Help:IPA/Catalan

This is the pronunciation key for IPA transcriptions of Catalan on Wikipedia.

It provides a set of symbols to represent the pronunciation of Catalan 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.

Shortcuts

The charts below show the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents Catalan language 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.

Key for standard Catalan and Valencian

There are two major standards, one of Catalan (C)—based in the Central Coast of Catalonia, encompassing most Eastern Catalan features—and one of Valencian (V)—based in Southern Valencia, encompassing most Western Catalan features. Neither variant is preferred over the other in Wikipedia articles except in cases where a local pronunciation is clearly more relevant (such as a place in Catalonia or a Valencian artist).

See Catalan phonology for a more thorough look at the sounds of standard Catalan and Valencian, and Catalan orthography for the main correspondences between spelling and pronunciation. (For an extensive list of spelling-to-sound correspondences, see this)

IPA		Consonants
C	V	Examples	English approximation
b	b	bell, àmbit, capgròs	best
b	v	vell, envit, watt	best (C) / vest (V)
β	v	avanç, selva	vest
β	b	abans, arbre	vest (C) / best (V)
d		drac, indret, ritme	door
dz	dz	setze, tots alhora	adze
dz	z	utilitza	adze (C) / zebra (V)
dʒ		viatja, fetge, migdia	jeep
ð		cada, lladre	other
f		fort, bafs	face
ɡ		guant, angle, guiar, ècdisi	got
ɣ		aigües, agrat, lloguer	between got and hot
k		cors, quan, qui, llarg, kiwi, Llach	scan
l		laca, ceŀla, val	pile
ʎ		llac, cella, Elx	billion
m		meu, comte	mode
ɱ		limfa, ínfim	lymph
n		neu, dansa	note
ŋ		sang, cigne	ring
ɲ		nyeu, penges	onion
p		por, dubte	span
r		ruc, mirra, honra	Scots rook
ɾ		mira, truc, per	US atom
s		set, està, rossa, feliç	sick
ʃ	tʃ	xec, Barx	ship (C) / cheap (V)
	jʃ	caixa	ship (C) / geisha (V)
	ʃ	Xàtiva, guix	ship
t		terra, fred	stand
ts		lletsó, tots	cats
tʃ		txec, veig, mig	cheap
v		hafni, bafs d'aigua	vest
z		zel, rosa, esma	zebra
ʒ	dʒ	joc, gespa	genre (C) / jeep (V)
	j	jo	genre (C) / young (V)
	jʒ	caixmir	genre (C) / beige (V)
	ʒ	guix verd	genre
IPA		Marginal consonants
h		ehem, Sàhara	hot
θ		theta, López	thing
x		kharja, Bach	Scots loch

IPA		Semivowels
C	V	Examples	English approximation
j		iode, posa-hi, York	young
w		quart, Güell, posa-ho, web	quick

IPA		Vowels
C	V	Examples	English approximation
a		sac, ànecs	father
ɛ	ɛ	set, be, èxit	pet
ɛ	e	fe, alè (C) / alé (V), què	pet (C) / face (V)
e		bé, anells, ídem	face
ə		demà	alpha (C) / face (V)
	a	fadrí, entens	alpha (C) / father (V)
	i	naixement	alpha (C) / meet (V)
i	i	sic, ties, fillet	meet
ɔ		son, això	off
o	o	són, molt, ego, mouré	story
u	o	oratge	rule (C) / story (V)
u	u	suc, dues, fullet, cobert	rule
IPA		Marginal vowels
œ		amateur	bird (RP)
y		déjà vu	cute

IPA		Suprasegmentals
C	V	Examples	Explanation
ˈ		Dídac (C) / (V)	primary stress
ˌ		Bellpuig (C / V)	secondary stress
.		Maria (C) / (V)	syllable break
ː		Imma (C) / (V)	long consonant/vowel
IPA		Other representations
( )		Corts (C / V)	optional sound

