Utterance-finally, obstruents are pronounced voiceless. For example, the in bóg ('god') is pronounced , and the in zajazd ('inn') represents . If followed by a word beginning with a obstruent then the above cluster rules apply across morpheme boundaries. When the second word begins with a sonorant the voicing of any preceding word-final obstruent varies regionally. In western and southern Poland, final obstruents are voiced (voicing pronunciation) if the following word starts with a sonorant (here, for example, the in brat ojca 'father's brother' would be pronounced as ). On the other hand, they are voiceless (devoicing pronunciation) in eastern and northern Poland ( is pronounced ). This rule does not apply to prepositional clitics w, z, bez, przez, nad, pod, od, przed which are always voiced before sonorants.
