Help:IPA/Basque

< Help:IPA

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

Consonants
IPA Examples English approximation
b bat best
β alaba[1] between baby and bevy
c kuttun skew
d doa dead
ð adar[1] this
f foru face
ɡ gauak got
ɣ hego[1] between gold and ahold
h hamar[2] hot
j jakintsu[3] you
ɟ onddo argue
k ke scan
l lagun lean
ʎ zailenak million
m maixu mother
n naharo need
ɲ ikurrina canyon
p piztu spouse
r urre[4] Spanish rojo
ʁ French Paris
ɾ zauri American English atom
uso between sip and ship (retracted), Polish sz[5]
zeru[5] sip, Polish syty[5]
ʃ xehe ship, Polish śnieg[5]
t talde stand
ts̺ urretsu between cats and catch (retracted), Polish czekać[5]
ts̻ aitzin cats, Polish cena[5]
tximist catch, Polish ćma[5]
Vowels
IPA Examples English approximation
a gela father
e eder bed
i nire see
o aho bore
u hiru food
y hirü[6] roughly like cute


Diphthongs
IPA Examples English approximation
ai bai eye
oi doinu boy
ei leiho ray
au hau house
eu euri Italian / Spanish Europa


Suprasegmentals
IPA Examples English approximation
. gauak [ɡau.ak] moai

Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Lenition of /b d g/ occurs in regular speech in most Southern Basque dialects. Hualde (1991:99-100).
  2. Silent in Southern Basque dialects.
  3. The realisation of the grapheme j varies depending on dialect and can be [j, ʝ, ɟ, , ʒ, ʃ, χ]. The last, resembling Scottish English loch, is typical of Gipuzkoan, and it has also become common in eastern varieties of Biscayan and the Sakana variety of the Upper Navarrese. However, the standard pronunciation ruled by Euskaltzaindia is [j], and is the one followed in this help.
  4. The double rr is pronounced as a trill [r] in Southern Basque dialects but as a guttural [ʁ] in Northern Basque dialects.
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 Basque contrasts two consonants that sound similar to the /s/ of Englishː /s̺/, which is apical, and /s̻/, which is laminal. /ts̺/ and /ts̻/ are contrasted the same way. The contrast between /s̺, ts̺/, /s̻, ts̻/ and /ʃ, tʃ/ is similar to the contrast between /ʂ, tʂ/, /s, ts/ and /ɕ, tɕ/ in Polish.
  6. Only occurring in Souletin.

References

  • Trask, Larry (1997), The History of Basque, Routledge, ISBN 0-415-13116-2
  • Hualde, José Ignacio (1991), Basque Phonology, Routledge, ISBN 0-415-05655-1