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

It provides a set of symbols to represent the pronunciation of Polish 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 the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents Polish language pronunciations in Wikipedia articles. For a guide to adding IPA characters to popflock.com resource articles, see {{IPA-pl}}, {{IPAc-pl}} and popflock.com Resource: Manual of Style/Pronunciation § Entering IPA characters.

See Polish phonology for a more thorough look at the sounds of Polish.

Consonants^[1]
IPA	Polish	Example	English approximation
b	b	bardzo	bike
?	?, s(i)^[2]	Ja?	she
d	d	dawno	door
dz^[3]	dz	dzban	beds
d?^[3]	d?, dz(i)^[2]	dziadek	jeep^[4]
d? ^[3]	d?, drz	D?akarta	jug^[4]
f	f	foka	feist
?	g	gra?	girl
	g(i)^[2]	Giewont	argue
?	ch, h	niechby	roughly like go but without completely blocking air flow on the g
j	j, i^[2]	jak	yes
j?^[5]	?	ko?	point
k	k	krowa	scam
k?	k(i)^[2]	kierowca	skew
l	l	lampa	lion
m	m^[6]	morze	mile
n	n^[6]	nad	Nile
?	?, n(i)^[6]^[2]	nie	canyon
?^[7]	n^[6]	mango	bank
p	p	policja	spike
r	r	ró?owy	rolled r, as in Italian Roma
s	s	smak	sign
?	sz	szybko	shore^[4]
t	t	tak	stow
t?^[3]	?, c(i)^[2]	cierpki	cheer^[4]
ts^[3]	c	ca?kiem	cats
t?^[3]	cz	czy	child^[4]
v	w	warto	vile
w	?	?adny	way
x	ch, h	chleb	Scottish loch
x?	ch(i), h(i)^[2]	hiacynt	huge
z	z	zebra	zebra
?	?, z(i)^[2]	ziarno	vision, azure^[4]
?	?, rz	rzadko	vision, azure^[4]

Vowels
IPA	Polish	Example	English approximation
a	a	tam	father
?	e	krem	bet
	?^[6]	si?	French vin
i	i^[2]	piwo	eat
?	y	my	mill
?	o	rok	off
	?^[6]	w??	French son
u	u, ó	du?y	boot

Other symbols used for Polish
IPA	Explanation
'	Primary stress (placed before the stressed syllable), usually the penultimate syllable of a word.
?	Secondary stress (placed before the stressed syllable).
.	Syllable break.

Notes

^ All voiced obstruents are devoiced to [p, t, k, f, s, ?, ?, t?, t?] respectively at the ends of words and in clusters ending in any unvoiced obstruents. Voiceless obstruents are voiced (/x/ becoming , etc.) in clusters ending in any voiced obstruent except /v, ?/, which are then themselves devoiced.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j 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 si?, cios and niania are pronounced as if they were spelt *, *?os, *?a?a. 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 *?ima, *?i, *d?i?aj.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f The affricates /ts, dz, t?, d?, t?, d?/) may be written more precisely with ligature ties: /t?s, d?z, t, d, t, d/, but they are omitted in transcriptions as they do not display correctly in all browsers. Nonetheless, Polish contrasts affricates with stop–fricative clusters: for example, czysta "clean" versus trzysta "three hundred".
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Polish makes contrasts between retroflex and alveolo-palatal consonants, both of which sound like the English postalveolars /?, ?, t?, d?/. 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.
^ Allophone of /?/ in coda position or before fricatives.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f The letters ⟨?⟩ and ⟨?⟩ represent the nasal vowels /, / except when they are followed by a stop or affricate, when they represent oral vowels /?, ?/ followed by a nasal consonant homorganic with the following stop or affricate: k?t ['k?nt], g?ba ['mba], r?ka ['rka], pisz?cy [pi'nt?s?], pieni?dze [pj?'nd?z?], pi ['pjt], j?czy ['j?nt] (as if spelled *kont, *gemba, *renka, *piszoncy, *pie?ondze, *pie, *jenczy).
^ Allophone of /n/ before a velar /?, k, x/ in some cases.

See also

Notes

Further reading