Help:IPA/Mauritian Creole

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Short description: Wikipedia key to pronunciation

The charts below show the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents Mauritian Creole pronunciations in Wikipedia articles. For a guide to adding IPA characters to Wikipedia articles, see {{IPA-mfe}} and Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation § Entering IPA characters.

The writing systems used for the language vary, but generally there are no silent letters in written Mauritian Creole unless a word is written with the traditional standard French orthography.

Consonants
IPA Examples English approximation
b bizeṅ bow
d dodo, dïm[1] dim
dz dimal, dyab[1] cards
jet jet
f fin feel
ɡ golfis goldfish
j yer[2] yesterday
k kamarad sky
l lalimyer light
m mo my
n nu[2] no
ŋ laŋ wrong
ɲ gany[2] canyon
p Pyer spy
ʁ frer [3] between go and loch
s saken six
t tïm[1] steam
ts timid[1] cats
chabi chav
v va vat
w wi we
z azordi zero
Marginal consonants
h maharaja[4] hotel
Vowels
IPA Examples English approximation
a rani father
e resif hey
i si see
o so, dodo roughly like saw (British English)
u ruz rude
ə rëgbi[5] rugby, aroma
Nasal vowels
ɑ̃ aṅsam, laṅgaz No English equivalent; nasalized [a]
ɛ̃ byeṅ No English equivalent; nasalized [e]
ɔ̃ loṅtaṅ No English equivalent; nasalized [o]
Long vowels and diphthongs[3]
ɑː aswar spa
ɛː frer
iːə kuvertir idea
emportan
uːə bonzur

Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 /t, d/ are palatalized or affricated to [tʲ, dʲ] or [tˢ, dᶻ] before /i, j/ in words of French origin, but in words of English origin they remain alveolar stops.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 There are alternations between /ɲ/, /nj/, and /j̃, j/ in many words.
  3. 3.0 3.1 At the end of a word or before a consonant, the sequence of a vowel followed by ⟨r⟩ is realized as a long vowel or diphthong.
  4. /h/ appears only in words of English or Indic origin, but in all cases it may be optionally omitted.
  5. [ə] occurs in words which traditionally had /i/ deriving from standard French [ə, œ] in their initial syllable (e.g. dëló "water" from de l'eau). In such words, [ə] is unstressed, but a stressed [ə] is also heard as the reflex of English /ʌ/ in a few words such as rëgbi "rugby". All words in which [ə] occurs also have alternative pronunciations with another vowel so [ə] is not yet phonemic.