Help:IPA/Icelandic

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

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

Consonants
IPA	Examples	English approximation
c	gys	skew
cʰ	kær	cute
ç	hjá	hue
ð	verða	weather
f	fyrir, dýpka	fun
ɣ	laga	(like Spanish trigo)
h	hús	hop
ʰc	ekki	skew (with an h sound before it)
ʰk	þakka	sky (with an h sound before it)
ʰp	tappi	spy (with an h sound before it)
ʰt	stutt	sty (with an h sound before it)
j	jú, lagi	yes
k	göng, líka	sky
kʰ	koma	kite
l	líf	leap
l̥	stelpa, öll^{[note 1]}	(voiceless, like hl)
m	miði	moon
m̥	lampi	(voiceless, like hm)
n	níu	noon
n̥	hnífur	(voiceless, like hn)
ɲ	lengi	canyon
ɲ̊	banki [ˈpauɲ̊cɪ]	(voiceless, like hny)
ŋ	ungs	sing
ŋ̊	þungt	(voiceless, like hng)
p	böl, hjálpa, nafni	spy
pʰ	páfi	pie
r	rós	ring (trilled)
r̥	hreinn	(voiceless, like hr)
s	saga	sing
t	dagur, út, öll,^{[note 1]} seinna	sty
tʰ	tala	tie
θ	það	think
v	afi, verk	very
x	sjúkt, sagt	Bach
xʷ	hver (rare)^{[note 2]}	why (without the wine–whine merger)

Vowels^{[note 3]}
IPA	Examples	English approximation
Monophthongs
a	Karl	art
aː	raka	father
ɛ	kenna	bet
ɛː	nema^{[note 4]}	roughly like yes
i	fínt, sýndi	leaf
iː	líf, hlýt	leave
ɪ	yrði	kit
ɪː	yfir, vita	kid
ɔ	loft [lɔft]	RP/Australian hot
ɔː	von [vɔːn]^{[note 4]}	roughly like water
œ	dökk [tœʰk]	Somewhat like nurse
œː	öl [œːl]^{[note 4]}	like French actuel but with lips rounded even at the end
u	ungur	boot
uː	núna [ˈnuːna]	food
ʏ	upp [ʏʰp]	German Mütter
ʏː	kul [kʰʏːl]	German schön
Diphthongs
ai	ætla	RP right
aiː	æfing	pie
au	sjálfur	mouth
auː	páfi	allow
ei	engi	pace
eiː	heim	pay
ou	hóll	goat
ouː	kólna	go
œi^{[note 5]}	laust	No English equivalent. It can be thought of as the sound in nurse followed by the sound in leaf.
œiː^{[note 6]}	auga

Other symbols
IPA	Explanation
ˈ◌	Primary stress (placed before the stressed syllable), langur [ˈlauŋ̊kʏr̥]

Notes

^ ^a ^b Double ll is in most cases pronounced [tl̥], as if spelled tl.
^ Hver is usually pronounced as "kver". [xʷ] is a part of a dialect from the Southern Region and is rare nowadays.
^ Vowels are usually long if they are stressed and followed by no more than one consonant double consonant. Vowel length is not phonemic.
^ ^a ^b ^c Long [ɛː, ɔː, œː] are most typically realized as smooth transitions from [ɪ, ʊ, ʏ] to [ɛː, ɔː, œː]. Thus, they are monophthongs phonologically and diphthongs phonetically (Árnason 2011:60, Gussmann 2011:71, 88).
^ Sometimes transcribed as [øi], although that is not a part of the standard Icelandic IPA.
^ Sometimes transcribed as [øiː], although that is not a part of the standard Icelandic IPA.

Bibliography

Rögnvaldsson, Eiríkur (2013). Hljóðfræði og hljóðritun (PDF).
Árnason, Kristján (2011). The Phonology of Icelandic and Faroese. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-922931-4.
Gussmann, Edmund (2011). "Getting your head around: the vowel system of Modern Icelandic" (PDF). Folia Scandinavica Posnaniensia. 12: 71–90. ISBN 978-83-232-2296-5.
Haugen, Einar (1958). "The Phonemics of Modern Icelandic". Language. 34 (1): 55–88. doi:10.2307/411276. JSTOR 411276.
Volhardt, Marc Daniel Skibsted (2011). Islændinges udtale af dansk. En sammenlignende analyse af lydsystemerne i islandsk og dansk, og islandske studerendes danskudtale (Bachelor's degree essay) (in Danish). Reykjavík: University of Iceland.

[ll-1] Double ll is in most cases pronounced [tl̥], as if spelled tl.

[dial-2] Hver is usually pronounced as "kver". [xʷ] is a part of a dialect from the Southern Region and is rare nowadays.

[3] Vowels are usually long if they are stressed and followed by no more than one consonant double consonant. Vowel length is not phonemic.

[longmid-4] Long [ɛː, ɔː, œː] are most typically realized as smooth transitions from [ɪ, ʊ, ʏ] to [ɛː, ɔː, œː]. Thus, they are monophthongs phonologically and diphthongs phonetically (Árnason 2011:60, Gussmann 2011:71, 88).

[5] Sometimes transcribed as [øi], although that is not a part of the standard Icelandic IPA.

[6] Sometimes transcribed as [øiː], although that is not a part of the standard Icelandic IPA.

[note 1]

[note 2]

[note 3]

[note 4]

[note 5]

[note 6]

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