Ukrainian makes contrasts between palatalized "soft" and unpalatalized "hard" consonants. Palatalized consonants, denoted by a superscript ‹j› / ʲ /, are pronounced with the body of the tongue raised toward the hard palate, in a manner similar to the ‹y› sound in yes. The "hard" vs. "soft" distinction is phonemic for only nine pairs, in other cases it could be ignored.
See Ukrainian phonology for a more thorough look at the sounds of Ukrainian.
^The "soft" vowel letters ‹є, ї, ю, я› represent a /j/ plus a vowel when initial or following other vowels.
^The /w/ phoneme has two allophones:
* Bilabial approximant [β̞] (here transcribed [β] for simplicity) before vowels;
* Labialized velar semivowel [u̯] before consonant at start of word, after vowel before consonant and after vowel at end of word (Жовтобрюх & Кулик (1965:121–122)).
^In Ukrainian, geminates are found between vowels: багаття /bɑˈɦɑtʲːɑ/bonfire, подружжя /pɔˈdruʒːɑ/married couple, обличчя face. Geminates also occur at the start of a few words: лляний /ˈlʲːɑnɪj/flaxen, forms of the verb лити to pour (ллю /lʲːu/, ллєш /lʲːɛʃ/ etc.), ссати /ˈsːɑtɪ/to suck and derivatives.[citation needed]
Bibliography
Danyenko, Andrii; Vakulenko, Serhii (1995), Ukrainian, Lincom Europa, ISBN 9783929075083
Жовтобрюх, М.А.; Кулик, Б.М. (1965), Курс сучасної української літературної мови. Частина I., Kiev: Радянська школа