pronounced as /notice/This article is about the phonology and phonetics of standard Slovene.
Slovene has 24 distinctive consonant phonemes, of those only 21 are more common:
| Nasal | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| Affricate | (pronounced as /link/) | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | (pronounced as /link/) | ||
| (pronounced as /link/) | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| Fricative | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Flap | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
pronounced as //ʋ// has several allophones depending on context.
The preposition v is always bound to the following word and it is always pronounced as pronounced as //u̯// except when standing alone out of a sentence (the pronunciation then is pronounced as /[úː]/).
Under certain (somewhat unpredictable) circumstances, historical pronounced as //l// at the end of a syllable has become pronounced as /[u̯]/ (or pronounced as //w// after pronounced as //ɾ//). This change has occurred in the endings of all past participles ending in vowel + l. For many derivatives of words ending in pronounced as /[u̯]/ that historically had pronounced as //l//, both pronounced as /[l]/ and pronounced as /[u̯]/ can be used, sometimes depending on the context it is being used in.
pronounced as //p// and pronounced as //b// have different pronunciations before some sonorants:
Similarly, pronounced as //t// and pronounced as //d// also change their pronunciations:
Slovene has many dialects, which have their own consonant changes. Some of the changes that impact only one consonant are already listed above and more general changes that impact more consonants, as well as two distinctions that are not present in standard language anymore are listed here.
Alpine Slovene, the transitional language between Proto-Slavic and Slovene, had five palatal consonants: j pronounced as //j//, ĺ pronounced as //ʎ//, ń pronounced as //ɲ//, ŕ pronounced as //ɟ̆// and t’ pronounced as //c//. Sonorants pronounced as //ʎ//, pronounced as //ɲ// and pronounced as //ɟ̆// all turned into sequences pronounced as //lj//, pronounced as //nj// and pronounced as //rj//, respectively if followed by a vowel. Before a consonant, pronounced as //ɟ̆// merged with pronounced as //ɾ// in all dialects, while pronounced as //ʎ// still retains its palatal pronunciation in Upper Savinja, Inner Carniolan, Karst, Soča, Istrian, Upper Carniolan around Bohinj, South White Carniolan, Kostel and southern part of Gail Valley dialects and pronounced as //ɲ// retains the pronunciation in Resian, Torre Valley, Natisone Valley, Karst, Inner Carniolan, Istrian, Brda, Soča, Gail Valley, Rosen Valley, Upper Carniolan around Bohinj, Prekmurje, Kostel and South White Carniolan dialects. In other dialects they either merged with their non-palatal counterparts, merged with pronounced as //j// or turned into sequences pronounced as //jl// and pronounced as //jn// (pronounced as //j̃//). Therefore, Standard Slovene allows three different pronunciations in this case:
In the orthography, former pronounced as //ʎ//, pronounced as //ɲ// and pronounced as //ɟ̆// are always represented by the sequences, and, respectively, except before a consonant pronounced as //ɟ̆// is represented by .
The tʼ–č distinction is one of the two distinctions that was present in Alpine Slovene and is still present in some dialects, but is not present in the standard language anymore. Dialects that still have this distinction (Resian and Torre Valley dialects, some Soča, Inner Carniolan and Istrian microdialects) mostly do not pronounce the phoneme as pronounced as //c// anymore, but as pronounced as //tɕ//, which was also the standard pronunciation during the Reformation. Therefore, this distinction is either dialectal or obsolete. In other dialects, pronounced as //c// merged with pronounced as //tʃ//. Examples, where the difference can be observed are sveča pronounced as /[ˈsʋèːtɕá]/ (with distinction) pronounced as /[ˈsʋèːtʃá]/ (without distinction) 'candle', teči pronounced as /[ˈtɛ̀ːtɕí]/ (with distinction) pronounced as /[ˈtɛ̀ːtʃí]/ (without distinction) 'to run (to flow)' and hočem pronounced as /[ˈxòːtɕɛ́m]/ (with distinction) pronounced as /[ˈxòːtʃɛ́m]/ (without distinction) '(I) want'.
