Ukrainian makes contrasts between palatalized "soft" and unpalatalized "hard" consonants. Palatalized consonants, denoted by a superscript ?j? /?/, are pronounced with the body of the tongue raised toward the hard palate, in a manner similar to the ?y? sound in yes. All Ukrainian consonants except /j/ have a soft and hard variant, however this distinction is phonemic for only nine pairs—for the others the distinction can be ignored.
See Ukrainian phonology for a more thorough look at the sounds of Ukrainian.
↑The "soft" vowel letters ??, ?, ю, я? represent a /j/ plus a vowel when initial or following other vowels.
↑In Ukrainian, geminates are found between vowels: багаття /bɑ?ɑt??ɑ/bonfire, подружжя /p?dru??ɑ/married couple, обличчя face. Geminates also occur at the start of a few words: лляний /l??ɑn?j/flaxen, forms of the verb лити to pour (ллю /l??u/, лл?ш /l????/ etc.), ссати /s?ɑt?/to suck and derivatives.
