Help:IPA/Serbo-Croatian

The charts below show the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents Serbo-Croatian (the Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin and Serbian standards thereof) pronunciations in Wikipedia articles. For a guide to adding IPA characters to Wikipedia articles, see {{IPA-sh}}, {{IPA-sr}}, {{IPA-hr}}, and Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation § Entering IPA characters.

See Serbo-Croatian phonology for a more thorough look at the sounds of these languages.

Consonants
IPA example nearest English equivalent
Latin Cyrillic
b bob боб bob
d dan дан doom
dʑ[1] đak ђак Like in juice
dʒ[1] džep џeп Like in George or grudge, but retroflex
f film филм film
ɡ gore горе gore
j ja ја yaw
k kola кола score
l Luka Лука Luke
l̩ bicikl бицикл little
ʎ bilje биље million
m more море more
n ne не no
n̩ njutn њутн newton
ŋ[2] banka банка bank
ɲ konj коњ canyon
p pet пет space
r robot робот robot (trilled)
r̩ vrba врба US: verb (trilled)
s sto(l) сто(л) stole
ʃ šuma шума shell
t tata тата star
tɕ[1] ćup ћуп Like cheese, but more "y"-like, articulated farther forward on the palate than the English 'ch'
ts šorc шорц shorts
tʃ[1] čekić чекић Like church, but retroflex
ʋ[3] voda вода[3] van
x hir хир here
z zima зима zoo
ʒ žaba жаба fusion
Vowels
IPA example nearest English equivalent
(long vowels with falling tone)
Latin Cyrillic
a rad рад father
e let лет let
i list лист least
o more море more
u trup труп troop
Tone and vowel length
Tonic marks are not normally written but are found in dictionaries.[4]
IPA example explanation
Latin Cyrillic
e sezóna сезо́на non-tonic short vowel
eː ùzēti у̀зе̄ти non-tonic long vowel[5]
ě djèca дѐца short vowel with rising tone[6]
ěː kréda кре́да long vowel with rising tone
ê sjȅme сȅме short vowel with falling tone
êː rȇp рȇп long vowel with falling tone

Examples above in the Latin script are given in the Ijekavian pronunciation, while Cyrillic examples are in the Ekavian pronunciation.

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d Many speakers in Croatia and some in Bosnia have no distinction between /tɕ/ and /tʃ/ (⟨ć⟩ and ⟨č⟩) or between /dʑ/ and /dʒ/ (⟨đ⟩ and ⟨dž⟩) and are both pronounced [tʃ] and [dʒ] respectively.
  2. ^ Allophone of /n/ before velar consonants.
  3. ^ a b ⟨v⟩ is a light fricative, more precisely transcribed [ʋ̝] or [v̞]. However, it does not behave as a fricative in that it does not devoice to *[f] before a voiceless consonant and it does not cause preceding voiceless consonants to become voiced.
  4. ^ Tone marks can also be found on syllabic consonants, such as [ř̩] and [r̩̂ː]. Some articles may use the stress mark, [ˈe], which could correspond to either of the tonic accents (rising or falling) and so they are not a complete transcription.
  5. ^ Many speakers in Croatia and Serbia pronounce most unstressed long vowels as short.
  6. ^ Many speakers in Croatia have no tone distinctions.

External links