In Alpine Slavic, *ł was an allophone of *l before consonants, back vowels and pronounced as //a//, and before a stop. Some dialects still retain the original pronunciation (e.g., Horjul, Lower Carniolan, Inner Carniolan and Upper Savinja dialects. Shvapanye is the pronunciation of pronounced as //l// and pronounced as //ʋ// as pronounced as /[w]/ or pronounced as /[u̯]/ before all back vowels, consonants and pronounced as //a// (pronounced as //ʌ//), which is present in the Carinthian dialects, Upper Carniolan dialect, some northern Lower Carniolan microdialects and the Čabranka dialect. In standard language, shvapanye is only somewhat present, as described above. Elkanye and vekanye is the hypercorrect way of pronouncing words, without shvapanye.
Slekanye is a phenomenon mostly limited to slovenized Germans, which live in around Rut (Bača subdialect) and is the merge of alveolar and post-alveolar fricatives and affricates into one phoneme, which is pronounced somewhere in between (pronounced as //t͇s͇//, pronounced as //s͇// and pronounced as //z͇// for pronounced as //ts// and pronounced as //tʃ//, pronounced as //s// and pronounced as //ʃ//, and pronounced as //z// and pronounced as //ʒ//, respectively). Apart from that area, it is also known for a part of the Torre Valley dialect.
Proto-Slavic consonant clusters *tl and *dl simplified quite soon in central, southern and eastern areas while it disappeared later from western and northern dialects. Today, the only dialect that still retains this distinction is the Gail Valley dialect. The clusters tl and dl that are nowadays present in the standard language became such after the omission of *ь/*ъ between the consonants. The distinction can be seen in the word vile pronounced as /[ˈʋìːdlɛ́]/ (Gail Valley dialect without any other dialectal changes) pronounced as /[ˈʋìːlɛ́]/ (all other dialects).
The pronunciation of a consonant can be influenced by its surroundings, which is not necessarily reflected in the orthography.
The first Slavic palatalization in nowadays Slovene exists only for pronounced as //k//, pronounced as //g//, pronounced as //x//, and pronounced as //ts//, which turn into pronounced as //tʃ//, pronounced as //ʒ//, pronounced as //ʃ//, and pronounced as //tʃ//, respectively:
The second Slavic palatalization in today's Slovene exists only for pronounced as //k// and pronounced as //g//, which turn into pronounced as //ts// and pronounced as //z//, respectively:
Iotation is the change of a consonant when pronounced as //j// follows and they merge together in one or more sounds:
| Change | Non-iotated | Iotated | |
|---|---|---|---|
| pronounced as //t// → pronounced as //tʃ// | biti | bič | |
| pronounced as //d// → pronounced as //j// | mladiti | mlaj | |
| pronounced as //s// → pronounced as //ʃ// | visok | višavje | |
| pronounced as //z// → pronounced as //ʒ// | nizek | nižavje | |
| pronounced as //ts// → pronounced as //tʃ// | jajce | jajčast | |
| pronounced as //n// → pronounced as //nj// | polniti | polnjen | |
| pronounced as //l// → pronounced as //lj// | voliti | volja | |
| pronounced as //ɾ// → pronounced as //ɾj// | govoriti | govorjen | |
| pronounced as //p// → pronounced as //plj// | kapati | kaplja | |
| pronounced as //b// → pronounced as //blj// | pozabiti | pozabljen | |
| pronounced as //m// → pronounced as //mlj// | lomiti | lomljen | |
| pronounced as //ʋ// → pronounced as //ʋlj// | daviti | davljen | |
| pronounced as //f// → pronounced as //flj// | frfetati | frflja |
When a stop or affricate is followed by another stop or affricate, it dissimilates into a fricative, e. g. bedak pronounced as /[beˈdǎːk]/ 'idiot' + -ski pronounced as /[ski]/ → bedaški pronounced as /[beˈdàːʃkí]/ 'idiotic' and k pronounced as /[k]/ 'to' + grobu pronounced as /[ˈgrɔ̀ːbú]/ 'grave' → h grobu pronounced as /[x‿ˈgɾɔ̀ːbú]/ 'to the grave'.
There are two types of assimilation in Slovene; a consonant can either match the following consonant by voice or by the place of articulation (or both).
