The charts below show the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents Catalan pronunciations in Wikipedia articles.
See Catalan phonology for a more thorough look at the sounds of Catalan.
| IPA | Examples | English equivalent | | Consonants | | b[1] | blau | best | | β | blava[2] | Between baby and bevy | | ɕ | xinxa | shin | | d[1] | de | dead | | dz[3][1] | utilitzar | pads | | dʑ[3][1] | metge, Jordi | jewel | | ð | [2] | this | | f | fletxa | face | | ɡ[1] | gros | got | | ɣ | bolígraf [2] | between a light go and ahold | | j | veiem | yam, play | | k | clenxa | scan | | ɫ, l[4] | til·la[5] | wool | | ʎ | ull[5] | bullion | | m | immens | mother | | n | bonament | need | | ŋ | sang | sang | | ɲ | bany | canyon | | p | parallamps | spouse | | r | esborrar | trilled 'r' | | ɾ | innecessari | like ladder in American English | | s | sis | sack | | t | quatre | stand | | ts[3] | tots | cats | | tɕ[3] | fletxa | chin | | w | blau | win, cow | | z[1] | zero | zebra | | ʑ[1] | ajut | rouge, fusion | | | IPA | Examples | English equivalent | | Stressed vowels | | a | sak | sack | | e | sek | say (without the y sound) | | ɛ | sec | sect | | i | sis | cease | | o | sóc | between soke and sore | | ɔ | cosa | cause | | u | suc | soup | | Reduced/Unstressed vowels[6] | | ə | metge | about | | i | innecessari | city | | u | boníssim | throughout | | e | (Valencian) | like stressed /e/ | | o | (Valencian) | like stressed /o/ | | Other symbols used for Catalan | | IPA | Explanation | | ˈ | Primary stress (placed before the stressed syllable),
for example espatlla [əsˈpaʎʎə] | |
- ^ a b c d e f g Voiced obstruents are devoiced word-finally
- ^ a b c In Catalan and Valencian, /b/, /d/, and /ɡ/ become lenited (that is, fricatives or approximants of the same place of articulation) when in the syllable onset and after a continuant. Otherwise they are pronounced as voiced stops, not dissimilar to English b, d, and g. Exceptions include /d/ after lateral consonants and /b/ after /f/. In Valencian, they are also lenited in the syllable coda.
- ^ a b c d In Catalan, it is unclear whether affricates occur as single phonemes or clusters of a stop and a fricative; after other consonants, affricates are in free variation with fricatives.
- ^ L is always dark [ɫ] in Eastern Catalan. In other dialects, it may vary allophonically, [l ~ ɫ], as it does in English.
- ^ a b Catalan orthography distinguishes between <ll>, which represents a palatal lateral and <l·l>, which represents a geminated [ɫɫ]
- ^ In unstressed position, the seven-way vowel contrast is reduced
- Eastern Catalan: /e/, /ɛ/, and /a/ are reduced to [ə] while /o/ and /ɔ/ are reduced to [u].
- Valencian: /ɛ/ and /a/ are reduced to [ə] and /ɔ/ is reduced to [u].
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Wheeler, Max W (2005). The Phonology Of Catalan. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0199258147.
