Pronunciation

Spelling is regular regarding what pronunciation each letter or letter combination represents. Every letter (including the digraph DŽ) represent a single sound that should not vary except in the three cases where this is permitted which will be covered in the section following the alphabet.

Alphabet

Latin Letter	Cyrillic Letter	Letter name	Pronunciation
A	А	a	like a as in “father”
B	Б	be	like b as in “boy”
C	Ц	ce	like ts as in “tsunami”
Č	Ч	če	like ch as in “church”
D	Д	de	like d as in “dog”
DŽ	ДЖ	dže	like j as in “jump”
E	Е	e	like e as in “less”
F	Ф	ef	like f as in “fish”
G	Г	ge	like g as in “good”
H	Х	ha	like ch as in Scottish “loch”
I	И	i	like ea as in “sea”
J	Ј	je	like y as in “yard”
K	К	ka	like k as in “sky”
L	Л	el	like l as in “ball”
M	М	em	like m as in “mother”
N	Н	en	like n as in “night”
O	О	o	like o British English “north””
P	П	pe	like p as in “speach”
R	Р	er	like t as in American English “later” or like the rolled Spanish rr in “arroz”
S	С	es	like S as in “song”
Š	Ш	eš	like sh as in “shell”
T	Т	te	like t as in “star”
U	У	u	like oo as in “moon”
V	В	ve	like v as in “vine”
Z	З	ze	like z as in “zebra”
Ž	Ж	že	like s as in “measure”

The first case is in the case of when a consonant follows a consonant with different voicing. Consonants like D and Z are voiced, or one produces buzzing in their throat to pronounce them, where T and S have no such buzzing and are thus voiceless. In quick speach, when a voiced consonant follows a voiceless consonant, it preferably becomes voiceless, ex. bčela is pronounced pčela, not bdžela. When the reverse is true, and a voiceless consonant is followed by a voiced consonant, it preferably becomes voiced, ex. sveti is pronounced zveti, not sfeti.

The final two cases when pronunciation of a letter depends on its context is in the case of the letter combinations LJ and NJ. LJ is pronounced like the ly sound in value or like lh in the Portuguese olho. NJ is pronounced somewhere like the ny sound in the British English new or like ñ in the Spanish cañón.

Stress is also completely regular, always falling on the very first syllable of a word. There is an optional Cyrillic script, although the Latin is preferred for uniformity.