All voiced obstruents are devoiced at the end of prosodic words unless immediately followed by a word beginning with a vowel or a voiced consonant. In consonant clusters, voicing distinction is neutralized and all consonants assimilate the voicing of the rightmost segment. The consonant pairs are given in this table:
| Devoiced | pronounced as //p// | pronounced as /[p̪]/ | pronounced as //t// | pronounced as //k// | pronounced as //pf// | pronounced as //ts// | pronounced as //tʃ// | pronounced as //kx// | pronounced as //f// | pronounced as //s// | pronounced as //ʃ// | pronounced as //x// | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Voiced | pronounced as //b// | pronounced as /[b̪]/ | pronounced as //d// | pronounced as //g// | pronounced as /[bv]/ | pronounced as //dz// | pronounced as //dʒ// | pronounced as /[gɣ]/ | pronounced as /[v]/ | pronounced as //z// | pronounced as //ʒ// | pronounced as /[ɣ]/ |
When a dental/alevolar fricative or affricate are followed by a postalveolar fricative, affricate or //, they usually become postalveolar; e.g., stric Žan 'uncle, whose name is Žan' pronounced as /[ˈstrîːdzˈʒâːn]/ or pronounced as /[ˈstrîːdʒˈʒâːn]/ or pronounced as /[ˈstrîːˈdʒːâːn]/.
Nasal pronounced as //m//, pronounced as //n// also match the place of articulation with the following consonant: Istanbul 'Istanbul' pronounced as /[ˈíːstamˌbùl]/, informacija 'information' pronounced as /[ˌiɱfoɾˈmàːtsijà]/, banka 'bank' pronounced as /[ˈbáːŋkà]/ (but they do not change change articulation before post-alveolar consonants and pronounced as //m// also does not have allophone pronounced as /[ŋ]/).
Several consonant clusters also get simplified into geminated consonants. In fast speech, however, they change into usual, non-geminated consonants.
Slovene was long thought to have an eight-vowel system, however newer research (done mostly by Peter Jurgec) suggests that the number of vowels is different between tonal and non-tonal varieties of Slovene which have nine and eleven vowels, respectively.
| Close | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close-mid | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| Open-mid | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Near-open | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Open | pronounced as /link/ |
| Close | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close-mid | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| Open-mid | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Open | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Consonants | pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/ | |||
Jurgec proposes the existence of a ninth vowel pronounced as //ʌ// in tonemic variety that in traditional pronunciation (see below under Prosody) would rather be analyzed as a short pronounced as //a//. However, since more recent studies indicate that native speakers do not actually phonemically distinguish long and short vowels and yet the distinction between pronounced as //ʌ// and pronounced as //a// is quite consistently perceived by tonal speakers, and moreover there is a noticeable distinction in quality and a lesser distinction in quantity between these two vowels, there is reason to treat these two sounds as two different phonemes.
The near-open pronounced as //ʌ// can only appear in the word-final stressed syllable before the syllable coda, as in čas pronounced as /[ˈtʃʌ̂s]/ 'time'. Due to the restrictions stated above, the open pronounced as //a// usually appears in its place in other declinational forms of the same word: časa pronounced as /[ˈtʃàːsá]/, not pronounced as /[ˈtʃʌ̀ːsá]/, 'time (gen.)'. The analysis as two different phonemes is also reinforced by the fact that in some words the phoneme pronounced as //a// appears in the very same position that would permit pronounced as //ʌ//, leading to a phonemic contrast: pas pronounced as /[ˈpâs]/, not pronounced as /[ˈpʌ̂s]/, 'belt'.
Jurgec also states that in the tonemic varieties of the language, the near-open vowel pronounced as //ʌ// can carry only the high tone (see below), which is "parallel to the pattern for the [{{IPA|/ɛ/}}, {{IPA|/ɔ/}} and {{IPA|/ə/}}]." He also notes that similarly to pronounced as //ʌ//, the schwa pronounced as //ə// likewise only appears in closed syllables; i.e., as the nucleus before the syllable coda. On the basis of these observations he concludes that the near-open vowel pronounced as //ʌ// "behaves in a systematic way within the vowel system of Slovenian."
According to, pronounced as //ə// is inserted epenthetically, and its distribution is fully predictable. He also says that "[d]escriptions of schwa distribution are offer[ed] in lexical rather than grammatical terms. These were also based on historical data and did not consider actual speech of educated speakers in Ljubljana, nowadays considered standard."