Other transcriptions

Catalan in Andorra, Western Catalonia and La Franja (NW): North-Western, a continuous dialect of the Western Catalan branch, uses the same pronunciation pattern as Standard Valencian (see V above). However, there are some differences that should be used in the transcription of local names in Andorra, Western Catalonia (Lleida and part of Tarragona) and parts of the Aragonese border (La Franja). Those differences are:

Phonetic deviations from Standard Valencian (i.e. commonalities with Standard Catalan)		Examples	English approximation
Betacism	/b/, /v/ → /b/	bell, vell	best
Betacism	/b/, /v/ →	abans, avanç	vest
Deaffrication of /dʒ/ (in intervocalic position)	/dʒ/ →	dijous, fugir	genre

(Note for transcriptions of North-Western Catalan use the label {{IPA|ca|...|local}} with the corresponding local pronunciation, next to Standard Catalan)

Transcription of Insular Eastern Catalan

For transcriptions of Insular Catalan dialects:

Help:IPA/Insular Catalan (use {{IPA|ca-ES-IB|...}} and {{IPA|ca-IT|...}} to transcribe Insular Catalan pronunciations – the first is for Balearic and the latter for Alguerese)

Assimilations and vowel harmony in local transcriptions of Western Catalan: In a number of Western Catalan varieties (and notably in Valencian) unstressed /a/ (especially in the coda) is particularly unstable and may be subject to assimilation to adjacent low (open) vowels (this is often called vowel harmony, and is accepted by the Standard norms):

Unstressed /a/ assimilations		Examples	English approximation
Progressive vowel harmony with /ɛ/ (frequent)	/a/ →	terra dona	acrobat
Progressive vowel harmony with /ɔ/ (frequent)	/a/ →	terra dona	out-talk
Progressive and regressive vowel harmony with /ɛ/ (rare)	← /a/ →	afecta	acrobat
Progressive and regressive vowel harmony with /ɔ/ (rare)	← /a/ →	carxofa	out-talk
Final /a/ reduction to regardless of the preceding sounds		Lleida	acrobat

(For transcriptions of vowel assimilations or vowel harmony use the label {{IPA|ca-valencia|...|local}} in the Valencian Community and {{IPA|ca|...|local}} in Catalonia and Aragon)

Further dialectal variation

The keys above (Help:IPA/Catalan § Key for standard Catalan and Valencian) represent only standard pronunciations across Wikipedia, however it is also included additional transcriptions for Insular Catalan (see Help:IPA/Insular Catalan) and for varieties such as North-Western and the Valencian dialects with vowel harmony (see "Other transcriptions" above).

There are further dialectal variations in different regions of Catalonia and the Valencian Community, as well as the rest of Catalan-speaking territories, that might not be covered on these keys and not recommended in standard registers. These variations may include other contrasts (such as /θ/ vs. /s/ found in Eastern and Lower Aragon) or mergers (such as /aw/ vs. /ɔw/ found in Southern Valencian). If you wish to add a relevant local pronunciation of these varieties, you may use a "local" label (e.g. {{IPA|ca|...|local}} or {{IPA|ca-valencia|...|local}}) besides the standard transcription.

