Consonants edit

Phoneme Allophones Articulation Examples Notes
/p/ [p] voiceless bilabial plosive example notes
[pʲ] palatalized voiceless bilabial plosive example notes
/b/ [b] voiced bilabial plosive
[bʲ] palatalized voiced bilabial plosive
/m/ [m] bilabial nasal
[mʲ] palatalized bilabial nasal
[m̥] voiceless bilabial nasal
[m̥ʲ] palatalized voiceless bilabial nasal
/f/ [f] voiceless labiodental fricative
[fʲ] palatalized voiceless labiodental fricative
/v/ [v] voiced labiodental fricative
[vʲ] palatalized voiced labiodental fricative
/t̪/ [t̪] voiceless dental plosive
[t̪ʲ] palatalized voiceless dental plosive
[t] voiceless alveolar plosive
/d̪/ [d̪] voiced dental plosive
[d̪ʲ] palatalized voiced dental plosive
[d] voiced alveolar plosive
/n̪/ [n̪] dental nasal
[n̪̊] voiceless dental nasal
[n] alveolar nasal
[n̥]/[n̊] voiceless alveolar nasal
/s̪/ [s̪] voiceless dental sibilant fricative laminal
[s̪ʲ] palatalized voiceless dental sibilant fricative [kɔs̪ʲĩn̪us̪] obsolete or nonstandard characters (P) laminal
/z̪/ [z̪] voiced dental sibilant fricative laminal
[z̪ʲ] palatalized voiced dental sibilant fricative laminal
/t͡s̪/ [t͡s̪] voiceless dental affricate laminal?
[t͡s̪ʲ] palatalized voiceless dental affricate laminal?
/d͡z̪/ [d͡z̪] voiced dental affricate laminal?
/ʂ/ [ʂ] ? voiceless alveolar fricative It's not retroflex but alveolar. The same as Russian /ʂ/ (ш)
[ʃ] ? palatalized voiceless alveolar fricative [xʲirɔˈʃĩma] obsolete or nonstandard characters (P) It's palatalized, not palatal like in English.
/ʐ/ [ʐ] ? voiced alveolar fricative It's not retroflex but alveolar. The same as Russian /ʐ/ (ж)
[ʒ] ? palatalized voiced alveolar fricative It's palatalized, not palatal like in English.
/t͡ʂ/ [t͡ʂ] ?? voiceless alveolar affricate It's not retroflex but alveolar.
[t͡ʃ] ?? palatalized voiceless alveolar affricate It's palatalized, not palatal like in English.
/d͡ʐ/ [d͡ʐ] ?? voiced alveolar affricate It's not retroflex but alveolar.
[d͡ʒ] ?? palatalized voiced alveolar affricate It's palatalized, not palatal like in English.
/l/ [l] voiced alveolar lateral approximant
[lʲ] palatalized voiced alveolar lateral approximant
[l̥] voiceless alveolar lateral approximant [mɨɕl̥] obsolete or nonstandard characters (P)
[l̥ʲ] palatalized voiceless alveolar lateral approximant
/r/ [r] voiced alveolar trill
[rʲ] palatalized voiced alveolar trill
[r̥] voiceless alveolar alveolar trill [ˈt̪ɛat̪r̥] obsolete or nonstandard characters (P)
[r̥ʲ] palatalized voiceless alveolar trill
/ɕ/ [ɕ] voiceless alveolo-palatal (prepalatal) fricative
/ʑ/ [ʑ] voiced alveolo-palatal (prepalatal) fricative
/t͡ɕ/ [t͡ɕ] voiceless alveolo-palatal (prepalatal) affricate
/d͡ʑ/ [d͡ʑ] voiced alveolo-palatal (prepalatal) affricate
/ɲ/ [ɲ] voiced prepalatal nasal
[ɲ̊] voiceless prepalatal nasal
[ĩ̯]/[j̃] voiced prepalatal nasal approximant
/j/ [j] voiced prepalatal approximant
/c/ [c] voiceless postpalatal plosive
/ɟ/ [ɟ] voiced postpalatal plosive
/k/ [k] voiceless velar plosive
/ɡ/ [ɡ] voiced velar plosive
/x/ [x] voiceless velar fricative
[xʲ] palatalized voiceless velar fricative [xʲis̪t̪ɔˈrɨt͡ʂn̪ɨ] obsolete or nonstandard characters (P)
[ɣ] voiced velar fricative
[ɣʲ] palatalized voiced velar fricative rare
/w/ [w] voiced labio-velar approximant
[w̥] voiceless labio-velar approximant
[wʲ] palatalized voiced labio-velar approximant
/w̃/ [w̃] nasal labio-velar approximant Also occurs in Portugese.
[ŋ] voiced velar nasal
[ŋ̊] voiceless velar nasal
[ŋʲ] palatalized voiced velar nasal
[ŋ̊ʲ] palatalized voiceless velar nasal

Vowels edit

Phoneme Allophones Articulation Examples Notes
/a/ [a] low central unrounded vowel example /a/ is always central in Polish. Actually, the correct symbol for this should be ӓ invalid IPA characters (ӓ), but there could be problems to display nasalized ӓ̃ invalid IPA characters (ӓ) (dots and tilde above) in some fonts.
[ã] nasalized low central unrounded vowel [1]
[ɐ] raised low central vowel [2]
[ɐ̃] nasalized raised low central vowel [1]
/ɛ/ [ɛ] low-mid front unrounded vowel
[ɛ̃] nasalized low-mid front unrounded vowel [1]
[ɛ̝] raised low-mid front unrounded vowel [2]
[ɛ̝̃] nasalized raised low-mid front unrounded vowel [1]
/i/ [i] high front unrounded vowel
[ĩ] nasalized high front unrounded vowel [1]
/ɔ/ [ɔ] low-mid back rounded vowel
[ɔ̃] nasalized low-mid back rounded vowel [1]
[ɔ̝] raised low-mid back rounded vowel [2]
[ɔ̝̃] nasalized raised low-mid back rounded vowel [1]
/u/ [u] high back rounded vowel
[ũ] nasalized high back rounded vowel [1]
[u̝] raised high back rounded vowel [2]
[ũ̝] nasalized raised high back rounded vowel [1]
/ɨ̞/ [ɨ] lowered high near-central unrounded vowel something between /ɪ/ and /ɨ/ (see vowel diagram below)
[ɨ̃] nasalized lowered high near-central unrounded vowel [1]
 
Polish vowel diagram (phonemes)


Other symbols edit

Symbol Articulation Examples Notes
ʔ glottal stop [ʔaˈxa] ("aha"),
[ɲɛʔ] ("nie"),
[ˈfʔĩn̪ːɨ̃m] ("w innym") as opposite to [ˈvʲĩn̪ːɨ̃m] ("winnym")
Not a phoneme, but it can be heard in some words, especially interjections or in the word boundary.
ˈ stress mark
ː geminate or long vowel not used for plosives!
undertie used to represent linking on word boundary

Notes edit

  1. 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 Nasalized vowels occur before nasal consonants.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Raised vowels occur between two palatal consonants or between palatalized and palatal consonant.

External links edit