Help:IPA/Nepali
< Help:IPA
 | This is the pronunciation key for IPA transcriptions of Nepali on Wikipedia. It provides a set of symbols to represent the pronunciation of Nepali in Wikipedia articles, and example words that illustrate the sounds that correspond to them. Integrity must be maintained between the key and the transcriptions that link here; do not change any symbol or value without establishing consensus on the talk page first. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters. |
Charts below show the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents Nepali pronunciations in Wikipedia articles. For a guide to adding IPA characters to Wikipedia articles, see {{IPA-ne}} and Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation § Entering IPA characters.
See Nepali phonology for a more thorough look at the sounds of Nepali.
Key
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Notes
- ^ a b c d Voiced and voiceless aspirated/murmured labials and velars can undergo fricativization, therefore, realized as the corresponding homorganic fricatives e.g. /sʌpʰa/ transcribed phonetically as [sʌɸa], /bʱ/ as Error using {{IPA symbol}}: "[β]" not found in list, /kʰ/ as Error using {{IPA symbol}}: "[x]" not found in list, and /ɡʱ/ as Error using {{IPA symbol}}: "[ɣ]" not found in list.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Nepali contrasts dental [t] and [d] with apical postalveolar [ʈ] and [ɖ] (as well as aspirated variants). Both sets sound like /t/ and /d/ to most English speakers although the dental [t] and [d] may sound similar to the English /θ/ and /ð/ for speakers with th-stopping.
- ^ a b c Due to a process of h-deletion in some words, ɦ may be replaced by a retroflex flap [ɽ] if words are pronounced with long vowels e.g. पहाडी which is phonetically [paːɽi] can be analyzed phonemically as /pʌhaɖi/. Additionally, [ɽ] can occur if ɖ or ɖʱ are flapped in postvocalic position.
- ^ /ɳ/ may occur as a retroflex nasal flap [ɽ̃] in spellinɡ pronunciations of some Sanskrit loanwords.
- ^ a b /r/ is usually trilled [r] but may be tapped [ɾ] when in intervocalic position.
- ^ /s/ phonetically may be either [s] or [ʃ].
- ^ The combination of the labio-velar approximant /w/ and /e, i, o, ʌi̯, r, w, j/ is constrained in Nepali, thus the orthographic ⟨व⟩ is pronounced as a bilabial stop /b/ in such cases.
- ^ Words are pronounced with long vowels due to the process of intervocalic h deletion, e.g पहाडी phonemically /pʌɦaɖi/ is realized phonetically as [paːɽi].
Bibliography
- Khatiwada, Rajesh (2009), "Nepali", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 39 (3): 337–380, doi:10.1017/S0025100309990181
- Pokharel, Madhav Prasad (1989), Experimental analysis of Nepali sound system (Ph.D.), University of Pune, India
- Masica, Colin (1991), The Indo-Aryan Languages, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-29944-2.
- Hutt, Michael; Subedi, Abhi (1999), Teach Yourself Nepali (2003 ed.), McGraw-Hill, ISBN 978-0-07-142468-4.
- Acharya, Jayaraj (1991), A Descriptive Grammar of Nepali and an Analyzed Corpus, Georgetown University Press, ISBN 0878400737