Help:IPA/Australian languages
The importance of Help:IPA/Australian languages in today's society cannot be underestimated. Since its inception, Help:IPA/Australian languages has had a significant impact on various aspects of life. Whether on a personal, social, political, or economic level, Help:IPA/Australian languages has been present in one form or another. In this article, we will explore the relevance of Help:IPA/Australian languages in different contexts and analyze how it has evolved and will continue to evolve in the future. It is crucial to understand the influence that Help:IPA/Australian languages has on our lives in order to better appreciate its importance and value in contemporary society.
 | This is the pronunciation key for IPA transcriptions of Australian languages on Wikipedia. It provides a set of symbols to represent the pronunciation of Australian languages 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. |
The charts below show the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents pronunciations of most Australian Aboriginal languages in Wikipedia articles. Only a few languages on the continent have sounds not in the tables below. For a guide to adding IPA characters to Wikipedia articles, see Template:IPA and Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation § Entering IPA characters.
| IPA | English approximation |
|---|---|
| b̥, b | spy, by |
| d̥, d | stool, do |
| d̪̥, d̪ | width |
| ɖ̥, ɖ | strudle, drew |
| ɡ̊, ɡ | sky, guy |
| ɟ̊, ɟ | skew, argue |
| j | yes |
| l | lose |
| l̪ | wealth |
| ɭ | heirloom |
| ʎ | million, (UK) lewd |
| m | mother |
| n | noose |
| n̪ | tenth |
| ɳ | Arnold |
| ɲ | canyon, (UK) new |
| ŋ | sing |
| r | Spanish Río |
| ɾ | atom (US) |
| ɹ | red |
| ɽ | barter (US) |
| ɻ | red (some Irish or West Country dialects; pronounced with rounded lips) |
| w | water |
| IPA | English approximation |
|---|---|
| a | father |
| e | bade |
| ə | sofa |
| i, ɪ | see, sit |
| o | bore |
| u, ʊ | fool, full |
| ː | (long vowel); influence (short) vs. food (long) |
Notes
- ^ a b c d e f The sounds are often pronounced tenuis, like spy, sty, stew/chew, sky (like French or Spanish p, t, tch/ch, k) at the beginnings of words, and voiced, like buy, die, dew/Jew, guy between vowels, but that is variable, and the distinction is not meaningful in almost all Australian languages.
- ^ a b c d e f The plain consonants are like English sty, noose, lose, with the tip of the tongue touching the gums, and the consonants with the 'bridge' under them, , are like t n l in French or Spanish, with the tip of the tongue touching the teeth and its upper surface touching the gums, giving them a light sound. The alveolar–dental distinction is very important in most Australian languages.
- ^ a b c d The consonants with a 'tail', , are pronounced with the tonɡue curled back, which gives them a dark "r"-like retroflex quality
- ^ a b c The consonants are pronounced with a y-like quality. English dy, ly, ny are similar.
- ^ a b c d The vowels i and u typically vary across ~ ~ and ~ ~ , respectively. However, a few Australian languages distinguish both sounds.