Notes

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j Obstruents assimilate to the voicing of the following consonant. In syllables produced in utterance-final position (i.e. the coda), voiced obstruents become devoiced (Carbonell Costa & Llisterri Boix (1999:63), Wheeler (2005:147–149)).
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g While betacism (that is, the merging of /b/ and /v/ into one phoneme) is common in most speakers of Catalan and in Valencia, several dialects still contrast the two sounds (usually represented as ⟨b⟩ and ⟨v⟩ respectively in Catalan orthography). The contrast is also maintained in Standard Valencian (Carbonell Costa & Llisterri Boix (1999:61), Wheeler (2005:13)).
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j
Voiced stops /b, d, ɡ/ become lenited (that is, approximants or fricatives of the same place of articulation) when in the syllable onset and after a continuant. Otherwise they are pronounced as voiced or devoiced stops, similar to English b, d, g and p, t, k. Exceptions include /d/ after a lateral consonant, and /b/ after the labiodental /f/. In traditional non-betacist dialects, /b/ usually fails to lenite (Carbonell Costa & Llisterri Boix (1999:63), Wheeler (2005:10, 310–326)).
- (found only in the betacist varieties) is pronounced between /b/ and /v/, or just like /v/ but with both lips.
- is pronounced between /ɡ/ and /h/, or roughly like /ɡ/ but without completely blocking the air flow.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r ^s The sibilants /ʃ, ʒ, tʃ, dʒ/ are alveolo-palatal or palato-alveolar. A variant of /s, z, ts, dz/ includes the retracted (with pronunciations closer to postalveolars /ʃ, ʒ, tʃ, dʒ/, respectively).
^ ^a ^b Catalan orthography distinguishes between ⟨ll⟩ (representing /ʎ/) and ⟨ŀl⟩ (representing a geminated /lː/). In regular speech gemination of ⟨ŀl⟩ is ignored altogether. Some dialects as well as young speakers can merge /ʎ/ with the glide in a process similar to Spanish yeísmo.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g The sonorants /l/ and /n/ assimilate to the place of articulation of a following consonant (Rafel (1999:14), Wheeler (2005:166–204)). Before palatals, /l/ is and /n/ is . Before velars, /n/ becomes and before labial consonants, /n/ becomes . The labiodental appears before /f/ and /v/.
^ ^a ^b The rhotic consonants ⟨r⟩ /ɾ/ and ⟨rr⟩ /r/ only contrast between vowels. Otherwise, they are in complementary distribution as ⟨r⟩ with occurring word-initially, after /l/, /n/, and /s/, and in compounds; and after hard plosives, the soft spirants , and /f/. Syllable-final /ɾ/ varies according to dialect, emphasis, morpheme and the following sound. In all Catalan dialects, except most of Valencian, /ɾ/ is lost in coda position in suffixes of nouns and adjectives denoting the masculine singular and in the infinitive suffixes of verbs, except when the following morpheme begins with a vowel, although this may vary (Carbonell Costa & Llisterri Boix (1999:63–64), Wheeler (2005:24–25)).
^ Other than in loanwords and interjections, the letter ⟨h⟩ is always silent. Non-silent ⟨h⟩ often merges with /x/.
^ The dental fricative /θ/, found mainly in Spanish loanwords and interferences, may be replaced by /s/ by native speakers.
^ The semivowels /j/ and /w/ can be combined with most vowels to form diphthongs and triphthongs (Carbonell Costa & Llisterri Boix (1999:62), Wheeler (2005:90–91)). For a list with all the combinations, see Catalan phonology § Diphthongs and triphthongs.
^ Many words that have /ɛ/ in Standard Catalan have /e/ in Standard Valencian. The latter is the historical pronunciation.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ
In unstressed position, the vowel contrast is reduced in all dialects.
- Eastern Catalan (in particular, Central and Northern Catalan): merge to , whereas merge to , leaving only in most unstressed syllables.
  - In Standard Eastern Catalan, unstressed and appear only in some words, especially from other languages. In other cases, they merge with and (Wheeler (2005:61–72)).
- Western Catalan (North-Western and Valencian): merge to and merge to . Exceptionally there are some cases where unstressed ⟨e⟩ may merge with or , whereas unstressed ⟨o⟩ may merge with (Carbonell Costa & Llisterri Boix (1999:62–63), Wheeler (2005:52–77)).
  - In Standard Valencian, unstressed and occur in the process known as vowel harmony. In North-Western, there are cases where only is found in final unstressed syllables. (See also "Assimilations and vowel harmony in local transcriptions of Western Catalan").
  - In further cases, unstressed and may appear in compounds.
^ ^a ^b
The vowel /œ/—found mainly in the Northern dialects–is usually replaced by /e/ in the standard.
- is pronounced like /ɛ/, but with the lips rounded.
^ ^a ^b
The vowel /y/—found mainly in the Northern dialects–is usually replaced by /u/ or /i/ in the standard.
- is pronounced like /i/, but with the lips rounded.

