Help:IPA/Polish

The charts below show the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents Polish language pronunciations in Wikipedia articles. For a guide to adding IPA characters to Wikipedia articles, see {{IPAc-pl}} and Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation § Entering IPA characters.

All voiced obstruents /b, d, ɡ, v, z, ʐ, ʑ, dʐ, dʑ/ are devoiced to [p, t, k, f, s, ʂ, ɕ, tʂ, tɕ] respectively at the ends of words and in clusters ending in any unvoiced obstruents. Voiceless obstruents are voiced (/x/ becoming [ɣ], etc.) in clusters ending in any voiced obstruent except /v, ʐ/, which are then themselves devoiced.

See Polish phonology for a more thorough look at the sounds of Polish.

Consonants
IPA Polish Example English approximation
b b bardzo bike
ɕ ś, s(i)[1] Jaś she
d d dawno door
dz[2] dz dzban beds
dʑ[2] dź, dz(i)[1] dziadek jeep[3]
dʐ [2] dż, drz Dżakarta jug[3]
f f foka feist
ɡ g grać girl
ɡʲ g(i)[1] Gienek argue
ɣ ch, h niechby roughly like go but without completely blocking air flow on the g
j j, i[1] jak yes
j̃[4] ń koń voice
k k krowa scam
kʲ k(i)[1] kierowca skew
l l lampa lion
m m[5] morze mile
n n[5] nad Nile
ɲ ń, n(i)[5][1] nie canyon
ŋ[6] n[5] bank bank
p p policja spike
r r różowy rolled r like Italian Roma
s s smak sign
ʂ sz szybko shore[3]
t t tak stow
tɕ[2] ć, c(i)[1] cierpki cheer[3]
ts[2] c całkiem cats
tʂ[2] cz czy child[3]
v w wartość vile
w[7] ł ładny way
x ch, h chleb (Scottish) loch
xʲ ch(i), h(i)[1] hiacynt huge
z z zebra zebra
ʑ ź, z(i)[1] ziarno vision, azure[3]
ʐ ż, rz rzadko
Vowels
IPA Polish Example English approximation
a a tam father
ɛ e krem bet
ɛ̃ ę[5] kęs French vin
i i[1] piwo eat
ɨ y my roses
ɔ o rok off
ɔ̃ ą[5] wąs French son
u u, ó duży boot
Other symbols used for Polish
IPA Explanation
ˈ Primary stress (placed before the stressed syllable), usually the penultimate syllable of a word.
ˌ Secondary stress (placed before the stressed syllable).
. Syllable break.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j The letter ⟨i⟩, when it is followed by a vowel, represents a pronunciation like a ⟨j⟩ or a "soft" pronunciation of the preceding consonant (so pies is pronounced as if it were spelt ⟨pjes⟩). It has the same effect as an acute accent on alveolar consonants (⟨s⟩, ⟨z⟩, ⟨c⟩, ⟨dz⟩, ⟨n⟩) so się, cios and niania are pronounced as if they were spelt ⟨śę⟩, ⟨ćos⟩, ⟨ńańa⟩. A following ⟨i⟩ also softens consonants when it is itself pronounced as a vowel: zima, ci and dzisiaj are pronounced as if they were spelled ⟨źima⟩, ⟨ći⟩, ⟨dźiśaj⟩.
  2. ^ a b c d e f The affricates /ts, dz, tɕ, dʑ, tʂ, dʐ/) may be written more precisely with ligature ties: /t͡s, d͡z, t͡ɕ, d͡ʑ, t͡ʂ, d͡ʐ/, but they are omitted in transcriptions as they do not display correctly in all browsers. Nonetheless, Polish contrasts affricates with stop–fricative clusters: for example, czysta About this sound[ˈt͡ʂɨsta] (help·info) "clean" versus trzysta About this sound[ˈtʂɨsta] "three hundred".
  3. ^ a b c d e f Polish makes contrasts between retroflex and alveolo-palatal consonants, both of which sound like the English postalveolars /ʃ, ʒ, tʃ, dʒ/. The retroflex sounds are pronounced "hard", with the tip of the tongue approaching the alveolar ridge and the blade of the tongue somewhat lowered, and the alveolo-palatal sounds are "soft", realized with the middle of the tongue raised, adding a bit of an ⟨ee⟩ sound to them.
  4. ^ Allophone of /ɲ/ in coda position or before fricatives.
  5. ^ a b c d e f The letters ⟨ą⟩ and ⟨ę⟩ represent the nasal vowels /ɔ̃, ɛ̃/ except when they are followed by a stop or affricate, when they represent oral vowels /ɔ, ɛ/ followed by a nasal consonant homorganic with the following stop or affricate: kąt [ˈkɔnt], gęba [ˈɡɛmba], ręka [ˈrɛŋka], piszący [piˈʂɔnt͡sɨ], pieniądze [pjɛˈɲɔnd͡zɛ], pięć [ˈpjɛɲt͡ɕ], jęczy [ˈjɛnt͡ʂɨ] (as if spelled *kont, *gemba, *renka, *piszoncy, *pieńondze, *pieńć, *jenczy).
  6. ^ Allophone of /n/ before a velar /ɡ, k, x/.
  7. ^ The traditional pronunciation [ɫ] is still found in a minority of speakers.

Further reading

External links