are that g is pronounced as a stop, , rather than as a fricative, (in Belarusian, the stop pronunciation is found in recent loan words), and that Esperanto distinguishes and , a distinction that Yiddish makes but that Belarusian (and Polish) do not. As in Belarusian, Esperanto is found in syllable onsets and in syllable codas; however, unlike Belarusian, does not become if forced into coda position through compounding. According to Kalocsay & Waringhien, if Esperanto does appear before a voiceless consonant, it will devoice to , as in Yiddish. However, Zamenhof avoided such situations by adding an epenthetic vowel: ('washbasin'), not or . The Esperanto vowel inventory is essentially that of Belarusian. Zamenhof's Litvish dialect of Yiddish (that of Białystok) has an additional schwa and diphthong oŭ but no uj. Orthography and pronunciation The Esperanto alphabet is nearly phonemic. The letters, along with the IPA and nearest English equivalent of their principal allophones, are: Minimal pairs Esperanto has many minimal pairs between the voiced and voiceless plosives, b d g and p t k; for example, "pay" vs. "pack", "bar" vs. "pair", "briefcase" vs. "group of ten". On the other hand, the distinctions between several Esperanto consonants carry very light functional loads, though they are not in complementary distribution and therefore not allophones. The practical effect of this is that people who do not control these distinctions are still able to communicate without difficulty. These minor distinctions are ĵ vs. ĝ , contrasted in ('concrete thing') vs. ('age'); k vs. ĥ vs. h , contrasted in ('heart') vs. ('chorus') vs. ('hour'), and in the prefix (inchoative) vs. ('echo'); dz vs. z , not contrasted in basic vocabulary; and c vs. ĉ , found in a few minimal pairs such as ('tzar'), ('because'); ('thou'), (proximate particle used with deictics); ('goal'), ('cell'); ('-ness'), ('even'); etc. Belarusian seems to have provided the model for Esperanto's diphthongs, as well as the complementary distribution of v (restricted to the onset of a syllable), and ŭ (occurring only as a vocalic offglide), although this was modified slightly, with Belarusian oŭ corresponding to Esperanto ov (as in ), and ŭ being restricted to the sequences in Esperanto. Although v and ŭ may both occur between vowels, as in ('ninth') and ('of naves'), the diphthongal distinction holds: vs. . (However, Zamenhof did allow initial ŭ in onomatopoeic words such as 'wah!'.) The semivowel j likewise does not