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This is the pronunciation key for IPA transcriptions of Italian on Wikipedia.

It provides a set of symbols to represent the pronunciation of Italian in popflock.com resource 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 its value without establishing consensus on the talk page first.

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The charts below show how the International Phonetic Alphabet represents pronunciations of Standard Italian in popflock.com resource articles. For a guide to adding IPA characters to popflock.com resource articles, see {{IPA-it}}, {{IPAc-it}} and popflock.com Resource: Manual of Style/Pronunciation § Entering IPA characters.

See Italian phonology and Italian orthography for a more thorough look at the sounds of Italian.

Consonants^[1]
IPA	Examples	English approximation
b	banca, cibo	about
d	dove, idra	today
dz	zaino, azalea, mezzo^[2]^[3]	dads
d?	gelo, giù, magia, judo, gadget	job
f	fatto, cifra, phon	fast
?	gatto, agro, ghetto, glicosio^[4]	again
j	ieri, saio, più, Jesi, yacht, news	yes
k	cosa, acuto, finché, quei, kiwi, koala	scar
l	lato, tela, glicosio^[4]	ladder
?	figli, glielo, maglia^[3]	billion
m	mano, amare, input^[5]	mother
?	anfibio, invece^[5]	comfort
n	nano, punto, pensare, mangiare^[5]	nest
?	unghia, anche, dunque^[5]	sing
?	gnocco, ogni^[3]^[5]	canyon
p	primo, ampio, apertura	spin
r	Roma, quattro, morte^[6]	trilled r
s	sano, scusa, presentire, pasto^[7]	sorry
?	scena, scià, pesci, flash, chic^[3]	shoe
t	tranne, mito, altro, thai	star
ts	zio, sozzo, marzo^[2]^[3]	cats
t?	certo, ciao, farmacia, chip	check
v	vado, povero, watt	vent
w	uova, guado, qui, week-end	wine
z	sbirro, presentare, asma^[7]	amazon
Non-native consonants
h	hobby, hertz^[8]	house
?	Thatcher, Pérez^[9]	thing
x	jota, Bach, khamsin^[10]	loch (Scottish English)
?	Fuji, garage, casual	vision

Vowels^[11]
IPA	Examples	English approximation
a	alto, sarà, must	fast (Scottish English)
e	vero, perché, liaison	fade
?	etto, cioè, spread	bed
i	viso, sì, zia, feed, team, sexy	ski
o	ombra, otto, show, coach	story
?	otto, sarò, Sean	off
u	usi, ragù, tuo, tour	rule
Non-native vowels
ø	viveur, goethiano, Churchill^[12]	murder (RP)
y	parure, brûlé, Führer^[13]	future (Scottish English)

Suprasegmentals
IPA	Examples	Explanation
'	Cennini [t?en'ni:ni]	primary stress
?	altamente [?alta'mente]	secondary stress^[14]
.	continuo [kon'ti:nu.o]	syllable break
:	primo ['pri:mo]	long vowel^[15]

