Pronunciation of ий, ій, і

Question

As a native English speaker the endings -ий, -ій, and -і all seem to sound the same to me. I can somewhat understand the difference between -ий and -ій, but it seems almost indistinguishable. Analogous pronunciations in English would be helpful.

My first question is whether there is a noticeable pronunciation difference between these endings.

My second question is whether I could still be understood pronouncing all of them the same.

Answer 1

As for English speaker IPA for English might be helpful:

і: [i] кіт, key

и: [ɪ] миша, six

й (at the end of the word and before consonants): [i̯] гай, найшов, йти: coin

I'm not sure about last one: at least I pronounce "i" in coin totally differently.

You can just try to pronounce "й" at the end of word a little bit longer and more vowel-like comparing to "й" before vowel:

й (before vowels): [j] йога yes

As for being understood: I've found 40454 words that have all three endings. It is usual for adjective to have all of those in different grammatical forms. For example: adjective "високий" (high/tall):

високий: single masculine grammatical gender

високі: plural adjective for high

високій: single locative case feminine grammatical gender

So it WILL be misleading, though from context it is probably possible to guess what you mean... There are other cases where words or their forms differ by these endings so it would be better to learn to distinguish them and pronounce them properly.

Answer 2

The main difference between the endings -ий and -ій is not the vowel, but the quality of the consonant before those endings.

Before -ий the consonant is not palatalized:

великий [vɛ'lɪkɪj], малий [ma'lɪj], чорний ['tʂ͡ɔrnɪj]

Before -ій the consonant is palatalized, it is always [nʲ]:

синій ['sɪnʲij], майбутній [maj'butʲnʲij]

Answer 3

The difference between и and і is like the difference between fit and feet.

I cannot think of an example of an Enlgish word with -ий or -ій. The й part may be hard to hear sometimes, but it is present like [ɪ] (a very short English sound i) at the end of stay. IPA does not show that sound like Ukrainian [j], but you will sound close enough.

If you don't pronounce й correctly, you will still be understood, no doubt. Human ear can take much more abuse than that.

The exact meaning can differ, if you say и and і incorrectly, but in a context it will be clear. For example, pronouncing голодний as голодні can change the meaning from [I am] hungry to [you-plural are] hungry (or [he is] hungry to [they are] hungry). So you may end up with the wrong people fed, but I guess there will be enough clues in the context to understand the meaning.

Answer 4

і

• If sound is not alone in syllabe like in піт, вирій then it is [i] like in English key [kiː], keep [kiːp] but shorter.
• If alone in syllabe, and next sound is not н or р like Іван, імовірно, іти then it can be a semivowel і aka [i̯]. It is shorter than common і. That why mentioned words can be writed also as Йван, ймовірно, йти.
• Same but next sound is н or р like інший, ірод then it is и. That why mentioned words can be rarely writed also as инший, ирод.

й

• If vowel after й, and they are in the same syllabe like in йод, Йосип then it is [j] like in English yield [jiːld], yo-yo [joʊ.joʊ]. For example найочевидніша is out this rule because й and о are not in the same syllabe.
• In other cases it is a just [i̯].

и

• If stressed then it is like English six [sɪks].
• If not then it can be sound close to unsressed e. Yeah, мене and мине are very similar even for Ukrainian, and it is popular mistake when someone write write е instead и or back way.

So in result do we have ий as [ɪi̯] (бий) or [ɪj] (прийом)? Yes.

And ій as [ii̯] (бій) or [ij] (ійон)? Well, yes, but actually not always.

In some cases i it is just „soft” и aka ьи which it is [ʲɪ]. It is not so hard to find out because you need just compare with „hard” и for this. It is always for all adjective: синій ['sɪnʲɪi̯] which is from синь + ий, and we have „hard” in червоний [t͡ʃer'ʋɔnɪi̯] which is червон + ий. That is why ій and ий can sound simillar for author of question.

Source. Олекса Синявський. Норми української мови, ортоепія.