Slovene has been traditionally described as distinguishing vowel length, which correlates with stress and is therefore discussed in the prosody section, below. The distinction between pronounced as //ɛ// and pronounced as //e//, and between pronounced as //ɔ// and pronounced as //o// is only made when they are stressed and long. When short or unstressed, they are not distinguished: short stressed variants are realized as open-mid pronounced as /[{{IPAplink|ɛ}}, {{IPAplink|ɔ}}]/, while the unstressed variants are, broadly speaking, true-mid vowels pronounced as /[{{IPAplink|e̞}}, {{IPAplink|o̞}}]/. In fact, however, the unstressed mid vowels have two realizations:
The unstressed mid vowels are never as close as the stressed close-mid vowels pronounced as //e, o// and never as open as the stressed open-mid vowels pronounced as //ɛ, ɔ//. However, report true-mid allophones pronounced as /[{{IPAplink|e̞}}, {{IPAplink|o̞}}]/ of the close-mid vowels pronounced as //e, o// occurring in the sequences pronounced as //ej// and pronounced as //ou̯//, but only if a vowel does not follow within the same word. One could therefore argue that the unstressed mid vowels are simply allophones of the close-mid vowels, whereas the open-mid vowels do not occur in unstressed positions. Another argument for transcribing the unstressed mid vowels as pronounced as //e, o// is that these symbols are easier to write than pronounced as //ɛ, ɔ//. These allophones have neither advanced nor retracted tongue root.
In most cases, unstressed vowels are nowadays written as pronounced as //e, o// before the stress and as pronounced as //ɛ, ɔ// after the stress; however, an older way of writing them as pronounced as //ɛ, ɔ// everywhere is still very common (e.g. in Toporišič 2001).
In some loanwords, sonorant clusters may be present that are required to form a new syllable in Slovene. Tonal speakers insert pronounced as /[ə]/, the same way as happens with sonorant + non-sonorant clusters, but non-tonal speakers form a syllabic consonant, except if the second sonorant is pronounced as /[ɾ]/; then pronounced as /[ə]/ is inserted in both varieties: film pronounced as /[ˈfìːlə́m]/ (tonal speakers) pronounced as /[ˈfiːlm̩]/ (non-tonal speakers) 'film, movie'.
When unstressed pronounced as //ə, i, e// are followed by pronounced as /[u̯]/, they can be pronounced together as pronounced as /[u]/.
In non-assimilated loanwords, German pronounced as //yː//, pronounced as //øː//, pronounced as //œ//, pronounced as //ʏ// are also allowed (e.g., pronounced as /[ˈmýːnxə̀n]/ 'Munich', pronounced as /[ˈgǿːtɛ̀]/ 'Goethe', pronounced as /[ˈkœ̂ln]/ 'Cologne', pronounced as /[ˈɾaːʋənsˈbrʏ̂k]/ 'Ravensbrück'). When the word becomes assimilated or any affixes are added, they become vernacularized. The pronunciation, however, varies widely between speakers depending on their knowledge of German. Here, the phonemes are given for a really educated person and the first change to go in pronunciation of pronounced as //ʏ// qualitatively different that pronounced as //yː//.
In the colloquial spoken language, unstressed and most short stressed vowels tend to be reduced or elided. For example, kȕp ('heap') > pronounced as /[kə̂p]/, právimo ('we say') > pronounced as /[ˈpɾâu̯mó]/.
Standard Slovene does not really have diphthongs. The closest to a diphthong are combinations of vowel + pronounced as /[u̯]/ or pronounced as /[j]/. In all other cases, two following vowels form two different syllables, e. g. poenostaviti 'simplify' pronounced as /[po.ˌenoˈstàːʋiˌtí]/. Often, these clusters simplify into one vowel (which is reflected in the orthography) or insert pronounced as /[j]/ (always after pronounced as //i//, which is not necessarily reflected in the orthography) or pronounced as /[ʔ]/. When two vowels are pronounced one after another, they are usually pronounced as would be expected. Exceptions are unstressed pronounced as //i// and pronounced as //u̯//, which are pronounced as usual or turn into pronounced as /[j]/ and pronounced as /[u̯]/, respectively if preceded by a vowel, e.g, bo imela '(she) will have' pronounced as /[bo‿iˈméːlà]/ or pronounced as /[bo‿jˈméːlà]/.
