The charts below show the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents Estonian 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 Estonian phonology for a more thorough look at the sounds of Estonian.

IPA Examples English approximation
Consonants
f film[1] film
h hobune, raha horse
j jõul yolk
k kabi kayak
l lina lack
lk[2] leap
m naasma may
n lina nanny
ŋ vang, kink[3] eating
vann[2] onion
p kapi spill
r vere rolled r, like Spanish reino
s sõbranna, zooloogia sole
vastik[2] super (some dialects)
ʃ šampus, Solženistõn[1] shy
t tava stand
vatt[2] RP stew
v vere veal
ʔ maq (in South Estonian) the pause in uh-oh
Stress
ˈ hobune Normally placed on the first syllable
hernehirmutis
[ˈherːneˈhirmutːis]
Two stressed syllables in compound words
armee
[arˈmeː]
Loanwords can have stress on non-initial syllables
Length
vere [ˈvere]
lina [ˈlinɑ]
Short syllable
ː [4] veere [ˈveːre]
linna [ˈlinːɑ]
Long syllable
ːː [4] veere [ˈveːːre]
linna [ˈlinːːɑ]
Overlong syllable
IPA Examples English approximation
Vowels[4]
ɑ lina father, but shorter
ɑː naasma father
æ mägi cat
æː väär mad
e terve pet
tee no English equivalent:
Latin aenus [aˈeː.nʊs] (bronze)
i viha it
viin feed
o oks story
soo store
ø köha Somewhat like hurt
øː vöö Somewhat like herd
ɤ õlu Somewhat like fern
ɤː õõnes Somewhat like verge
u surm pull
suu pool
y küla somewhat like cute
rüüpa Somewhat like cube

Diphthongs

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Estonian diphthongs[5]
Vowel ɑ e i o u
ɑ ɑe̯ ɑi̯ ɑo̯ ɑu̯
e eɑ̯ ei̯ eo̯ (eu̯)
i (iɑ̯) (ie̯) (io̯) iu̯
o oɑ̯ oe̯ oi̯ ou̯
u (uɑ̯) (ue̯) ui̯ uo̯
ɤ ɤɑ̯ ɤe̯ ɤi̯ ɤo̯ ɤu̯
æ æe̯ æi̯ æo̯ æu̯
ø øɑ̯ øe̯ øi̯ (øo) (øu)
y yɑ̯ (ye̯) yi̯ (yo̯)

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ a b [f] and [ʃ] occur only in loanwords; the latter is replaced by [s] by many speakers.
  2. ^ a b c d Palatalized consonants [tʲ lʲ] are pronounced like their non-palatalized counterparts, but the tongue is constricted towards the hard palate as if a simultaneous /j/ were being pronounced.
  3. ^ Allophone of /n/ before [k].
  4. ^ a b c Estonian has a three-way contrast between short, long, and overlong syllables. This contrast is present on both consonants and vowels. In some IPA transcriptions long sounds are marked with a single IPA length marker /ː/ and overlong with two /ːː/, while other transcriptions use half-long /ˑ/ and long /ː/ respectively. Overlong syllables also feature a falling pitch contour, while short and long syllables have a level pitch; however this is not marked.
  5. ^ From Asu & Teras (2009:370)

References

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  • Asu, Eva Liina; Teras, Pire (2009), "Estonian" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 39 (3): 367–372, doi:10.1017/s002510030999017x
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