Editing Ukrainian language (section)

===Phonology===
{{Further|Ukrainian phonology}}

[[File:Emma Andijewska, Vidsvity hrozy.ogg|thumb|The poem "Gleams of Thunderstorm" by [[Emma Andijewska]] read in Ukrainian]]

The Ukrainian language has six vowels, {{IPA|/i/}}, {{IPA|/u/}}, {{IPA|/ɪ/}}, {{IPA|/ɛ/}}, {{IPA|/ɔ/}}, {{IPA|/a/}}.{{cn|date=June 2024}}

A number of the consonants come in three forms: hard, soft ([[Palatalization (phonetics)|palatalized]]) and [[geminate consonant|long]], for example, {{IPA|/l/}}, {{IPA|/lʲ/}}, and {{IPA|/lː/}} or {{IPA|/n/}}, {{IPA|/nʲ/}}, and {{IPA|/nː/}}.{{cn|date=June 2024}}

The letter {{angle bracket|г}} represents the [[voiced glottal fricative]] {{IPA|/ɦ/}}, often transliterated as Latin ''h''. It is the [[Voiced consonant|voiced]] equivalent of English {{IPA|/h/}}. Russian speakers from Ukraine often use the soft Ukrainian {{IPA|/ɦ/}} in place of Russian {{IPA|/ɡ/}}, which comes from northern dialects of Old East Slavic. The Ukrainian alphabet has the additional letter {{angle bracket|[[ґ]]}} for {{IPA|/ɡ/}}, which appears in a few native words such as {{Lang|uk|ґринджоли}}  ''gryndžoly'' 'sleigh' and {{Lang|uk|ґудзик}} ''gudzyk'' 'button'. However, {{IPA|/ɡ/}} appears almost exclusively in [[loan words]], and is usually simply written {{angle bracket|г}}. For example, loanwords from English on public signs usually use {{angle bracket|г}} for both English ''g'' and ''h''.{{cn|date=June 2024}}

Another phonetic divergence between the Ukrainian and Russian languages is the pronunciation of Cyrillic {{angle bracket|[[в]]}} ''v/w''. While in standard Russian it represents {{IPA|/v/}}, in many Ukrainian dialects it denotes {{IPA|/w/}} (following a vowel and preceding a consonant (cluster), either within a word or at a word boundary, it denotes the allophone {{IPA|[u̯]}}, and like the off-glide in the English words "flow" and "cow", it forms a [[diphthong]] with the preceding vowel). Native Russian speakers will pronounce the Ukrainian {{angle bracket|в}} as {{IPA|[v]}}, which is one way to tell the two groups apart. As with {{angle bracket|г}} above, Ukrainians use {{angle bracket|в}} to render both English ''v'' and ''w''; Russians occasionally use {{angle bracket|у}} for ''w'' instead.{{cn|date=June 2024}}

Unlike Russian and most other modern Slavic languages, Ukrainian does not have [[final devoicing]].{{cn|date=June 2024}}