Sample Page

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

See Gujarati phonology for a more thorough discussion of the sounds of Gujarati.

Consonants
IPA Gujarati ISO 15919 English approximation
b b bat
bh clubhouse
β[1] bh somewhat like averse
d[2] d dog
ð[1] dh other
[2] dh redhead
ɖ[2] American English bird
ɖʱ[2] ḍh American English birdhouse
j jack
dʒʱ jh hedgehog
f[1] ph afraid
ɡ g gate
ɡʱ gh loghouse
ɣ[1] gh go, but without completely blocking airflow on the g
h head
ɦ h ahead
j y yak
k k scold
kh cold
l l leaf
ɭ l somewhat like Merlin
m m much
n n not
ɳ somewhat like burner
ɲ ñ canyon
ŋ bank
p p span
ph pan
ɾ r atom (American English)
ɽ[3] somewhat like murder
ɽʱ[3] ḍh No English equivalent
ɽ̃[3] as above, but nasal
s[4] s sue
ʂ[4] somewhat like worship
ʃ[4] ś sheep
t[2] t stop
[2] th top
ʈ[2] somewhat like court
ʈʰ[2] ṭh somewhat like tree
c catch
tʃʰ ch cheese
ʋ v vine
Vowels
IPA Gujarati ISO 15919 English approximation
ɑ આ, કા ā bra
æ cash
e એ, કે ē pay
ɛ ઍ, કૅ ê bed
ə અ, ક a about
i ઇ/ ઈ, કિ/ કી i/ī see
o ઓ, કો ō story
ɔ ઑ, કૉ ô off
u ઉ/ ઊ, કુ/ કૂ u/ū cool
əj ઐ, કૈ ai kite
əʋ ઔ, કૌ au house


Other symbols
IPA Gujarati IAST Notes
◌̃ nasal vowel ([õː], etc.)
◌̤ ◌̤ murmured vowel[5]
ː vowel length[6]
ˈ stress
(placed before stressed syllable)

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d The voiced aspirated stops /ɡʱ, dʱ, bʱ/ and /pʰ/ have spirant allophones [ɣ, ð, β, f].Cardona & Suthar (2003:665)
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Gujarati contrasts dental [t] and [d] with retroflex [ʈ] and [ɖ] (as well as aspirated variants). Both sets sound like /t/ and /d/ to most English speakers although the dental [t] and [d] are used in place of the English /θ/ and /ð/ (with [ð] occuring as a spirant allophone of [dʱ] in Gujarati) for some speakers with th-stopping.
  3. ^ a b c The voiced retroflex stops and the nasal /ɖʱ, ɖ, ɳ/ have flapped allophones [ɽʱ, ɽ, ɽ̃]. Intervocalically all three are flapped. The stops are also flapped when before or after other consonants.Mistry (1997:659) The stops are unflapped initially, geminated, and postnasally; and flapped intervocalically, finally, and before or after other consonants.Masica (1991:97).
  4. ^ a b c While there is dialectal variation in this regard, for Wikipedia transcriptions [ʃ] appears contiguous with palatal segments and [ʂ] appears before retroflex consonants: [spəʂʈ] (‘clear’).Mistry (1997:658)
  5. ^ Gujarati contrasts murmured and non-murmured vowels, except for /e/ and /o/.Cardona & Suthar (2003:662) Mistry (2003:116).
  6. ^ Vowels are long when nasalised, e.g. [moʈʈũː]

References

  • Cardona, George; Suthar, Babu (2003), “Gujarati”, in Cardona, George; Jain, Dhanesh (eds.), The Indo-Aryan Languages, Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-77294-5
  • Masica, Colin (1991), The Indo-Aryan Languages, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-29944-2
  • Mistry, P.J. (1997), “Gujarati Phonology”, in Kaye, A.S (ed.), Phonologies of Asia and Africa, Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, ISBN 1-57506-019-1
  • Mistry, P.J. (2003), “Gujarati”, in Frawley, William (ed.), International Encyclopedia of Linguistics, vol. 2 (2nd ed.), Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-516784-8

See also