The charts below show the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents Polish language pronunciations in Wikipedia articles. For a guide to adding IPA characters to Wikipedia articles, see {{}}, {{}}, and Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation § Entering IPA characters.
See Polish phonology for a more thorough look at the sounds of Polish.
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Consonants
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| IPA |
Polish |
Example |
English approximation
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b
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b
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bike
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ɕ
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ś, s(i)
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she
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d
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d
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door
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d͡z
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dz
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beds
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d͡ʑ
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dź, dz(i)
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jeep
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d͡ʐ
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dż
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jug
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f
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f
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feist
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ɡ
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g
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girl
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ɡʲ
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g(i)
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argue
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ɣ
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ch, h
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niechby
|
Spanish amigo
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j
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j, i
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yes
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j̃
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ń
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point
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k
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k
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scam
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kʲ
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k(i)
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skew
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l
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l
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lion
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m
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m
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mile
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n
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n
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Nile
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ɲ
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ń, n(i)
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canyon
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ŋ
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n
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doing
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p
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p
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spike
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r
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r
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American English atom
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s
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s
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sign
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ʂ
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sz
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shore
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t
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t
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stow
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t͡ɕ
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ć, c(i)
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cheer
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t͡s
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c
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cats
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t͡ʂ
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cz
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child
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v
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w
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vile
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w
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ł
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way
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x
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ch, h
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Scottish loch
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xʲ
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ch(i), h(i)
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huge
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z
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z
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raisin
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ʑ
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ź, z(i)
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vision, azure
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ʐ
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ż, rz
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|
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| Other symbols used for Polish
|
| IPA |
Explanation
|
|
ˈ
|
Primary stress (placed before the stressed syllable), usually the penultimate syllable of a word.
|
|
ˌ
|
Secondary stress (placed before the stressed syllable).
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|
.
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Syllable break.
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|
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All voiced obstruents /b, d, ɡ, v, z, ʐ, ʑ, d͡ʐ, d͡ʑ/ are devoiced to [p, t, k, f, s, ʂ, ɕ, t͡ʂ, t͡ɕ] respectively at the ends of words and in clusters ending in any unvoiced obstruents. Voiceless obstruents are voiced (/x/ becoming [ɣ], etc.) in clusters ending in any voiced obstruent except /v/ and /ʐ/ (when spelled with rz), which are then themselves devoiced.
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The letter ⟨i⟩, when it is followed by a vowel, represents a pronunciation like a ⟨j⟩ or a "soft" pronunciation of the preceding consonant (so pies is pronounced as if it were spelt *pjes). It has the same effect as an acute accent on alveolar consonants (⟨s⟩, ⟨z⟩, ⟨c⟩, ⟨dz⟩, ⟨n⟩) so się, cios and niania are pronounced as if they were spelt *śę, *ćos, *ńańa. A following ⟨i⟩ also softens consonants when it is itself pronounced as a vowel: zima, ci and dzisiaj are pronounced as if they were spelled *źima, *ći, *dźiśaj.
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Polish contrasts affricates /t͡s, d͡z, t͡ɕ, d͡ʑ, t͡ʂ, d͡ʐ/ with stop–fricative clusters: for example, czysta "clean" versus trzysta "three hundred".
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Polish makes a distinction between retroflex and alveolo-palatal consonants, both of which sound roughly like the English postalveolars /ʃ, ʒ, tʃ, dʒ/. The retroflex sounds are pronounced "hard", with the tip of the tongue approaching the alveolar ridge and the blade of the tongue somewhat lowered, and the alveolo-palatal sounds are "soft", realized with the middle of the tongue raised, adding a bit of an ⟨ee⟩ sound to them.
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Allophone of /ɲ/ before fricatives.
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The letters ⟨ą⟩ and ⟨ę⟩ represent the nasal vowels /ɔ̃, ɛ̃/ except when they are followed by a stop or affricate, in which case they represent oral vowels /ɔ, ɛ/ followed by a nasal consonant homorganic with the following stop or affricate: kąt [ˈkɔnt], gęba [ˈɡɛmba], ręka [ˈrɛŋka], piszący [piˈʂɔnt͡sɨ], pieniądze [pjɛˈɲɔnd͡zɛ], pięć [ˈpjɛɲt͡ɕ], jęczy [ˈjɛnt͡ʂɨ] (as if spelled *kont, *gemba, *renka, *piszoncy, *pieńondze, *pieńć, *jenczy).
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Allophone of /n/ before a velar /ɡ, k, x/ in some cases.
Further reading
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Jassem, Wiktor (2003). "Polish" (PDF). Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 33 (1): 103–107. doi:10.1017/S0025100303001191.
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Sadowska, Iwona (2012). Polish: A Comprehensive Grammar. Oxford; New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-47541-9.
See also
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Category:Pages with Polish IPA (4,091)
External links
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Polish/Polish pronunciation at Wikibooks