Help:IPA/Australian languages
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This is an information page. It describes the editing community's established practice on some aspect or aspects of Wikipedia's norms and customs. It is not one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. |
The charts below show the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents pronunciations of most Australian Aboriginal languages in Wikipedia articles. Only a few languages on the continent have sounds not in the tables below.
| IPA | English approximation |
|---|---|
| b̥, b | spy, by[1] |
| d̥, d | stool, do[1][2] |
| d̪̥, d̪ | width[1][2] |
| ɖ̥, ɖ | strudle, drew[1][3] |
| ɡ̊, ɡ | sky, guy[1] |
| ɟ̊, ɟ | dew (UK), Jew[1][4] |
| j | yes |
| l[2] | lose |
| l̪[2] | wealth |
| ɭ | heirloom[3] |
| ʎ | million, (UK) lewd[4] |
| m | mother |
| n[2] | noose |
| n̪[2] | tenth |
| ɳ | Arnold[3] |
| ɲ | canyon, (UK) new[4] |
| ŋ | sing |
| r | Spanish Río |
| ɾ | setting (US), bury (Scots) |
| ɹ | red |
| ɽ | barter (US)[3] |
| ɻ | red (some Irish or West Country dialects; pronounced with rounded lips) |
| t | table |
| ʈ | time (Indian dialects) |
| w | water |
| IPA | English approximation |
|---|---|
| a | father |
| e | bade[5] |
| ə | sofa |
| i, ɪ | see, sit[5] |
| o | bore[5] |
| u, ʊ | food, foot[5] |
| ː | (long vowel) |
Notes[edit]
- ^ a b c d e f The sounds [b̥ d̪̥ d̥ ɖ̥ ɟ̊ ɡ̊] are often pronounced tenuis, like spy, sty, stew/chew, sky (like French or Spanish p, t, tch/ch, k) at the beginnings of words, and voiced, like buy, die, dew/Jew, guy between vowels, but that is variable, and the distinction is not meaningful in Australian languages.
- ^ a b c d e f The plain consonants [d̥ l n] are like English sty, noose, lose, with the tip of the tongue touching the gums, and the consonants with the 'bridge' under them, [d̪̥ l̪ n̪], are like t n l in French or Spanish, with the tip of the tongue touching the teeth and its upper surface touching the gums, giving them a light sound. The alveolar–dental distinction is very important in most Australian languages.
- ^ a b c d The consonants with a 'tail', [ɖ̥ ɭ ɳ ɽ], are pronounced with the tonɡue curled back, which gives them a dark "r"-like retroflex quality
- ^ a b c The consonants [ɟ̊ ʎ ɲ] are pronounced with a y-like quality. English dy, ly, ny are similar.
- ^ a b c d The vowels i and u typically vary across [i] ~ [ɪ] ~ [e] and [u] ~ [ʊ] ~ [o], respectively. However, a few Australian languages distinguish both sounds.