Help:IPA for Italian

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

See Italian phonology for a more thorough look at the sounds of Italian.

Consonants¹
IPA	Examples	English approximation
b	banca; cibo	bike
d	dove; idra	done
dz	zaino; zelare; mezzo	dads
dʒ	giungla; magia; fingere; pagina	jab
f	fatto; fosforo	fast
ɡ	gatto; agro; glifo; ghetto	gas
k	cavolo; acuto; anche; quei; kaiser	scar
l	lato; lievemente; pala	lip
ʎ	gli; glielo; maglia²	roughly like million
m	mano; amare; campo; anfibio³	mother
n	nano; punto; pensare	nest
ŋ	fango; unghia; panchina; dunque ³	sing
ɲ	gnocco; ogni²	roughly like canyon
p	primo; ampio; copertura	spin
r	Roma; quattro; morte	roughly like water (American English)
s	sano; scatola; presentire; pasto	sorry
ʃ	scena; sciame; pesci²	ship
t	tranne; mito; alto	star
ts	sozzo; canzone; marzo	cats
tʃ	Cennini; cinque; ciao; farmacia	chip
v	vado; povero; watt	vent
z	sbavare; presentare; asma	zipper
Semivowels
j	ieri; scoiattolo; più; Jesi; yacht	you
w	uovo; fuoco; qui; week-end	wine

Vowels⁴⁵
IPA	Examples	English approximation
a	alto; sarà	roughly like father
e	vero; perché	roughly like pay
ɛ	elica; cioè	bed
i	imposta; colibrì; zie	see
o	ombra; come	roughly like law (British English)
ɔ	otto; posso; sarò	not
u	ultimo; caucciù; tuo	too

Suprasegmentals
IPA	Examples	English approximation
ˈ	Cennini [tʃenˈniːni]	bottle
ˌ	lievemente [ˌljɛveˈmente]	intonation
.	tuo [ˈtu.o]	moai
ː	primo [ˈpriːmo]	long vowel⁶

Notes

^ If the consonants are doubled between vowels, they are geminated. This can 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 with the length marker ‹ ː ›. Notice as well, syntactic gemination can occur in Italian (e.g. va via [vavˈvi.a]).
^ ^a ^b ^c /ʎ/, /ɲ/ and /ʃ/ are always geminated word-internally.
^ ^a ^b The nasals always assimilate their place of articulation to that of the following consonant. Thus, the n in /nɡ/, /nk/ is a velar ŋ, the realization before /v/ or /f/ is a labiodental ɱ (though this is transcribed here as m), and only m is ever found before /p/ or /b/.
^ Italian contrasts seven stressed monophthongs. In unstressed syllables, mid vowels occur in complementary distribution; with open-mid vowels e o appearing before sonorants (e.g. copertura [koperˈtura]), and close-mid vowels ɛ ɔ found elsewhere (e.g. posso [ˈpɔsso]). Open and close vowels a i u stay unchanged in unstressed syllables, though utterance-final unstress [i] may become an approximant j before vowels in a process known as synalepha (syllable merging), e.g. pari età [ˌparjeˈta].
^ In addition to the pure vowels, there are diphthongs ending in i and u:
- [ai] as in baita ('mountain hut')
- [ei] as in potei ('could 1.sg.')
- [ɛi] as in sei ('six')
- [oi] as in voi ('you pl.')
- [ɔi] as in poi ('later')
- [ui] as in lui ('he')
- [au] as in auto ('car')
- [eu] as in pleurite ('pleuritis')
- [ɛu] as in neutro ('neuter')
^ Stressed vowels are long when in a non-final open syllable: fato [ˈfaːto] ~ fatto [ˈfatto].

External links

(Italian) Dizionario italiano multimediale e multilingue d'ortografia e di pronunzia

[1] If the consonants are doubled between vowels, they are geminated. This can 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 with the length marker ‹ ː ›. Notice as well, syntactic gemination can occur in Italian (e.g. va via [vavˈvi.a]).

[geminated-2] /ʎ/, /ɲ/ and /ʃ/ are always geminated word-internally.

[nasal-3] The nasals always assimilate their place of articulation to that of the following consonant. Thus, the n in /nɡ/, /nk/ is a velar ŋ, the realization before /v/ or /f/ is a labiodental ɱ (though this is transcribed here as m), and only m is ever found before /p/ or /b/.

[4] Italian contrasts seven stressed monophthongs. In unstressed syllables, mid vowels occur in complementary distribution; with open-mid vowels e o appearing before sonorants (e.g. copertura [koperˈtura]), and close-mid vowels ɛ ɔ found elsewhere (e.g. posso [ˈpɔsso]). Open and close vowels a i u stay unchanged in unstressed syllables, though utterance-final unstress [i] may become an approximant j before vowels in a process known as synalepha (syllable merging), e.g. pari età [ˌparjeˈta].

[5] In addition to the pure vowels, there are diphthongs ending in i and u:

[ai] as in baita ('mountain hut')

[ei] as in potei ('could 1.sg.')

[ɛi] as in sei ('six')

[oi] as in voi ('you pl.')

[ɔi] as in poi ('later')

[ui] as in lui ('he')

[au] as in auto ('car')

[eu] as in pleurite ('pleuritis')

[ɛu] as in neutro ('neuter')

[6] [ai] as in baita ('mountain hut')

[7] [ei] as in potei ('could 1.sg.')

[8] [ɛi] as in sei ('six')

[9] [oi] as in voi ('you pl.')

[10] [ɔi] as in poi ('later')

[11] [ui] as in lui ('he')

[12] [au] as in auto ('car')

[13] [eu] as in pleurite ('pleuritis')

[14] [ɛu] as in neutro ('neuter')

[6] Stressed vowels are long when in a non-final open syllable: fato [ˈfaːto] ~ fatto [ˈfatto].

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Help:IPA for Italian

Notes

See also

External links