Bibliography

Carbonell Costa, Joan F.; Llisterri Boix, Joaquim (1999), "Catalan", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the Usage of the International Phonetic Alphabet (in Catalan), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 61–65, ISBN 978-0-521-63751-0
Jiménez, Jesús; Lloret, Maria-Rosa, Entre la articulación y la percepción: Armonía vocálica en la península Ibérica (PDF) (in Spanish)
Rafel, Joaquim (1999), Aplicació al català dels principis de transcripció de l'Associació Fonètica Internacional (PDF) (in Catalan) (3rd ed.), Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, ISBN 84-7283-446-8
Recasens Vives, Daniel (1996) , Fonètica descriptiva del català: assaig de caracterització de la pronúncia del vocalisme i el consonantisme català al segle XX, Biblioteca Filològica (in Catalan), vol. 21 (2nd ed.), Barcelona. Spain: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, ISBN 978-84-7283-312-8
Wheeler, Max W. (2005), The Phonology Of Catalan, Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-925814-7

External links

"Gramàtica essencial de la llengua catalana (GEIEC)". Institut d'Estudis Catalans (IEC).
"Gramàtica normativa valenciana (GNV)". Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua (AVL).
"Diccionari normatiu valencià (DNV)". Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua (AVL).
"Diccionari català-valencià-balear (DCVB)". Ed. Moll / Institut d'Estudis Catalans (IEC).
"reSOLC-mitjansCAT". Institut Universitari de Lingüística Aplicada (IULA) – Pompeu Fabra University / Institut d'Estudis Catalans (IEC).

[neutralization_of_obstruents-1] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j Obstruents assimilate to the voicing of the following consonant. In syllables produced in utterance-final position (i.e. the coda), voiced obstruents become devoiced (Carbonell Costa & Llisterri Boix (1999:63), Wheeler (2005:147–149)).

[b/v-2] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g While betacism (that is, the merging of /b/ and /v/ into one phoneme) is common in most speakers of Catalan and in Valencia, several dialects still contrast the two sounds (usually represented as ⟨b⟩ and ⟨v⟩ respectively in Catalan orthography). The contrast is also maintained in Standard Valencian (Carbonell Costa & Llisterri Boix (1999:61), Wheeler (2005:13)).

[lenition-3] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j Voiced stops /b, d, ɡ/ become lenited (that is, approximants or fricatives of the same place of articulation) when in the syllable onset and after a continuant. Otherwise they are pronounced as voiced or devoiced stops, similar to English b, d, g and p, t, k. Exceptions include /d/ after a lateral consonant, and /b/ after the labiodental /f/. In traditional non-betacist dialects, /b/ usually fails to lenite (Carbonell Costa & Llisterri Boix (1999:63), Wheeler (2005:10, 310–326)).
(found only in the betacist varieties) is pronounced between /b/ and /v/, or just like /v/ but with both lips.

is pronounced between /ɡ/ and /h/, or roughly like /ɡ/ but without completely blocking the air flow.

[4] (found only in the betacist varieties) is pronounced between /b/ and /v/, or just like /v/ but with both lips.

[5] s pronounced between /ɡ/ and /h/, or roughly like /ɡ/ but without completely blocking the air flow.

[sibilants-4] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r ^s The sibilants /ʃ, ʒ, tʃ, dʒ/ are alveolo-palatal or palato-alveolar. A variant of /s, z, ts, dz/ includes the retracted (with pronunciations closer to postalveolars /ʃ, ʒ, tʃ, dʒ/, respectively).

[ll/ŀl-5] Catalan orthography distinguishes between ⟨ll⟩ (representing /ʎ/) and ⟨ŀl⟩ (representing a geminated /lː/). In regular speech gemination of ⟨ŀl⟩ is ignored altogether. Some dialects as well as young speakers can merge /ʎ/ with the glide in a process similar to Spanish yeísmo.

[laterals/nasals-6] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g The sonorants /l/ and /n/ assimilate to the place of articulation of a following consonant (Rafel (1999:14), Wheeler (2005:166–204)). Before palatals, /l/ is and /n/ is . Before velars, /n/ becomes and before labial consonants, /n/ becomes . The labiodental appears before /f/ and /v/.