Number of vowels varies drastically between dialects. For example, Tolmin dialect has 3 long vowels, while some Carinthian microdialects can have 15 or even more long vowels. Alpine Slavic had three distinct long e-like vowels (which are in standard language all represented by pronounced as //eː//) and two distinct long o-like vowels (which are in standard language all represented by pronounced as //oː//. However, most dialects at least differentiate between one e-like vowel and the other two. In fact, Standard Slovene has one of the most simplified vowel systems of all dialects. Also not common for other dialects is that it does not contain any diphthongs as they all monophthongized. The only vowels that consistently merged with other vowels is *ə̄, which turned into pronounced as //aː// in the west and south (and in standard language) and to pronounced as //eː// in the north and east.
While long vowels tend to be diphthongized, short vowels tend to be reduced because of modern vowel reduction, which is also common in colloquial spoken language. Apart from centralization, pronounced as //e// is commonly pronounced as pronounced as //a// (akanye) or as pronounced as //i// (ikanye) and pronounced as //o// is commonly pronounced as pronounced as //a// (akanye) or pronounced as //u// (ukanye).
The most common pronunciation difference between speakers is pronounced as //e// vs. pronounced as //ɛ// and pronounced as //o// vs. pronounced as //ɔ// as the dialectal distribution is inconsistent with the distribution in Standard Slovene. This influences the way speakers of such dialects speak Standard Slovene.
A new change that is currently happening most notably around Ljubljana is the pronunciation of pronounced as //ə// as pronounced as /[ɛ]/ or pronounced as /[e]/, eliminating another distinction between vowels.
Historically, pronounced as /[ˈsɛm]/ is the pronunciation of sem in the meaning 'here' and pronounced as /[ˈsəm]/ for sem in the meaning '(I) am', but due to modern vowel reduction, which is the most prominent in monosyllabic words, and the recent development of pronounced as //ə// → pronounced as //ɛ//, the roles are nowadays mostly switched, i. e. '(I) am' is now pronounced pronounced as /[ˈsɛm]/ and 'here' is now pronounced pronounced as /[ˈsəm]/.
Slovene has free stress: stress can occur on any syllable and is not predictable. The same word can be stressed quite differently in different dialects. Most words have a single syllable that carries stress. Some compounds, but not all, have multiple stressed syllables, inherited from the parts that make up the compound. There are also a few small words and clitics, including prepositions, that have no inherent stress at all and attach prosodically to another word.
Slovene is traditionally analysed as having a distinction between long and short vowels. Stress and vowel length are closely intertwined:
Vowel length carries a low functional load: it is distinctive only in stressed final syllables, which can be either long or short. In other syllables, however, whether vowel length or stress, or both, are phonemic depends on the underlying phonological analysis. Generally speaking, stress and length co-occur in all but the final syllable, so one feature or the other is phonetically redundant in those words.
Recently, scholars[2] have found that vowel length in standard Slovene is no longer distinctive, and that the only differences in vowel length are that the stressed vowels are longer than the unstressed ones, and that stressed open syllables are longer than stressed closed syllables. Stressed syllables are characterized by amplitude and pitch prominence.
Standard Slovene has undergone two accent shifts since Alpine Slovene. The first one, which happened in the 15th century, is from open short final syllables to the mid-close syllable before in words with two syllables, e. g. žena 'wife' pronounced as /[ʒeˈnâ]/ → pronounced as /[ˈʒɛ̀ːná]/. The original accentuation is retained in a part of Rosen Valley, Resian, Natisone Valley, Torre Valley and southern part of Soča dialects and is considered obsolete in Standard Slovene.
The second accent shift was from short final syllable to the mid vowel pronounced as //ə// in the syllable before, e. g. megla 'fog' pronounced as /[məˈglâ]/ → pronounced as /[ˈmə̀glá]/ (→ pronounced as /[ˈmɛ̀glá]/). This change did not happen in all the aforementioned dialects, as well as Upper and Lower Carniolan dialects. Standard language allows both accents, but the unshifted one is considered archaic or high literary, as with the pronunciation of pronounced as //ə// as pronounced as /[ɛ]/ or pronounced as /[e]/, the shift occurs also in Upper and Lower Carniolan dialects.
