Help:IPA/Italian

The charts below show how the International Phonetic Alphabet represents pronunciations of Standard Italian in Wikipedia articles. For a guide to adding IPA characters to Wikipedia articles, see and Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation § Entering IPA characters.

See Italian phonology and Italian orthography for a more thorough look at the sounds of Italian.

Consonants
IPA	Examples	English approximation
b	banca, cibo	about
d	dove, idra, dado	today
dz	zaino, azalea, mezzo	dads
dʒ	gelo, giù, magia, judo, gadget	job
f	fatto, cifra, fon	fast
ɡ	gatto, agro, ghetto, glicosio	again
j	ieri, saio, più, Jesi, yacht, news	yes
k	cosa, acuto, finché, quei, kiwi, koala	scar
l	lato, tela, glicosio	ladder
ʎ	figli, glielo, maglia	billion
m	mano, amare, input	mother
ɱ	anfibio, invece	comfort
n	nano, punto, pensare, mangiare	nest
ŋ	unghia, anche, dunque	sing
ɲ	gnocco, ogni	canyon
p	primo, ampio, apertura	spin
r	Roma, quattro, morte	trilled r
s	sano, scusa, presentire, pasto	sorry
ʃ	scena, scià, pesci, flash, chic	shoe
t	tranne, mito, altro, thai	star
ts	zio, sozzo, marzo	cats
tʃ	certo, ciao, farmacia, chip	check
v	vado, povero, watt	vent
w	uova, guado, qui, week-end	wine
z	sbirro, presentare, asma	amazon
Non-native consonants
h	hobby, hertz	house
θ	Thatcher, Pérez	thing
x	jota, Bach, khamsin	loch (Scottish English)
ʒ	Fuji, garage, casual	vision

Vowels
IPA	Examples	English approximation
a	alto, sarà, must	fast (Scottish English)
e	vero, perché, liaison	fade
ɛ	etto, cioè, spread	bed
i	viso, sì, zia, feed, team, sexy	ski
o	ombra, otto, show, coach	story
ɔ	otto, sarò, Sean	off
u	usi, ragù, tuo, tour	rule
Non-native vowels
ø	viveur, goethiano, Churchill	murder (RP)
y	parure, brûlé, Führer	future (Scottish English)

Suprasegmentals
IPA	Examples	Explanation
ˈ	Cennini [tʃenˈniːni]	primary stress
ˌ	altamente [ˌaltaˈmente]	secondary stress
.	continuo [konˈtiːnu.o]	syllable break
ː	primo [ˈpriːmo]	long vowel

Except /z/, all consonants after a vowel and before /r/, /l/, a vowel or a semivowel may be geminated. Gemination in IPA is represented by doubling the consonant (fatto [ˈfatto], mezzo [ˈmɛddzo]), and can usually be told from orthography. After stressed vowels and certain prepositions and conjunctions, word-initial consonants also become geminated (syntactic gemination): va via [ˌva vˈviːa].
⟨z⟩ represents both /ts/ and /dz/. The article on Italian orthography explains how they are used.
/ts, dz, ʃ, ɲ, ʎ/ are always geminated after a vowel.
⟨gli⟩ represents /ʎ/ or /ʎi/, except in roots of Greek origin, when preceded by another consonant, and in a few other words, where it represents /ɡli/.
A nasal always assimilates to the place of articulation of the following consonant. It is bilabial [m] before /p, b, m/, labiodental [ɱ] before /f, v/, dental, alveolar or postalveolar [n] before /t, d, ts, dz, tʃ, dʒ, ʃ, l, r/, and velar [ŋ] before /k, ɡ/. Utterance-finally, it is always [n].
Non-geminate /r/ is generally realised as a monovibrant trill or flap [ɾ], particularly in unstressed syllables.
/s/ and /z/ contrast only intervocalically. Word-initially, after consonants, when geminated, and before voiceless consonants, only [s] is found. Before voiced consonants, only [z] is found.
/h/ is usually dropped.
/θ/ is usually pronounced as [t] in English loanwords, and [dz], [ts] (if spelled ⟨z⟩) or [s] (if spelled ⟨c⟩ or ⟨z⟩) in Spanish ones.
In Spanish loanwords, /x/ is usually pronounced as [h] or [k] or dropped. In German, Arabic and Russian ones, it is usually pronounced [k].
Italian contrasts seven monophthongs in stressed syllables. Open-mid vowels /ɛ, ɔ/ can appear only if the syllable is stressed (coperto [koˈpɛrto], quota [ˈkwɔːta]), close-mid vowels /e, o/ are found elsewhere (Boccaccio [bokˈkattʃo], amore [aˈmoːre]). Close and open vowels /i, u, a/ are unchanged in unstressed syllables, but word-final unstressed /i/ may become approximant [j] before vowels, which is known as synalepha (pari età [ˌparj eˈta]).
Open-mid [œ] or close-mid [ø] if it is stressed but usually [ø] if it is unstressed. May be replaced by [ɛ] (stressed) or [e] (stressed or unstressed).
/y/ is often pronounced as [u] or [ju].
Since Italian has no distinction between heavier or lighter vowels (like the English o in conclusion vs o in nomination), a defined secondary stress, even in long words, is extremely rare.
Primarily stressed vowels are long in non-final open syllables: fato [ˈfaːto], fatto [ˈfatto].

