Help:IPA/Luxembourgish

The charts below show the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents Luxembourgish language pronunciations in Simple Wikipedia articles. For a guide to adding IPA characters to Simple Wikipedia articles, see {{IPA-lb}} and Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation § Entering IPA characters.

See Luxembourgish phonology for a extensive look at the sounds of Luxembourgish.

Consonants
IPA Examples English approximation
Native
b Been [beːn][1] ball
ɕ liicht [liːɕt], Bieg [biəɕ][1][2] she, but more of a y-like sound
d Iddi [ˈidi][1] done
f Fësch [fəʃ][1] fuss
ɡ Gitt [ɡit][1] guest
h hei [hɑɪ] hut
j Jong [joŋ], bëllegen [ˈbələjən][3] yard
k Kiischt [kiːʃt][1] cold
l liesen [ˈliəzən] last
m Maul [mæːʊl] must
n Nues [nuəs] not
ŋ eng [eŋ] long
p Paart [paːt][1] puck
ʀ Rou [ʀəʊ], Comptoir [ˈkõːtwaːʀ][4] German Regen
ʁ Kugel [ˈkuːʁəl],[1][2] Parmesan [ˈpɑʁməzaːn][5] Scottish loch, but voiced; French rester
s Taass [taːs][1] fast
ʃ Schnéi [ʃnəɪ][1][2] shall
t Taart [taːt], Jugend [ˈjuːʁənt][1] tall
ts Zuch [tsuχ][1] cats, retracted in most cases
Brëtsch [bʀətʃ],[1] d'Stad [tʃtɑt] match
v wëschen [ˈvəʃən][1] vanish
χ Sprooch [ʃpʀoːχ],[1][2] Force [foχs][5] Scottish loch
z Summer [ˈzumɐ][1] hose
ʒ Juli [ˈʒuːliː][1][2] pleasure
Marginal consonants
bv Kampf opginn [ˈkɑmbv ˈopɡin][6] obvious
dz spadséieren [ʃpɑˈdzəɪəʀən][1][7] heads
Jeans [dʒiːns][1] jeans
pf Pflicht [pfliɕt] cupful
w zwee [tsweː], Comptoir [ˈkõːtwaːʀ][8] we
ʑ héijen [ˈhəɪʑən][1][2] measure, but more of a y-like sound
Vowels
IPA Examples English approximation
Monophthongs
ɑ Kapp [kɑp] art
Kap [kaːp], waarm [vaːm][5] Australian bad
æ Käpp [kæp] back
ə Fësch [fəʃ],[9] Drogen [ˈdʀoːɡən],[10] Böcker [ˈbəkɐ][11] roughly like hurt
e drécken [ˈdʀekən][9] let
Been [beːn] Scottish pays
ɛː Stär [ʃtɛːɐ̯],[12] nämlech [ˈnɛːmləɕ] bed
i Gitt [ɡit] tip
siwen [ˈziːvən], Kiischt [kiːʃt] Scottish and South African be
o So [zo], Sonn [zon] off
Sprooch [ʃpʀoːχ] story
u Hutt [hut] put
Tut [tuːt], Luucht [luːχt] true
Non-native monophthongs
ɑ̃ː Chance [ʃɑ̃ːs] French vin blanc
ɛ̃ː Dinde [dɛ̃ːt] French vin blanc
õː Comptoir [ˈkõːtwaːʀ] French Mont Blanc
œː Interieur [ˈɛ̃ːtəʀiœːʀ], flirten [ˈflœːtən][11] roughly like herd
øː Blöd [bløːt]
y Hüll [hyl] roughly like shoe, but shorter
Süden [ˈzyːdən] roughly like shoe
Diphthongs
ɑɪ Gebai [ɡəˈbɑɪ], deier [ˈdɑɪɐ] price
ɑʊ Mauer [ˈmɑʊɐ] roughly like spa water
æːɪ räich [ʀæːɪɕ] England and Wales share yachts
æːʊ Maul [mæːʊl] England and Wales share walls
əɪ Schnéi [ʃnəɪ] American face
əʊ Schoul [ʃəʊl] goat
ɛːɐ̯ Stär [ʃtɛːɐ̯][5] traditional RP square
liesen [ˈliəzən], Biergem audio speaker icon[ˈbiəʑəm][13] roughly like yearn
iːɐ̯ wier [viːɐ̯][5][13] see other
oːɐ̯ Joer [joːɐ̯][5] Scottish no other
Buedem [ˈbuədəm], Lëtzebuerg [ˈlətsəbuəɕ][13] roughly like word
uːɐ̯ kuerz [kuːɐ̯ts][5][13] too upbeat
Non-native diphthongs
Euro [ˈoɪʀoː] boy
øːɐ̯ Föhr [føːɐ̯] roughly like herd
yːɐ̯ Lürmann [ˈlyːɐ̯mɑn] roughly like you utter
Reduced vowels
ɐ Mauer [ˈmɑʊɐ][5] nut or sofa
Suprasegmentals
IPA Examples Explanation
ˈ Kugel [ˈkuːʁəl] primary stress, as in dearest /ˈdɪərəst/
ˌ Méckebaatsch [ˈmekəˌbaːtʃ] secondary stress, as in commandeer /ˌkɒmənˈdɪər/
  1. 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 Word-finally, the voiceless-voiced distinction in the obstruent pairs [p–b, t–d, k–ɡ, ts–dz, tʃ–dʒ, f–v, s–z, ɕ–ʑ, ʃ–ʒ, χ–ʁ] is neutralized, mostly in favor of the voiceless obstruents, but see the table titled Suprasegmentals (Gilles & Trouvain (2013:68)).
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Both [ɕ, ʑ] and [χ, ʁ] are allophones of /χ, ʁ/. [χ, ʁ] occur after back vowels, and [ɕ, ʑ] occur in all other environments, but the voiced [ʑ] occurs only in a few words. Speakers increasingly merge [ɕ, ʑ] and [ʃ, ʒ] (Gilles & Trouvain (2013:68–69)).