Other two common accent shifts, that are not present in Standard Slovene are from all short final (pronounced as /[ʋiˈsɔ̂k]/ → pronounced as /[ˈʋìːsɔ́k]/) and from all long circumflex final (pronounced as /[seˈnôː]/ → pronounced as /[ˈsèːnɔ́]/). The first one happened in Tolmin, Cerkno, Črni Vrh, Horjul, Karst, Inner Carniolan, Istrian, Kostel, Čabranka, South White Carniolan and North White Carniolan dialects, as well as all Styrian dialects, except Lower Sava Valley dialect and the second one happened in Gail Valley dialect without the subdialect, Resian, Torre Valley, Črni Vrh, Poljane, eastern part of Rosen Valley, Jaun, Mežica, North Pohorje–Remšnik, Upper Savinja, Central Savinja, South Pohorje, Kostel, Čabranka, North White Carniolan and South White Carniolan dialects.
The standard language has two varieties, tonemic and non-tonemic. Tonemic varieties distinguish between two tones or pitch contours on stressed syllables, while non-tonemic varieties do not make this distinction. The tonemic varieties are found in a north–south band in the center of the country (Gail Valley, Rosen Valley, Ebriach, most of Jaun Valley, Natisone Valley, Torre Valley, Soča, a lesser part of Tolmin, Upper Carniolan without the subdialect, most of Selca, Horjul, Poljane, and Lower Carniolan dialects, a well as southwestern part of South White Carniolan dialect). Dialects in the eastern and south-western part of Slovenia are non-tonemic. However, because the Slovenian capital city Ljubljana is located within the central tonemic dialect area, phonemic tone was included in the standard language, and in fact the tonemic variety is more prestigious and is universally used in formal TV and radio broadcasts.
The two tones are:
The exact distribution and phonetic realization of tonemes varies locally. In Standard Slovene, some words may have either an acute or circumflex tone, with the chosen tone differing by speaker. Unless otherwise noted, this article discusses the tonemes as they are realized in Standard Slovene spoken in Ljubljana.
Tone is differentiated only on the stressed and on the last syllables, where it is the opposite of the tone that stressed syllable has (except in some prepositions). If last syllable is stressed, then they merge and form rising (acute) or falling (circumflex) tone; e.g., pot pronounced as /[ˈpǒːt]/ / pronounced as /[ˈpôːt]/ 'path'. Other vowels have neutral (mid) tone. vowels are mid tone in none-tonemic variety.
Not all types of syllables have a distinction between the two tones:
This leads to the following possible combinations of tone, length and vowel quality (note that unstressed vowels have diacritical marks often omitted):
|
|
The non-tonemic system is identical to the tonemic system above in terms of vowel length and stress, but lacks any phonemic tone. This means that, for those dialects, the first four rows merge, as do the next three. Similarly, for speakers who do not distinguish short and long vowels, the first and third rows merge, as do the second and fourth. An exception to this is the traditional pronounced as //á//, which does not merge with pronounced as //áː//. Instead, the former is realized as pronounced as /[ʌ́]/.
Longer words, particularly loanwords, also have secondary stress. It always appears in words and word clusters when words do not have primary stress. Secondary stressed is usually every second syllable before and after the syllable with primary stress; e.g., aerofotogrametrija pronounced as /[ʔaˈɛ́ːrɔˌfotoˌgɾameˈtríːjà]/ 'aerophotogrammetry'. Secondarily stressed open-mid vowels also become close-mid.
The sample text is a reading of the first sentence of The North Wind and the Sun.
pronounced as /[ˈsèːʋɛrní ˈʋéːtə̀r ʔin ˈsóːntsɛ̀ sta ˌse pɾeˈpɪ̀ːralá – kaˈtɪ̀ːrí ʔod ˈnjìːjú ˌje motʃˈnèːjʃí – ˌko je ˈmìːmɔ́ priˈʃə̂u̯ poˈpòːtník – zaˈʋǐːt ˈʷtɔ̀ːpə́u̯ ˈplǎːʃtʃ]/
Severni veter in sonce sta se prepirala, kateri od njiju je močnejši, ko je mimo prišel popotnik, zavit v topel plašč.