The charts below show the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents Mongolian language pronunciations in Wikipedia articles. The dialect used in this chart is Khalkha Mongolian. For a guide to adding IPA characters to Wikipedia articles, see Template:IPA and Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation § Entering IPA characters.

Consonants
IPA Cyrillic English approximation
f ф[1] five
g г[2] got
ɢ similar to got (but deeper in the throat)
ʲ ь[3] Russian пять, English f[y]ew;
occasionally unpronounced[4]
к[1] cot
ɮ л Not found in English; Welsh llwyd (but voiced)
ɬʰ лх[5] Not found in English; Welsh llwyd (remaining voiceless)
m м mother
n н north
ŋ link, sing
p б spend
п[6] pen
r р Scottish roll; Spanish rosa
s с seven
ʃ ш shirt
щ[1]
t д stand
т tan
t͡s з cats
t͡sʰ ц let's have
t͡ʃ ж exchange
t͡ʃʰ ч change
w в win
x х Scottish loch; German Bach
ъ[6] Unpronounced.[7]
Vowels
IPA Cyrillic English approximation
Monophthongs
a а art
аа father
e э bet
ээ bed
i и[8] leaf
ий[9], ы[10] leave
ɔ о off
ɔː оо dog
ɵ ө similar to nurse
өө RP/Australian thought
u ү boot
үү food
ʊ у look
ʊː уу good
iotated vowels
ja я y'all
е yurt
ё yawn
ju ю[11] yule
yuck, with a vowel like look
diphthongs
ai[12] ай price
ei эй[13] flame
ɔi ой choice
ui үй phooey
ʊi уй roughly like weary or Uyghur

Notes edit

  1. ^ a b c Used only in loanwords.
  2. ^ [g] and [ɢ] are contrastive in Ulaanbaatar Mongolian, but are allophones of the single phoneme /g/ in some other dialects.
  3. ^ Always follows another consonant, and usually modifies the sound with iotation (unless used before е, in which case it is unpronounced).
  4. ^ Occasionally used before е to indicate that its pronunciation should not be blended with the consonant before it (as its sound is iotated).
  5. ^ Uncommon, and only found in loanwords of Tibetan origin, but occurs in some high-frequency words such as лхагва ("Wednesday").
  6. ^ a b Uncommon, but more often found in loanwords.
  7. ^ Used before я and ё to indicate that its pronunciation should not be blended with the consonant before it (as its sound is iotated).
  8. ^ In addition to the vowel sound, и also palatalizes any consonant immediately before it.
  9. ^ Resembles a diphthong, but is phonetically and phonemically a long monophthong. ии is not used.
  10. ^ The only long vowel represented by a single letter. Although pronounced with the same vowel sound as ий, it does not palatalize the preceding consonant. Other than loanwords, it is only found in inflectional suffixes.
  11. ^ Generally, /ju/ in words containing э, ө, ү & е; /jʊ/ in words containing а, о у, я & ё. See vowel harmony.
  12. ^ The allophone [ɛː] is predominant.
  13. ^ Also used where өй would occur, as it is not used.

See also edit