| This is the pronunciation key for IPA transcriptions of Norwegian on Wikipedia.It provides a set of symbols to represent the pronunciation of Norwegian 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. | |
Wikipedia key to pronunciation of Norwegian
The chart below shows how the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents Norwegian 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.
The accent that has been used here as a model is Urban East Norwegian, the pronunciation of Bokmål spoken in the Oslo region and most commonly taught to foreigners.
See also Norwegian phonology and Norwegian orthography § Sound to spelling correspondences for more details about pronunciation of Norwegian.
Consonants
|
IPA
|
Examples
|
Nearest English equivalent
|
b
|
bil
|
bee
|
ç
|
kjip
|
hue
|
d
|
dag
|
day
|
ɖ
|
sardin[1]
|
Indian day
|
f
|
fot
|
foot
|
ɡ
|
god
|
good
|
h
|
hatt
|
hat
|
j
|
jojo
|
yoyo
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k
|
kafé
|
coffee
|
l
|
lake, Karl, Hordaland[2][3]
|
lack
|
l̩
|
Abel
|
little, but without velarization; German Esel
|
ɫ
|
falsk[2][3]
|
pull
|
m
|
man
|
man
|
n
|
natt
|
night
|
n̩
|
natten
|
chosen
|
ɳ
|
barn[1]
|
night, but retroflex
|
ɳ̍
|
Kristoffersen
|
chosen, but retroflex
|
ŋ
|
ting
|
thing
|
p
|
pappa
|
papa
|
r
|
år[1]
|
GA atom
|
ɽ
|
Vålerengaⓘ[4]
|
GA atom, but retroflex
|
s
|
sabel
|
sabre
|
ʂ
|
sjø, torsdag[1]
|
shoe, but retroflex
|
t
|
tirsdag
|
turn
|
ʈ
|
parti[1]
|
Indian turn
|
v
|
vaktel
|
vat
|
Non-native consonants
|
ʈʂ[5]
|
Chile, match
|
challenge, but retroflex
|
Other symbols
|
◌ː
|
sommer [ˈsɔ̂mːər][6]
|
roommate
|
Stress and tone
|
IPA
|
Examples
|
Explanation
|
ˈ◌̀
|
bønder [ˈbœ̀nːər]
|
Low tone / tone 1 / acute accent[7]
|
ˈ◌̂
|
bønner [ˈbœ̂nːər]
|
Falling tone / tone 2 / grave accent[7]
|
ˌ◌
|
skoledisippel [ˈskûːɽədɪˌsɪpːl̩]
|
Secondary stress
|
|
|
- ^ a b c d e Clusters of /r/ and laminal consonants /rd/, /rn/, /rs/, /rt/ produce retroflex realizations in a recursive sandhi process: [ɖ], [ɳ], [ʂ], [ʈ].
- ^ a b In contemporary Urban East Norwegian, there are two lateral approximant phonemes: apical /l/ and laminal /l̻/. There is no longer a difference between the historical /rl/ and the simple /l/ when not preceded by /oː/ or /ɑː/. The most common lateral is the non-velarized apical alveolar [l]. Only the laminal [l̻] occurs after /t, d, n/ (in this guide transcribed the same as [l]) and after /ɔ/ and /ɑ/. After /oː/ and /ɑː/, the two phonemes contrast. The laminal phoneme is velarized [ɫ̻] (transcribed in this guide without the diacritic) after back vowels but not after the central /ə/ (Kristoffersen 2000:25).
- ^ a b When a lateral approximant occurs between two stressable vowels (i.e. any vowels other than /ə/) in a compound word, the coloring of the lateral depends on whether it occurs in a morpheme-final position or not. If there is a morpheme boundary between the vowel and /l/ (as in Hordaland [ˈhɔ̂rdɑlɑn]ⓘ), the lateral is clear [l] regardless of the preceding vowel.
- ^ /ɽ/ often alternates with /l/ (sometimes with /r/), but there is a small number of words in which only /ɽ/ occurs (Kristoffersen 2000:24, 90).
- ^ This sound occurs in native words across word boundaries.
- ^ Stressed short vowels usually trigger the gemination of the following consonant before another vowel or at the end of a word.
- ^ a b The rise that often follows is only realized at the end of an intonational phrase. It is non-phonemic.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n [ɔ, oː, œ, øː, ʏ, yː, ɔʏ, œʏ] are protruded vowels, while [ʉ, ʉː, ʊ, uː] (including the [ʉ] element in [æʉ] and [ʉɪ]) are compressed.
- ^ a b c d The distinction between compressed [ʉ] and protruded [y] is particularly difficult to hear for non-native speakers:
- Norwegian compressed [ʉ] sounds very close to many German speakers' compressed [ʏ] (as in müssen [ˈmʏsn̩]ⓘ).
- Norwegian protruded [ʏ] sounds more similar to English unrounded [ɪ] (as in hit) than to German compressed [ʏ], and it is very close to Swedish protruded [ʏ] (as in syll [sʏlː]ⓘ).
Similarly,
- Norwegian compressed [ʉː] sounds very close to many German speakers' compressed [yː].
- Norwegian protruded [yː] sounds more similar to English unrounded [iː] (as in leave) than to German compressed [yː], and it is very close to Swedish protruded [yː] (as in syl [syːl]ⓘ).
- ^ [ɛɪ] appears only in recent loanwords. Speakers who do not have [ɛɪ] in their diphthong inventory replace it with [æɪ] (Kristoffersen 2000:19).
- ^ [ʉɪ] appears only in the word hui (Kristoffersen 2000:19).