[rhotics-7] The rhotic consonants ⟨r⟩ /ɾ/ and ⟨rr⟩ /r/ only contrast between vowels. Otherwise, they are in complementary distribution as ⟨r⟩ with occurring word-initially, after /l/, /n/, and /s/, and in compounds; and after hard plosives, the soft spirants , and /f/. Syllable-final /ɾ/ varies according to dialect, emphasis, morpheme and the following sound. In all Catalan dialects, except most of Valencian, /ɾ/ is lost in coda position in suffixes of nouns and adjectives denoting the masculine singular and in the infinitive suffixes of verbs, except when the following morpheme begins with a vowel, although this may vary (Carbonell Costa & Llisterri Boix (1999:63–64), Wheeler (2005:24–25)).

[h-8] Other than in loanwords and interjections, the letter ⟨h⟩ is always silent. Non-silent ⟨h⟩ often merges with /x/.

[θ-9] The dental fricative /θ/, found mainly in Spanish loanwords and interferences, may be replaced by /s/ by native speakers.

[semivowels-10] The semivowels /j/ and /w/ can be combined with most vowels to form diphthongs and triphthongs (Carbonell Costa & Llisterri Boix (1999:62), Wheeler (2005:90–91)). For a list with all the combinations, see Catalan phonology § Diphthongs and triphthongs.

[11] Many words that have /ɛ/ in Standard Catalan have /e/ in Standard Valencian. The latter is the historical pronunciation.

[unstressed_vowels-12] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ In unstressed position, the vowel contrast is reduced in all dialects.
Eastern Catalan (in particular, Central and Northern Catalan): merge to , whereas merge to , leaving only in most unstressed syllables.
In Standard Eastern Catalan, unstressed and appear only in some words, especially from other languages. In other cases, they merge with and (Wheeler (2005:61–72)).

Western Catalan (North-Western and Valencian): merge to and merge to . Exceptionally there are some cases where unstressed ⟨e⟩ may merge with or , whereas unstressed ⟨o⟩ may merge with (Carbonell Costa & Llisterri Boix (1999:62–63), Wheeler (2005:52–77)).
In Standard Valencian, unstressed and occur in the process known as vowel harmony. In North-Western, there are cases where only is found in final unstressed syllables. (See also "Assimilations and vowel harmony in local transcriptions of Western Catalan").

In further cases, unstressed and may appear in compounds.

[15] Eastern Catalan (in particular, Central and Northern Catalan): merge to , whereas merge to , leaving only in most unstressed syllables.
In Standard Eastern Catalan, unstressed and appear only in some words, especially from other languages. In other cases, they merge with and (Wheeler (2005:61–72)).

[16] In Standard Eastern Catalan, unstressed and appear only in some words, especially from other languages. In other cases, they merge with and (Wheeler (2005:61–72)).

[17] Western Catalan (North-Western and Valencian): merge to and merge to . Exceptionally there are some cases where unstressed ⟨e⟩ may merge with or , whereas unstressed ⟨o⟩ may merge with (Carbonell Costa & Llisterri Boix (1999:62–63), Wheeler (2005:52–77)).
In Standard Valencian, unstressed and occur in the process known as vowel harmony. In North-Western, there are cases where only is found in final unstressed syllables. (See also "Assimilations and vowel harmony in local transcriptions of Western Catalan").

In further cases, unstressed and may appear in compounds.

[18] In Standard Valencian, unstressed and occur in the process known as vowel harmony. In North-Western, there are cases where only is found in final unstressed syllables. (See also "Assimilations and vowel harmony in local transcriptions of Western Catalan").

[19] In further cases, unstressed and may appear in compounds.

[French_eu-13] The vowel /œ/—found mainly in the Northern dialects–is usually replaced by /e/ in the standard.
is pronounced like /ɛ/, but with the lips rounded.

[21] s pronounced like /ɛ/, but with the lips rounded.

[French_u-14] The vowel /y/—found mainly in the Northern dialects–is usually replaced by /u/ or /i/ in the standard.
is pronounced like /i/, but with the lips rounded.

[23] s pronounced like /i/, but with the lips rounded.

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