Help:IPA/Afrikaans
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 | This is the pronunciation key for IPA transcriptions of Afrikaans on Wikipedia. It provides a set of symbols to represent the pronunciation of Afrikaans 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. |
The charts below show the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents Afrikaans pronunciations in Wikipedia articles. For a guide to adding IPA characters to Wikipedia articles, see Template:IPA and Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation § Entering IPA characters.
See Afrikaans phonology for a more thorough look at the sounds of Afrikaans, as well as dialectal variations that are not represented here.
| Consonants | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| IPA | Examples | Examples in IPA | English approximation |
| b | beet | bɪə̯t | beet |
| d | dak | dak | duck |
| f | fiets, ver | fit͡s, fæːr | far |
| ɦ | hoekom | ˈɦukɔm | behind |
| j | ja | jaː | yes |
| k | kat | kat | skin |
| l | land | ɫant | land |
| m | man | man | man |
| n | nek | næk | neck |
| ŋ | eng | æŋ | long |
| p | pen, rib, lip | pæn, rɪp, lɪp | sport |
| r | ras | ras | No equivalent, rolled R as in some varieties of Scottish English |
| s | sak, seep | sak, sɪə̯p | sock |
| ʃ | sjabloon, sjef | ʃaˈbluə̯m, ʃæːf | shall |
| t | tak, hond | tak, ɦɔnt | stop |
| tʃ | Tsjeggië, tjek | ˈʧæχiə, ʧæːk | chat |
| χ | generaal, weg | χɛnəˈrɑːl, væːχ | loch (Scottish English) |
| v | wang | vaŋ | van |
| ʒ | visueel | vəʒœˈɪə̯ɫ | vision |
| Marginal consonants | |||
| ʔ | beïnvloed | bəˈʔənflut | the catch in uh-oh! |
| dʒ | djihad | ˈʤiɦat | jump |
| ɡ | ghries[1], berge, erger | gris, ˈbærgə, ˈærgər | goal |
| w | kwaad | kwɑːt | water |
| z | Zoeloe | ˈzuːlu | zoo |
| Stress | |||
| ˈ | vóórkom voorkóm |
ˈfuə̯rkɔm | as in South-African or British commandeer ˌkɒmənˈdiə̯ |
| ˌ | ˌfuə̯rˈkɔm | ||
| Vowels | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IPA | Examples | Examples IPA | English approximation | ||
| South-African English | Received Pronunciation | General American | |||
| Monophthongs (oral) | |||||
| a | bad | bat | up | No equivalent, similar to quack, however pronounced further down in the mouth | |
| ɑː | aap | ɑːp | father | ||
| æ | ek, bel, reg, blerrie | æk, bæɫ, ræχ, ˈbɫærːi | back | ||
| æː | perd, ver, wêreld, bêre | pæːrt, fæːr, ˈvæːrəɫt, ˈbæːrə | jazz | fat | |
| ɛ | met | mɛt | met | dress | |
| ɛː | nè, mens, hê | nɛː, mɛns (although in many accents mɛ̃ːs), ɦɛː | No equivalent, similar to square, however pronounced further down in the mouth | square | bread |
| ə | vis, hemel, vanaand[2] | fəs, ˈɦɪə̯məɫ, fəˈnɑːnt | again | ||
| əː | wîe[3] | ˈvəːə | fur | In some accents the lengthened uh, and in others uh further forward in the mouth | fur |
| i | polisie | puˈlisi | deep | concrete | deep |
| iː | spieël, bier[4] | spiːl, biːr | need | ||
| ɔ | bot | bɔt | thought | No equivalent, roughly as in Scottish, Irish, or South-African thought or law | |
| ɔː | môre[5] | ˈmɔːrə | law | ||
| œ | hut | ɦœt | Roughly as in book | Roughly as in bird | |
| œː | rûe[5] | ˈrœːə | |||
| u | hoed, polisie | ɦut, puˈlisi | boot | fool, cool | No equivalent, roughly as in Scottish, Irish, or South-African boot or cool |
| uː | koeël, moer[4] | kuːɫ, muːr | cool | ||
| y | nuut | nyt | roughly like cute | ||
| yː | uur[4] | yːr | roughly like true; German über | ||
| Monophthongs (nasal) | |||||
| ɑ̃ː | dans | dɑ̃ːs (in some dialects dɑns) | No equivalent, long nasalized [ɑ]; French sans | ||
| ɛ̃ː | mens | mɛ̃ːs (in some dialects mɛns) | No equivalent, long nasalized [ɛ]; French vin | ||
| ɔ̃ː | spons | spɔ̃ːs (in some dialects spɔns) | No English equivalent, nasalized [ɔː]; French dupont | ||
| Diphthongs | |||||
| ai | baie | ˈbai̯ə | No equivalent, roughly as in American or English price | price | |
| ɑːɪ | braai | brɑːɪ̯ | prize | ||
| ɛɪ | rys, reis | rɛɪ̯s, rɛɪ̯s | may | ||
| ɪə | eer, ere | ɪə̯r, ˈɪə̯rə | ear | No equivalent, roughly as in South-African or British ear | ear |
| ɪø | seun | sɪø̯n | Roughly like fear in some (non-standard) accents, no good English equivalent | ||
| iu | eeu | iu̯ | ew | ||
| oːɪ | nooi | noːɪ̯ | boy | ||
| œɪ | ui | œɪ̯ | house (Scottish English) | ||
| əu | ou | əu̯ | boat | No equivalent, roughly as in South-African or British boat | boat |
| uə | so, boot | suə̯, buə̯t | poor (as in poverty) | No equivalent, roughly as in South-African or British poor | poor |
Notes
- ^ /ɡ/ is not a native phoneme of Afrikaans; it occurs only in loanwords like gholf or as an allophone of /χ/ at the end of suffixed root nouns or adjectives when both preceded by a short vowel + R cluster and followed by a schwa.
- ^ In words which feature a short vowel preceding its longer form (like in vanaand, tamatie and bobotie), the short vowel is neutralised (Donaldson (1993:4, 6)).
- ^ /əː/ occurs in no other word (Donaldson (1993:7)).
- ^ a b c As phonemes, /iː/ and /uː/ occur only in spieël and koeël, respectively. In other cases, [iː] and [uː] occur as allophones of /i/ and /u/ before /r/. /y/ is also lengthened to [yː] before /r/ (Donaldson (1993:4–6)).
- ^ a b /œː/ and /ɔː/ occur only in a few words (Donaldson (1993:7).
References
- Donaldson, Bruce C. (1993). "1. Pronunciation". A Grammar of Afrikaans. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. pp. 1–35. ISBN 978-3-11-0134261. Retrieved 16 April 2017.
- Lass, Roger (1987). "Intradiphthongal Dependencies". In Anderson, John; Durand, Jaques (eds.). Explorations in Dependency Phonology. Dordrecht: Foris Publications Holland. pp. 109–131. ISBN 9067652970. Retrieved 16 April 2017.
- Wissing, Daan (2016). "Afrikaans phonology – segment inventory". Taalportaal. Archived from the original on 15 April 2017. Retrieved 16 April 2017.