The charts below show the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents Afrikaans 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.
See Afrikaans phonology for a more thorough look at the sounds of Afrikaans, as well as dialectal variations that are not represented here.
Consonants | |||
---|---|---|---|
IPA | Examples | Examples in IPA | English approximation |
b | beet | bɪə̯t | beet |
d | dak | dak | duck |
f | fiets, ver | fit͡s, fæːr | far |
ɦ | hoekom | ˈɦukɔm | behind |
j | ja | jaː | yes |
k | kat | kat | skin |
l | land | ɫant | land |
m | man | man | man |
n | nek | næk | neck |
ŋ | eng | æŋ | long |
p | pen, rib, lip | pæn, rɪp, lɪp | sport |
r | ras | ras | No equivalent, rolled R as in some varieties of Scottish English |
s | sak, seep | sak, sɪə̯p | sock |
ʃ | sjabloon, sjef | ʃaˈbluə̯m, ʃæːf | shall |
t | tak, hond | tak, ɦɔnt | stop |
tʃ | Tsjeggië, tjek | ˈʧæχiə, ʧæːk | chat |
χ | generaal, weg | χɛnəˈrɑːl, væːχ | loch (Scottish English) |
v | wang | vaŋ | van |
ʒ | visueel | vəʒœˈɪə̯ɫ | vision |
Marginal consonants | |||
ʔ | beïnvloed | bəˈʔənflut | the catch in uh-oh! |
dʒ | djihad | ˈʤiɦat | jump |
ɡ | ghries[1], berge, erger | gris, ˈbærgə, ˈærgər | goal |
w | kwaad | kwɑːt | water |
z | Zoeloe | ˈzuːlu | zoo |
Stress | |||
ˈ | vóórkom voorkóm |
ˈfuə̯rkɔm | as in South-African or British commandeer ˌkɒmənˈdiə̯ |
ˌ | ˌfuə̯rˈkɔm |
Vowels | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
IPA | Examples | Examples IPA | English approximation | ||
South-African English | Received Pronunciation | General American | |||
Monophthongs (oral) | |||||
a | bad | bat | up | No equivalent, similar to quack, however pronounced further down in the mouth | |
ɑː | aap | ɑːp | father | ||
æ | ek, bel, reg, blerrie | æk, bæɫ, ræχ, ˈbɫærːi | back | ||
æː | perd, ver, wêreld, bêre | pæːrt, fæːr, ˈvæːrəɫt, ˈbæːrə | jazz | fat | |
ɛ | met | mɛt | met | dress | |
ɛː | nè, mens, hê | nɛː, mɛns (although in many accents mɛ̃ːs), ɦɛː | No equivalent, similar to square, however pronounced further down in the mouth | square | bread |
ə | vis, hemel, vanaand[2] | fəs, ˈɦɪə̯məɫ, fəˈnɑːnt | again | ||
əː | wîe[3] | ˈvəːə | fur | In some accents the lengthened uh, and in others uh further forward in the mouth | fur |
i | polisie | puˈlisi | deep | concrete | deep |
iː | spieël, bier[4] | spiːl, biːr | need | ||
ɔ | bot | bɔt | thought | No equivalent, roughly as in Scottish, Irish, or South-African thought or law | |
ɔː | môre[5] | ˈmɔːrə | law | ||
œ | hut | ɦœt | Roughly as in book | Roughly as in bird | |
œː | rûe[5] | ˈrœːə | |||
u | hoed, polisie | ɦut, puˈlisi | boot | fool, cool | No equivalent, roughly as in Scottish, Irish, or South-African boot or cool |
uː | koeël, moer[4] | kuːɫ, muːr | cool | ||
y | nuut | nyt | roughly like cute | ||
yː | uur[4] | yːr | roughly like true; German über | ||
Monophthongs (nasal) | |||||
ɑ̃ː | dans | dɑ̃ːs (in some dialects dɑns) | No equivalent, long nasalized [ɑ]; French sans | ||
ɛ̃ː | mens | mɛ̃ːs (in some dialects mɛns) | No equivalent, long nasalized [ɛ]; French vin | ||
ɔ̃ː | spons | spɔ̃ːs (in some dialects spɔns) | No English equivalent, nasalized [ɔː]; French dupont | ||
Diphthongs | |||||
ai | baie | ˈbai̯ə | No equivalent, roughly as in American or English price | price | |
ɑːɪ | braai | brɑːɪ̯ | prize | ||
ɛɪ | rys, reis | rɛɪ̯s, rɛɪ̯s | may | ||
ɪə | eer, ere | ɪə̯r, ˈɪə̯rə | ear | No equivalent, roughly as in South-African or British ear | ear |
ɪø | seun | sɪø̯n | Roughly like fear in some (non-standard) accents, no good English equivalent | ||
iu | eeu | iu̯ | ew | ||
oːɪ | nooi | noːɪ̯ | boy | ||
œɪ | ui | œɪ̯ | house (Scottish English) | ||
əu | ou | əu̯ | boat | No equivalent, roughly as in South-African or British boat | boat |
uə | so, boot | suə̯, buə̯t | poor (as in poverty) | No equivalent, roughly as in South-African or British poor | poor |
Notes[edit]
- ^ /ɡ/ is not a native phoneme of Afrikaans; it occurs only in loanwords like gholf or as an allophone of /χ/ at the end of suffixed root nouns or adjectives when both preceded by a short vowel + R cluster and followed by a schwa.
- ^ In words which feature a short vowel preceding its longer form (like in vanaand, tamatie and bobotie), the short vowel is neutralised (Donaldson (1993:4, 6)).
- ^ /əː/ occurs in no other word (Donaldson (1993:7)).
- ^ a b c As phonemes, /iː/ and /uː/ occur only in spieël and koeël, respectively. In other cases, [iː] and [uː] occur as allophones of /i/ and /u/ before /r/. /y/ is also lengthened to [yː] before /r/ (Donaldson (1993:4–6)).
- ^ a b /œː/ and /ɔː/ occur only in a few words (Donaldson (1993:7).
References[edit]
- Donaldson, Bruce C. (1993). "1. Pronunciation". A Grammar of Afrikaans. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. pp. 1–35. ISBN 978-3-11-0134261. Retrieved 16 April 2017.
- Lass, Roger (1987). "Intradiphthongal Dependencies". In Anderson, John; Durand, Jaques (eds.). Explorations in Dependency Phonology. Dordrecht: Foris Publications Holland. pp. 109–131. ISBN 9067652970. Retrieved 16 April 2017.
- Wissing, Daan (2016). "Afrikaans phonology – segment inventory". Taalportaal. Archived from the original on 15 April 2017. Retrieved 16 April 2017.