Appendix:West Frisian pronunciation
West Frisian pronunciation is indicated somewhat variably in different sources. Wiktionary's phonemic pronunciations (between / /) should follow the rules detailed here, which are in turn based on the Wikipedia article.
Diphthongs
[edit]Falling and centering diphthongs are transcribed with an inverted breve ◌̯ below the second vowel, to distinguish them from two-vowel sequences where each vowel is a separate syllable. The falling diphthongs end in a fully close vowel.
- au, ou → /ɔu̯/.
- ei → /ai̯/. Also /ɛi̯/ or /ɔi̯/ in some regions.
- ij → /ɛi̯/.
- oi → /oi̯/.
- ui → /œy̯/. Some sources use /øi̯/ or some variant here, but the phoneme is in practice identical with the Dutch /œy̯/, so it is transcribed the same.
- ea → /ɪə̯/
- eau, eo, eu → /øə̯/
- ie → /iə̯/
- oa → /oə̯/
- oe → /uə̯/
- ue → /yə̯/
Rising diphthongs and triphthongs begin with a consonant.
- ea, je → /jɛ/.
- ie, ji → /jɪ/.
- jau, jou → /jɔu̯/.
- oa → /wa/.
- uo → /wo/.
- uoi → /woi̯/.
Diphthongs with a long vowel end with a consonant. This consonant is shifted to the next syllable when a vowel follows. Not all sources transcribe all of these with long vowels.
- aai → /aːj/, aaie → /aː.jə/.
- oai → /oːj/, oaie → /oː.jə/. With breaking, oai → /waːj/, oaie → /waː.jə/.
- iuw, eau → /joːw/, iuwe, eauwe → /joː.wə/. This is also transcribed with a short diphthong /jou̯/ in some sources, but there is no /ou̯/ diphthong in West Frisian outside of these cases.
- iuw → /iːw/, iuwe → /iː.wə/.
- oei → /uːj/, oeie → /uː.jə/.
Consonants
[edit]Transcribe w in the onset as /v/. It can be sometimes realised as [ʋ] or [w] in this environment, depending on the speaker, but this is automatic.
Use both /ɣ/ and /ɡ/ where appropriate. While these are usually analysed as allophones based on stress and word position, this does not apply in words like needgefal (with unstressed non-initial [ɡ]) and hartoginne (with stressed [ɣ]).
Do not write syllabic consonants, always precede them with /ə/. This applies in particular to the ending -en, but also other cases.
Do not use nasal vowels, but write /n/.
Dialects
[edit]Use English names for the dialects, with the {{a}}
template, i.e. {{a|Clay}}
for Klaaifrysk, {{a|Wood}}
for Wâldfrysk. Do not include the word "Frisian" in dialects as it's obvious from the language section name that we're talking about West Frisian.