Help:IPA/Serbo-Croatian

This is the pronunciation key for IPA transcriptions of Serbo-Croatian on Wikipedia.

It provides a set of symbols to represent the pronunciation of Serbo-Croatian 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.

For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

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The charts below show the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents Serbo-Croatian (the Croatian and Serbian standards thereof) 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.

Examples below in the Latin script are given in the Ijekavian pronunciation, while Cyrillic ones are in the Ekavian pronunciation. See Serbo-Croatian phonology for a more thorough look at the sounds of these languages.

Consonants
IPA	Example		English approximation
IPA	Latin	Cyrillic	English approximation
b	bob	боб	bob
d	dan	дан	doom
dʑ	đak^[1]	ђак	jeep (Alveolo-palatal)
dʒ	džep^[1]^[2]	џeп	just
f	film	филм	film
ɡ	gore	горе	gorgeous
j	ja	ја	yaw
k	kola	кола	score
l	Luka	Лука	fill
ʎ	bilje	биље	million
m	more	море	more
ɱ	informacija	информација	comfort
n	ne	не	no
ŋ	banka	банка	bank
ɲ	konj	коњ	canyon
p	pet	пет	space
r	robot	робот	trilled r, like in Spanish
s	stol	стол	stole
ʃ	šuma^[2]	шума	shell
t	tata	тата	star
tɕ	ćup^[1]	ћуп	cheap (Alveolo-palatal)
ts	ribica	рибица	shorts
tʃ	čekić^[1]^[2]	чекић	choose
v	voda^[3]	вода	between vet and wet
x	hir	хир	Scottish loch
z	zima	зима	zoo
ʒ	žaba^[2]	жаба	treasure

Vowels
IPA	Example		English approximation
IPA	Latin	Cyrillic	English approximation
a	rad	рад	between fat and father^[4]
e	let	лет	let
i	list	лист	least
o	more	море	more
u	trup	труп	tool
l̩	bicikl	бицикл	little
n̩	njutn	њутн	burden
r̩	vrba	врба	US verb, but trilled

Tone and vowel length
Tonic marks are not normally written but are found in dictionaries.^[5]
IPA	Example		Explanation
IPA	Latin	Cyrillic	Explanation
e	sezóna	сезо́на	non-tonic short vowel
eː	ùzēti	у̀зе̄ти	non-tonic long vowel^[6]
ě	djèca	дјѐца	short vowel with rising tone
ěː	kréda	кре́да	long vowel with rising tone
ê	sjȅme	сјȅме	short vowel with falling tone
êː	rȇp	рȇп	long vowel with falling tone

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Many speakers in Croatia and some in Bosnia make no distinction between /tɕ/ and /tʃ/ (⟨ć⟩ and ⟨č⟩) or between /dʑ/ and /dʒ/ (⟨đ⟩ and ⟨dž⟩); among such speakers, these are pronounced [tʃ] and [dʒ] respectively.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d /ʃ/, /tʃ/, /ʒ/ and /dʒ/ are sometimes transcribed as [ʂ], [tʂ], [ʐ] and [dʐ], respectively. The fricatives /ʃ/ and /ʒ/ may be realized [ɕ] or [ʑ] before /tɕ/ or /dʑ/.
^ /v/ does not behave as a fricative in that it does not devoice to [f] before a voiceless consonant, nor does it cause preceding voiceless consonants to become voiced.
^ Closer to fat in most British and Irish accents; closer to father in most North American, Australian and New Zealand accents.
^ Some articles may use the stress mark, [ˈe], which could correspond to either of the tonic accents (rising or falling) and so they are not a complete transcription, although many speakers in Croatia have no tone distinctions.
^ Many speakers in Croatia and Serbia pronounce most unstressed long vowels as short.

[affricates-1] Many speakers in Croatia and some in Bosnia make no distinction between /tɕ/ and /tʃ/ (⟨ć⟩ and ⟨č⟩) or between /dʑ/ and /dʒ/ (⟨đ⟩ and ⟨dž⟩); among such speakers, these are pronounced [tʃ] and [dʒ] respectively.

[retroflex-2] /ʃ/, /tʃ/, /ʒ/ and /dʒ/ are sometimes transcribed as [ʂ], [tʂ], [ʐ] and [dʐ], respectively. The fricatives /ʃ/ and /ʒ/ may be realized [ɕ] or [ʑ] before /tɕ/ or /dʑ/.

[v-3] /v/ does not behave as a fricative in that it does not devoice to [f] before a voiceless consonant, nor does it cause preceding voiceless consonants to become voiced.

[a-4] Closer to fat in most British and Irish accents; closer to father in most North American, Australian and New Zealand accents.

[5] Some articles may use the stress mark, [ˈe], which could correspond to either of the tonic accents (rising or falling) and so they are not a complete transcription, although many speakers in Croatia have no tone distinctions.

[6] Many speakers in Croatia and Serbia pronounce most unstressed long vowels as short.

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