Notes

^ Except , all consonants after a vowel and before /r/, /l/, a vowel or a semivowel may be geminated. Gemination in IPA is represented by doubling the consonant (fatto ['fatto], mezzo ['m?ddzo]), and can usually be told from orthography. After stressed vowels and certain prepositions and conjunctions, word-initial consonants become geminated too (syntactic gemination): va via [?va v'vi:a].
^ ^a ^b ⟨z⟩ represents both /ts/ and /dz/. The article on Italian orthography explains how they are used.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e /ts, dz, ?, ?, ?/ are always geminated after a vowel.
^ ^a ^b ⟨gli⟩ represents /?/ or /?i/, except in roots of Greek origin, when preceded by another consonant, and in a few other words, where it represents /?li/.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e A nasal always assimilates to the place of articulation of the following consonant. It is bilabial [m] before /p, b, m/, labiodental [?] before /f, v/, dental, alveolar or postalveolar [n] before /t, d, ts, dz, t?, d?, ?, l, r/, and velar [?] before /k, ?/. Utterance-finally, it is always [n].
^ Non-geminate /r/ is generally realised with a single strike, as a monovibrant trill or tap , particularly in unstressed syllables.
^ ^a ^b /s/ and /z/ contrast only intervocalically. Word-initially, after consonants, when geminated, and before voiceless consonants, only [s] is found. Before voiced consonants, only [z] is found.
^ /h/ is usually dropped.
^ /?/ is usually pronounced as in English loanwords, and , (if spelled ⟨z⟩) or (if spelled ⟨c⟩ or ⟨z⟩) in Spanish ones.
^ In Spanish loanwords, /x/ is usually pronounced as or or dropped. In German, Arabic and Russian ones, it is usually pronounced .
^ Italian contrasts seven monophthongs in stressed syllables. Open-mid vowels /?, ?/ can appear only if the syllable is stressed (coperto [ko'p?rto], quota ['kw?:ta]), close-mid vowels /e, o/ are found elsewhere (Boccaccio [bok'katt?o], amore [a'mo:re]). Close and open vowels /i, u, a/ are unchanged in unstressed syllables, but word-final unstressed /i/ may become approximant before vowels, which is known as synalepha (pari età [?parj e'ta]).
^ Open-mid or close-mid if it is stressed but usually if it is unstressed. May be replaced by (stressed) or (stressed or unstressed).
^ /y/ is often pronounced as or [ju].
^ Since Italian has no distinction between heavier or lighter vowels (like the English o in conclusion vs o in nomination), a defined secondary stress, even in long words, is extremely rare.
^ Stressed vowels are long in non-final open syllables: fato ['fa:to], fatto ['fatto].

External links

Dizionario italiano multimediale e multilingue d'ortografia e di pronunzia (not based on IPA) (in Italian)
Dizionario di pronuncia italiana online by Luciano Canepari (based on IPA) (in Italian)

[1] Except , all consonants after a vowel and before /r/, /l/, a vowel or a semivowel may be geminated. Gemination in IPA is represented by doubling the consonant (fatto ['fatto], mezzo ['m?ddzo]), and can usually be told from orthography. After stressed vowels and certain prepositions and conjunctions, word-initial consonants become geminated too (syntactic gemination): va via [?va v'vi:a].

[z-2] ⟨z⟩ represents both /ts/ and /dz/. The article on Italian orthography explains how they are used.

[geminated-3] /ts, dz, ?, ?, ?/ are always geminated after a vowel.

[gli-4] ⟨gli⟩ represents /?/ or /?i/, except in roots of Greek origin, when preceded by another consonant, and in a few other words, where it represents /?li/.

[nasal-5] A nasal always assimilates to the place of articulation of the following consonant. It is bilabial [m] before /p, b, m/, labiodental [?] before /f, v/, dental, alveolar or postalveolar [n] before /t, d, ts, dz, t?, d?, ?, l, r/, and velar [?] before /k, ?/. Utterance-finally, it is always [n].

[6] Non-geminate /r/ is generally realised with a single strike, as a monovibrant trill or tap , particularly in unstressed syllables.

[s-z-7] /s/ and /z/ contrast only intervocalically. Word-initially, after consonants, when geminated, and before voiceless consonants, only [s] is found. Before voiced consonants, only [z] is found.

[8] /h/ is usually dropped.

[9] /?/ is usually pronounced as in English loanwords, and , (if spelled ⟨z⟩) or (if spelled ⟨c⟩ or ⟨z⟩) in Spanish ones.

[10] In Spanish loanwords, /x/ is usually pronounced as or or dropped. In German, Arabic and Russian ones, it is usually pronounced .

[11] Italian contrasts seven monophthongs in stressed syllables. Open-mid vowels /?, ?/ can appear only if the syllable is stressed (coperto [ko'p?rto], quota ['kw?:ta]), close-mid vowels /e, o/ are found elsewhere (Boccaccio [bok'katt?o], amore [a'mo:re]). Close and open vowels /i, u, a/ are unchanged in unstressed syllables, but word-final unstressed /i/ may become approximant before vowels, which is known as synalepha (pari età [?parj e'ta]).

[12] Open-mid or close-mid if it is stressed but usually if it is unstressed. May be replaced by (stressed) or (stressed or unstressed).

[13] /y/ is often pronounced as or [ju].

[14] Since Italian has no distinction between heavier or lighter vowels (like the English o in conclusion vs o in nomination), a defined secondary stress, even in long words, is extremely rare.

[15] Stressed vowels are long in non-final open syllables: fato ['fa:to], fatto ['fatto].

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[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

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[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]

[15]

Notes

Further reading

External links