Help:IPA/Sorbian
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 | This is the pronunciation key for IPA transcriptions of Sorbian on Wikipedia. It provides a set of symbols to represent the pronunciation of Sorbian in Wikipedia articles, and example words that illustrate the sounds that correspond to them. Integrity must be maintained between the key and the transcriptions that link here; do not change any symbol or value without establishing consensus on the talk page first. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters. |
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 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| IPA | Examples | Nearest 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 | |
| dʒ | dźak (U)[a][c] | jug | |
| f | fabula (U)[a] | fool | |
| ɡ | gagać (U)[a] | good | |
| h | habla (U) | horse | |
| j | jadro (U) | yes | |
| k | kabat (U)[a] | scar | |
| l | lac (U) | lack | |
| m | mač (U) | moot | |
| mʲ | mjaso (U) | mute | |
| n | nabać (U) | noon | |
| nʲ | hromadźernja (U) | vinyard | |
| p | pad (U)[a] | span | |
| pʲ | pjany (U)[a] | spew | |
| r | ʁ | rad (U)[d] | American atom (L) French rouge (U) |
| rʲ | ʁʲ | rjadka (U)[d] | American catty (L) French rime (U) |
| s | sadło (U)[a] | soup | |
| ʃ | šach (U)[a][c] | rush | |
| t | tajić (U)[a] | stand | |
| tɕ | [a][c] | chip (L) | |
| ts | całta (U)[a] | cats | |
| tʃ | ćahać (U)[a][c] | chop | |
| v | vatikanski (U)[a] | voodoo | |
| vʲ | view (L) | ||
| w | wačka (U) | boot, but without lips completely closed | |
| wʲ | wjaznyć (U) | between wet and yet | |
| x | čichawa (U) | loch (Scottish); ugh | |
| z | zabić (U)[a] | zoo | |
| ʑ | [a][c] | prestige (L) | |
| ʒ | žaba (U)[a][c] | pleasure | |
| Marginal segments | |||
| dz | licba (L)[a] | lads | |
| dʑ | [a] | jig (L) | |
| ɣ | [a] | good, but without the tongue touching the roof of the mouth | |
| ŋ | [e] | sang | |
| ŋʲ | [e] | sing | |
| Vowels | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| IPA | Examples | Nearest English equivalent | |
| L | U | ||
| a | pask (U) | father | |
| ɛ | pesimistiski (U)[f] | met | |
| i | pisać (U)[f] | meet | |
| ɨ | pysk (U)[f] | roses (for some dialects) | |
| ɔ | posyć (U) | off | |
| u | pusty (U) | cool | |
| Diphthongs | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| IPA | Examples | Nearest English equivalent | |
| L | U | ||
| iɪ | pĕseń (U)[f][g] | Somewhat like Korea | |
| uʊ | póstniski (U)[g][h] | Somewhat like Kahlúa (U) | |
| IPA | Other | |
|---|---|---|
| L | U | |
| ˈ | Primary stress. Stress tends to fall on the first syllable of a word. | |
| . | Syllable break. | |
Notes
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w 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 occuring 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.
- ^ /ʃ/ before /tɕ/ is realized as [ɕ] in Lower Sorbian.
- ^ a b c d e f g The alveolo-palatals /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.
- ^ a b In Upper Sorbian, the German uvular [ʁ] has completely displaced the traditional alveolar [r]. In Lower Sorbian, the latter still occurs and is more common than the uvular [ʁ]. The same applies to the palatalized variants.
- ^ a b [ŋ] and [ŋʲ] occur as allophones of /n/ and /nʲ/ before velar consonants.
- ^ a b c d The phonemic status of /ɛ/ and /ɨ/ on the one hand and /iɪ/ and /i/ on the other is problematic since they occur in complementary distribution, with /ɛ/ and /ɨ/ occurring after hard consonants and /iɪ/ and /i/ after soft consonants. Furthermore, many consonants (such as /k/) are allophonically palatalized before /iɪ/ and /i/ - this is not shown in transcriptions linking to this guide.
- ^ a b /iɪ/ and the Upper Sorbian /uʊ/ occur only in stressed syllables. In unstressed syllables, they merge with /ɛ/ and /ɔ/.
- ^ Upper Sorbian /uʊ/ corresponds to Lower Sorbian /ɨ/ or /ɛ/.
Bibliography
- Hannusch, Erwin (1998), Niedersorbisch praktisch und verständlich, Bautzen: Domowina-Verlag, ISBN 3-7420-1667-9
- Howson, Phil (2017), "Upper Sorbian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 47 (3): 359–367, doi:10.1017/S0025100316000414, S2CID 232350142
- Šewc-Schuster, Hinc (1984), Gramatika hornjo-serbskeje rěče, Budyšin: Ludowe nakładnistwo Domowina
- Stone, Gerald (2002), "Sorbian (Upper and Lower)", in Comrie, Bernard; Corbett, Greville G. (eds.), The Slavonic Languages, London and New York: Routledge, pp. 593–685, ISBN 9780415280785
- Zygis, Marzena (2003), "Phonetic and Phonological Aspects of Slavic Sibilant Fricatives" (PDF), ZAS Papers in Linguistics, 3: 175–213, doi:10.21248/zaspil.32.2003.191