similar to "BCS" [Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian] letters ћ [ć] and ђ [đ]. While ḱ and ǵ are "palatalized" k and g sounds, ć and đ are palatalized "c" and "d" sounds (you can even see this from the way they're written) - in IPA: /tɕ/ and /dʑ/.

You can pronounce Ќ and Ѓ either as ḱ and ǵ, or as ć and đ, and people will have no problem understanding you.

:shock:

In what English dialect does a "t" before an "r" sound like a "ch"? I pronounce it like a "t" (West Coast American).

It's pronounced as /tʃ/ in Received Pronunciation of the English language, and in General American as well.

Audio Examples:

Try:
Received Pronunciation: http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=try
Here you have American and Australian speakers pronounce it: http://forvo.com/word/try/#en

Train:
Received Pronunciation: http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=t ... mit=Submit
Here you have it pronounced by speakers from UK, US, and Canada: http://forvo.com/word/train/#en

Country:
Received Pronunciation: http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=c ... mit=Submit
Pronounced by US, UK and Australian speakers: http://forvo.com/word/country/#en