Help:IPA/Sorbian

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The charts below show the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents Lower Sorbian and Upper Sorbian 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.

Consonants
IPAExamplesNearest English equivalent

L
U
b bałma (U)[a] boot
bʲ bjakać (U)[a] beautiful
ɕ šćit (L)[a][b][c] sheep (L)
d dań (U)[a] do
dʲ [d] media
dz licba (L)[a] lads
dʑ [a] jig (L)
dʒ dźak (U)[a][c] jug
f fabula (U)[a] fool
fʲ [d] few
ɡ gagać (U)[a] good
ɡʲ [d] argue
ɣ [a] good, but without the tongue touching the roof of the mouth
h habla (U) hood
hʲ [d] heed
j jadro (U) yes
k kabat (U)[a] scar
kʲ [d] skew
l lac (U) lack
lʲ [d] failure
m mač (U) moot
mʲ mjaso (U) mute
n nabać (U) noon
nʲ hromadźernja (U) vinyard
ŋ [e] sang
ŋʲ [e] sing
p pad (U)[a] span
pʲ pjany (U)[a] spew
r ʁ rad (U)[f] American atom (L)
French rouge (U)
rʲ ʁʲ rjadka (U)[f] American catty (L)
French rime (U)
s sadło (U)[a] soup
ʃ šach (U)[a][c] rush
t tajić (U)[a] stand
tʲ [d] stew (RP)
tɕ [a][c] chip (L)
ts całta (U)[a] cats
tʃ ćahać (U)[a][c] chop
v vatikanski (U)[a] voodoo
vʲ [d] view
w wačka (U) boot, but without lips completely closed
wʲ wjaznyć (U) between wet and yet
x čichawa (U) loch (Scottish); ugh
xʲ [d] huge
z zabić (U)[a] zoo
ʑ [a][c] prestige (L)
ʒ žaba (U)[a][c] pleasure
Vowels
IPAExamplesNearest English equivalent

L
U
a pask (U) father
ɛ pesimistiski (U)[d][g] met
ɪ pĕseń (U)[d][g][h] kit
i pisać (U)[g] meet
ɨ pysk (U)[g] roses (for some dialects)
ɔ posyć (U) off
ʊ póstniski (U)[h][i] pull
u pusty (U) pool
IPAOther

L
U
ˈ Primary stress. Stress tends to fall on the first syllable of a word.
. Syllable break.

Notes

  1. The contrast between the voiceless /p, pʲ, ɕ, t, tʃ, f, k, s, ʃ/ on the one hand and the voiced /b, bʲ, ʑ, d, dʒ, v, ɡ, z, ʒ/ on the other is neutralized before obstruents (with the former set occurring before voiceless obstruents and the latter set before the voiced ones), also across word boundaries. Phrase-final obstruents are all voiceless. The same applies to unpaired obstruents, so that the voiceless /ts/ and /x/ are voiced to [dz] and [ɣ] in the same contexts.
  2. /ʃ/ before /tɕ/ is realized as [ɕ] in Lower Sorbian.
  3. The alveolo-palatal /ɕ, tɕ, ʑ/ occur only in Lower Sorbian, where they contrast with the flat postalveolar /ʃ, tʃ, ʒ/, as in Polish. Upper Sorbian has just one set of postalveolars, namely /ʃ, dʒ, tʃ, ʒ/, which are phonetically palato-alveolar, as in English and Italian.
  4. In unstressed positions, the /ɪ–ɛ/ contrast surfaces as a contrast between the palatalized [bʲ, dʲ, fʲ, ɡʲ, hʲ, kʲ, lʲ, mʲ, nʲ, pʲ, ʁʲ, tʲ, vʲ, wʲ, xʲ] (in the case of following /ɪ/) and the plain [b, d, f, ɡ, h, k, l, m, n, p, ʁ, t, v, w, x] (in the case of following /ɛ/) as both vowels are realized as [ɛ]. Those palatalized allophones also appear before /i/ and stressed /ɪ/. Among the first set, only the nasal /mʲ, nʲ/, the labial /bʲ, pʲ, wʲ/ and the uvular /ʁʲ/ have a phonemic status.
  5. [ŋ] and [ŋʲ] occur as allophones of /n/ and /nʲ/ before velar consonants.
  6. In Upper Sorbian, the German uvular [ʁ] has displaced the traditional alveolar [r]. In Lower Sorbian, the latter is still more common than the uvular [ʁ]. The same applies to the palatalized variants.
  7. The phonemic status of /ɛ/ and /ɨ/ on the one hand and /ɪ/ and /i/ on the other is problematic since they occur in complementary distribution, with /ɛ/ and /ɨ/ occurring after hard consonants and /ɪ/ and /i/ after soft consonants.
  8. [ɪ] and the Upper Sorbian [ʊ] occur only in stressed syllables. In unstressed syllables, they merge with [ɛ] and [ɔ].
  9. Upper Sorbian /ʊ/ corresponds to Lower Sorbian /ɨ/ or /ɛ/.

Bibliography

See also