External links

Dizionario italiano multimediale e multilingue d'ortografia e di pronunzia (in Italian) [not based on IPA]
Dizionario di pronuncia italiana online by Luciano Canepari (in Italian) [phonemic, based on IPA]

[1] Except /z/, all consonants after a vowel and before /r/, /l/, a vowel or a semivowel may be geminated. Gemination in IPA is represented by doubling the consonant (fatto [ˈfatto], mezzo [ˈmɛddzo]), and can usually be told from orthography. After stressed vowels and certain prepositions and conjunctions, word-initial consonants also become geminated (syntactic gemination): va via [ˌva vˈviːa].

[z-2] ⟨z⟩ represents both /ts/ and /dz/. The article on Italian orthography explains how they are used.

[geminated-3] /ts, dz, ʃ, ɲ, ʎ/ are always geminated after a vowel.

[gli-4] ⟨gli⟩ represents /ʎ/ or /ʎi/, except in roots of Greek origin, when preceded by another consonant, and in a few other words, where it represents /ɡli/.

[nasal-5] A nasal always assimilates to the place of articulation of the following consonant. It is bilabial [m] before /p, b, m/, labiodental [ɱ] before /f, v/, dental, alveolar or postalveolar [n] before /t, d, ts, dz, tʃ, dʒ, ʃ, l, r/, and velar [ŋ] before /k, ɡ/. Utterance-finally, it is always [n].

[6] Non-geminate /r/ is generally realised as a monovibrant trill or flap [ɾ], particularly in unstressed syllables.

[s-z-7] /s/ and /z/ contrast only intervocalically. Word-initially, after consonants, when geminated, and before voiceless consonants, only [s] is found. Before voiced consonants, only [z] is found.

[8] /h/ is usually dropped.

[9] /θ/ is usually pronounced as [t] in English loanwords, and [dz], [ts] (if spelled ⟨z⟩) or [s] (if spelled ⟨c⟩ or ⟨z⟩) in Spanish ones.

[10] In Spanish loanwords, /x/ is usually pronounced as [h] or [k] or dropped. In German, Arabic and Russian ones, it is usually pronounced [k].

[11] Italian contrasts seven monophthongs in stressed syllables. Open-mid vowels /ɛ, ɔ/ can appear only if the syllable is stressed (coperto [koˈpɛrto], quota [ˈkwɔːta]), close-mid vowels /e, o/ are found elsewhere (Boccaccio [bokˈkattʃo], amore [aˈmoːre]). Close and open vowels /i, u, a/ are unchanged in unstressed syllables, but word-final unstressed /i/ may become approximant [j] before vowels, which is known as synalepha (pari età [ˌparj eˈta]).

[12] Open-mid [œ] or close-mid [ø] if it is stressed but usually [ø] if it is unstressed. May be replaced by [ɛ] (stressed) or [e] (stressed or unstressed).

[13] /y/ is often pronounced as [u] or [ju].

[14] Since Italian has no distinction between heavier or lighter vowels (like the English o in conclusion vs o in nomination), a defined secondary stress, even in long words, is extremely rare.

[15] Primarily stressed vowels are long in non-final open syllables: fato [ˈfaːto], fatto [ˈfatto].

Help:IPA/Italian

Further reading

See also

External links