Help:IPA/Sorbian
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 , and Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation § Entering IPA characters.
| Consonants | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| IPA | Examples | Nearest English equivalent | |
 L |
 U | ||
| b | bałma (U) | boot | |
| bʲ | bjakać (U) | beautiful | |
| ɕ | šćit (L) | sheep (L) | |
| d | dań (U) | do | |
| dʲ | media | ||
| dz | licba (L) | lads | |
| dʑ | jig (L) | ||
| dʒ | dźak (U) | jug | |
| f | fabula (U) | fool | |
| fʲ | few | ||
| ɡ | gagać (U) | good | |
| ɡʲ | argue | ||
| ɣ | good, but without the tongue touching the roof of the mouth | ||
| h | habla (U) | hood | |
| hʲ | heed | ||
| j | jadro (U) | yes | |
| k | kabat (U) | scar | |
| kʲ | skew | ||
| l | lac (U) | lack | |
| lʲ | failure | ||
| m | mač (U) | moot | |
| mʲ | mjaso (U) | mute | |
| n | nabać (U) | noon | |
| nʲ | hromadźernja (U) | vinyard | |
| ŋ | sang | ||
| ŋʲ | sing | ||
| p | pad (U) | span | |
| pʲ | pjany (U) | spew | |
| r | ʁ | rad (U) | American atom (L) French rouge (U) |
| rʲ | ʁʲ | rjadka (U) | American catty (L) French rime (U) |
| s | sadło (U) | soup | |
| ʃ | šach (U) | rush | |
| t | tajić (U) | stand | |
| tʲ | stew (RP) | ||
| tɕ | chip (L) | ||
| ts | całta (U) | cats | |
| tʃ | ćahać (U) | chop | |
| v | vatikanski (U) | voodoo | |
| vʲ | view | ||
| w | wačka (U) | boot, but without lips completely closed | |
| wʲ | wjaznyć (U) | between wet and yet | |
| x | čichawa (U) | loch (Scottish); ugh | |
| xʲ | huge | ||
| z | zabić (U) | zoo | |
| ʑ | prestige (L) | ||
| ʒ | žaba (U) | pleasure | |
| Vowels | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| IPA | Examples | Nearest English equivalent | |
L |
U | ||
| a | pask (U) | father | |
| ɛ | pesimistiski (U) | met | |
| ɪ | pĕseń (U) | kit | |
| i | pisać (U) | meet | |
| ɨ | pysk (U) | roses (for some dialects) | |
| ɔ | posyć (U) | off | |
| ʊ | póstniski (U) | pull | |
| u | pusty (U) | pool | |
| IPA | Other | |
|---|---|---|
L |
U | |
| ˈ | Primary stress. Stress tends to fall on the first syllable of a word. | |
| . | Syllable break. | |
- 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.
- The alveolo-palatal /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.
- In unstressed positions, the /ɪ–ɛ/ contrast surfaces as a contrast between the palatalized [bʲ, dʲ, fʲ, ɡʲ, hʲ, kʲ, lʲ, mʲ, nʲ, pʲ, ʁʲ, tʲ, vʲ, wʲ, xʲ] (in the case of following /ɪ/) and the plain [b, d, f, ɡ, h, k, l, m, n, p, ʁ, t, v, w, x] (in the case of following /ɛ/) as both vowels are realized as [ɛ]. Those palatalized allophones also appear before /i/ and stressed /ɪ/. Among the first set, only the nasal /mʲ, nʲ/, the labial /bʲ, pʲ, wʲ/ and the uvular /ʁʲ/ have a phonemic status.
- [ŋ] and [ŋʲ] occur as allophones of /n/ and /nʲ/ before velar consonants.
- In Upper Sorbian, the German uvular [ʁ] has displaced the traditional alveolar [r]. In Lower Sorbian, the latter is still more common than the uvular [ʁ]. The same applies to the palatalized variants.
- The phonemic status of /ɛ/ and /ɨ/ on the one hand and /ɪ/ and /i/ on the other is problematic since they occur in complementary distribution, with /ɛ/ and /ɨ/ occurring after hard consonants and /ɪ/ and /i/ after soft consonants.
- [ɪ] and the Upper Sorbian [ʊ] occur only in stressed syllables. In unstressed syllables, they merge with [ɛ] and [ɔ].
- Upper Sorbian /ʊ/ 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
See also
- Category:Pages with Sorbian languages IPA (4)
- Category:Pages with Lower Sorbian IPA (53)
- Category:Pages with Upper Sorbian IPA (131)