Help:IPA for Italian

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The charts below show how the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents Italian language pronunciations in Wikipedia articles.

See Italian phonology for a more thorough overview of the sounds of Italian. There is also an Italian pronunciation guide at Wiktionary.

To learn more about the correspondence between spelling and sounds, see Italian orthography.

Consonants[1]
IPA Examples English approximation
b banca; cibo bike
d dove; idra done (with the tongue touching the teeth)
dz zaino; zelare; mezzo[2][3] dads
giungla; magia; fingere; judo jab
f fatto; fosforo fast
ɡ (ɡ)[4] gatto; agro; glifo; ghetto gas
k cavolo; acuto; anche; quei; kiwi scar
l lato; lievemente; pala lip
ʎ gli; glielo; maglia[3] roughly like million
m mano; amare; anfibio[5] mother
n nano; punto; pensare[5] nest
ŋ unghia; panchina; dunque[5] singing
ɲ gnocco; ogni[3] roughly like canyon
p primo; ampio; copertura spin
r Roma; quattro; morte trilled r
s sano; scatola; presentire; pasto sorry
ʃ scena; sciame; pesci[3] ship
t tranne; mito; alto star (with the tongue touching the teeth)
ts sozzo; canzone; marzo[2][3] cats
certo; cinque; ciao; farmacia watch
v vado; povero; watt vent
z sbavare; presentare; asma zipper
Semivowels
IPA Examples English approximation
j ieri; scoiattolo; più; Jesi; yacht you
w uovo; fuoco; qui; week-end wine
Vowels[6]
IPA Examples English approximation
a alto; sarà; elica roughly like father in some accents
e vero; perché; come roughly like pay
ɛ elica; cioè bed
i imposta; colibrì; zie; ogni see
o ombra; otto roughly like law (RP)[7]
ɔ otto; sarò off
u ultimo; caucciù; tuo tool
Non-native sounds
IPA Examples English approximation
h hovercraft; hertz[8] household
œ viveur; goethiano; Churchill[9] roughly like murder (RP)
x mojito; Bach[10] loch (Scottish English)
y parure; brûlé; Führer[11] future (Scottish English)
ʒ abat-jour; casual; Fuji vision
Suprasegmentals
IPA Examples English approximation
ˈ Cennini [tʃenˈniːni] primary stress, as in bottle
ˌ lievemente [ˌljɛveˈmente] secondary stress, as in intonation[12]
. continuo [konˈtiːnu.o] syllable break: co-op, rower
ː primo [ˈpriːmo] long vowel[13]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ If the consonants are doubled between vowels, they are geminated. This may also happen between sonorants (genuinely, all consonants can be geminated except for /z/). In IPA, gemination can be represented either by doubling the consonant: fatto /ˈfatto/, mezzo /ˈmɛddzo/; or by the length marker ‹ ː ›. Italian also has a sandhi phenomenon called syntactic gemination: va via /vavˈviːa/).
  2. ^ a b ⟨z⟩ represents both /ts/ and /dz/. Italian orthography explains how they are used.
  3. ^ a b c d e /dz/, /ts/, /ʎ/, /ɲ/ and /ʃ/ are always geminated between vowels.
  4. ^ If the two characters ⟨ɡ⟩ and ⟨Opentail g.svg⟩ do not match, and if the first looks like a ⟨γ⟩, there is an issue with the default font. See Rendering issues.
  5. ^ a b c The nasals always assimilate their place of articulation to that of the following consonant. Thus, the n in /nɡ/~/nk/ is a velar [ŋ], and the one in /nf/~/nv/ is a labiodental [ɱ] (but for simplicity, ⟨m⟩ is used in this list). A nasal before /p/ and /b/ is always the labial [m].
  6. ^ Italian contrasts seven monophthongs in stressed syllables. Open-mid vowels /ɛ ɔ/ can appear only when the syllable is stressed (coperto /koˈpɛrto/), close-mid vowels /e o/ are found elsewhere (e.g. Boccaccio /bokˈkattʃo/, amore /aˈmoːre/). Open and close vowels /a i u/ stay unchanged in unstressed syllables, but word-final unstressed /i/ may become an approximant [j] before vowels, a process known as synalepha (syllable merging), e.g. pari età /ˌparjeˈta/.
  7. ^ "law" in Received Pronunciation has a mid back rounded vowel [lɔ̝ː]; in General American, it varies between being open-mid back rounded [lɔː], open back rounded [lɒː] or even open back unrounded [lɑː].
  8. ^ Usually dropped.
  9. ^ Open-mid [œ] or close-mid [ø] if stressed but usually [ø] when unstressed. May be replaced by [ɛ] (stressed) or [e] (stressed or unstressed).
  10. ^ In Spanish loanwords, it is usually realized as [h] or dropped; in German ones, it is usually pronounced [k].
  11. ^ Often realized as [u] or [ju].
  12. ^ Since Italian has no a 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.
  13. ^ Stressed vowels are long in a non-final open syllable: fato /ˈfaːto/ ~ fatto /ˈfatto/.

External links[edit]