  3. The alveolo-palatal fricative [ʑ] is weakened to an approximant [j] when both unstressed and intervocalic between [ə, iə, uə] and [ə, ɐ]. The approximant realization is not subjected to merging with /ʒ/.
  4. The /ʀ/ phoneme is realized as a trill [ʀ] when it is prevocalic within the same word and often when it is non-prevocalic in French loanwords (Gilles & Trouvain (2013:68, 71)).
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 When it is non-prevocalic within the same word, the /ʀ/ phoneme has many allophones:
    • after short vowels, the non-prevocalic /ʀ/ is realized as a fricative, either voiced [ʁ] or voiceless [χ], depending on whether the following consonant is voiced or voiceless;
    • /ʀ/ is fully absorbed into the preceding /aː/ in the non-prevocalic sequence /aːʀ/ and so Paart, Taart and waarm are pronounced [paːt], [taːt] and [vaːm], as if they were spelled Paat, Taat and waam;
    • after long vowels (excluding /aː/), non-prevocalic /ʀ/ is vocalized to [ɐ̯], creating the centering diphthongs [ɛːɐ̯, iːɐ̯, oːɐ̯, uːɐ̯] and, in loanwords from Standard German, also [øːɐ̯, yːɐ̯];
    • the unstressed, non-prevocalic orthographic sequence ⟨er⟩ corresponds to the marginal phoneme /ɐ/, although this can also be analysed as simple a sequence of /e/ and /ʀ/ (Gilles & Trouvain (2013:68, 70–71)).
  6. Apart from being the main realisation of phonemes /b, d, dz, ɡ, v, z, ʒ, dʒ/, [b, d, dz, ɡ, v, z, ʒ, ] occur as word-final allophones of both /p, t, ts, k, f, s, ʃ, tʃ/ and /b, d, dz, ɡ, v, z, ʒ, dʒ/ (in this position, some scholars may analyse both of the sets as /p, t, ts, k, f, s, ʃ, tʃ/) if the next word begins with a vowel and is pronounced without a pause. [ʁ, ʑ, bv] also occur as allophones of /χ, χ, pf/ in the same environment, but [bv] does not occur in other circumstances. In this context, the final voiceless obstruents are not only voiced but also resyllabified, or moved to the onset of the first syllable of the following word. Therefore, a somewhat more phonetically-accurate transcription of sech eens would be [zəˈʑeːns] (Gilles & Trouvain (2013:68, 72)), but it is transcribed [zəʑ ˈeːns] instead so that it corresponds more closely to the spelling.
  7. Phonemic /dz/ occurs only in a few words (Gilles & Trouvain (2013:72))
  8. [w] is an allophone of /v/ occurring after /k, ʃ, ts/ (Gilles & Trouvain (2013:69)). It also occurs in loanwords as a marginal phoneme.
  9. 9.0 9.1 [ə] and [e] are allophones of a single phoneme /e/. [e] appears before velar consonants and [ə] elsewhere (Gilles & Trouvain (2013:70)).
  10. Unlike in Standard German, [ə] appears in both stressed and unstressed syllables, and unstressed sequences of [ə] and a sonorant do not form syllabic sonorants (Gilles & Trouvain (2013:70–71)).
  11. 11.0 11.1 The short [œ] in loanwords from German and French is transcribed with ⟨ə⟩ in transcriptions of Luxembourgish as the latter is typically realized with lip rounding. The long counterpart of this sound is transcribed with ⟨œː⟩, which does not imply a difference in quality.
  12. In native words, [ɛː] appears only as an allophone /eː/ before /ʀ/ (Gilles & Trouvain (2013:70)).
  13. 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 The contrast between [iə uə] and [iːɐ̯ uːɐ̯] is unstable and the former set appears in some words that have ⟨r⟩ in spelling.

Bibliography

change
  • Gilles, Peter; Trouvain, Jürgen (2013). "Luxembourgish" (PDF). Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 43 (1): 67–74. doi:10.1017/S0025100312000278.