Help:IPA/Australian languages
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Short description: Wikipedia key to pronunciation
 | This is the pronunciation key for IPA transcriptions of Australian languages on Wikipedia. It provides a set of symbols to represent the pronunciation of Australian languages 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 its value without establishing consensus on the talk page first. |
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. For a guide to adding IPA characters to Wikipedia articles, see {{IPA-aus}} and Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation § Entering IPA characters.
| 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) |
| 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
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 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 almost all Australian languages.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 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.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 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
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 The consonants [ɟ̊ ʎ ɲ] are pronounced with a y-like quality. English dy, ly, ny are similar.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 The vowels i and u typically vary across [i] ~ [ɪ] ~ [e] and [u] ~ [ʊ] ~ [o], respectively. However, a few Australian languages distinguish both sounds.
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