Help:IPA/Lebanese Arabic

Throughout Wikipedia, the pronunciation of words is indicated by means of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). The following tables list the IPA symbols used for Lebanese Arabic words and pronunciations. Please note that several of these symbols are used in ways that are specific to Wikipedia and differ from those used by dictionaries.

If the IPA symbols are not displayed properly by your browser, see the links below.

Wikipedia transcriptions for Lebanese Arabic vowels may be either more general and abstract, using only the symbols from the first column (primary vowel), or more detailed and precise, using the symbols from the second column (variants, allophones); see narrow versus broad transcription. In narrower transcription, if the "variants, allophones" column shows two vowels joined by a tilde (as in ɑ~ʌ, for example), the first one should be used on Wikipedia — even if the second is slightly closer to the sound being transcribed.

Key

Consonants
IPA	English approximation	Arabic letter/symbol	Notes
b	bee	ب
d	dash	د
dˤ	emphatic /d/, no equivalent	ض
f	father	ف
h	he	ه
ħ	had, but pharyngeal	ح
k	kin	ك
l	leaf	ل
m	me	م
n	no	ن
r	Spanish pero, perro	ر
s	see	ث ,س^[a]
sˤ	emphatic /s/, no equivalent	ص
ʃ	she	ش
t	tick	ة ,ت^[b]
tˤ	emphatic /t/, no equivalent	ط
x	Scottish English loch; Spanish jota; German Bach	خ
ɣ	Spanish fuego	غ
z	zoo	ذ ,ز^[a]
zˤ	emphatic /z/, no equivalent	ص ,ظ	^[a]
ʒ	vision	ج
ʔ	uh-oh, Hawai'i (glottal stop)	ق ,ء^[c]
ʕ	no equivalent (voiced pharyngeal fricative or approximant)	ع
Semivowels
j	yes	ي
w	we	و
Marginal consonants
θ	thin	ث	^[a]
ð	the	ذ	^[a]
ðˤ	emphatic /ð/, no equivalent	ظ	^[a]
q	close to English condo, class	ق	^[c]
Non-native consonants
g	gaggle	ك ,ج ,غ
p	pack	ب ,پ
v	valve	ف ,ڤ

Vowels
IPA		English approximation	Arabic letter/symbol	Notes
Primary vowel	Variants, allophones	English approximation	Arabic letter/symbol	Notes
Monophthongs
a	a, æ, ɑ~ʌ	bad; palm	ــَـ fathah, ة^[b]	^[d]
i	i, e~ɪ	happy; French café; kit	ــِـ kasrah, ة^[b]	^[e]
u	u, o~ʊ	hairdo; cargo; put, foot	ــُـ dammah	^[e]
ə	ə, all of the above^[f]	button, lovable	ـْـ sukun	^[g]
eː		Drawn-out meh, Scottish may	ا	^[h]
aː	æː, aː	bad; American English brah
ɑː	ɑː~ʌː, ɒː~ɔː	bra; lawyer, bowl
iː		machine	ي
uː		rule	و
eː	eː, ej	Drawn-out meh; may	ي	^[i]
oː	oː, ow	Spanish no; boat	و	^[i]
Diphthongs (vowel+glide)
aj	aj, ej	Close to light; face	ـَي	^[i]
aw	aw, ow	Close to out; goat	ـَو	^[i]
Distinct word-final vowels
-i		happy	(ـة) ,ـي	^[j]
-e		French café	(ـي) ,ـة
-u		hairdo	ـوا ,ـو	^[k]
-o		cargo	ـه ,ـو	^[l]

Suprasegmentals
IPA	Examples	Explanation
ˈa	[ˈkiːwi] كيوي ("kiwi")	Indicates that the following syllable is stressed.
aː	[kiːs] كيس ("bag")	Indicates that the preceding vowel is long.

Specific cases
Arabic letter/symbol	Examples	Explanation
ال ("the")	[lˈhɪnde] الهندي ("the Indian")	The definite article ال consists of a single consonant in its own syllable at the beginning of a word. Its default form is [l], but it assimilates to a following coronal consonant, namely any of [t d tˤ dˤ r s z sˤ zˤ ʃ ʒ].
ال ("the")	[zˈzeːn] الزين ("the beauty")

Notes

[a]

[b]

[c]

[d]

[e]

[f]

[g]

[h]

[i]

[j]

[k]

[l]

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Help:IPA/Lebanese Arabic

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