Esperanto pronunciation
From Academic Kids
Main article: Esperanto
The following tables are a quick guide to Esperanto pronunciation. Each letter in the Esperanto alphabet, and each digraph representing a falling diphthong, is listed along with an equivalent in English and the International Phonetic Alphabet.
The creator of Esperanto, L. L. Zamenhof suggested using Italian as a model for Esperanto pronunciation.
For further discussion, see the article on Esperanto phonology.
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Single letters
| Letter | English | IPA |
|---|---|---|
| a | ah | [[[Template:IPA]], ] |
| b | b | [[[Template:IPA]]] |
| c | ts | [[[Template:IPA]]] |
| ĉ | ch | [[[Template:IPA]]] |
| d | d | [[[Template:IPA]]] |
| e | eh | [[[Template:IPA]], ] |
| f | f | [[[Template:IPA]]] |
| g | hard g (as in go) | [[[Template:IPA]]] |
| ĝ | j | [[[Template:IPA]]] |
| h | h | [[[Template:IPA]]] |
| ĥ | loch | [[[Template:IPA]]] |
| i | ee | [[[Template:IPA]]] |
| j | y | [[[Template:IPA]]] (also [[[Template:IPA]]] in diphthongs aj, ej, oj, uj) |
| ĵ | zh | [[[Template:IPA]]] |
| k | k | [[[Template:IPA]]] |
| (but kz | x | [[[Template:IPA]], ]) |
| l | l | [[[Template:IPA]]] |
| m | m | [[[Template:IPA]]] |
| n | n | [[[Template:IPA]]] |
| o | oh | [[[Template:IPA]], ] |
| p | p | [[[Template:IPA]]] |
| r | r (rolled) | [[[Template:IPA]]] |
| s | s | [[[Template:IPA]]] |
| ŝ | sh | [[[Template:IPA]]] |
| t | t | [[[Template:IPA]]] |
| u | oo | [[[Template:IPA]]] |
| ŭ | – | [[[Template:IPA]]] (only in diphthongs aŭ, eŭ) |
| v | v | [[[Template:IPA]], Template:IPA, ] |
| z | z | [[[Template:IPA]]] |
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Diphthongs
| Letters | English | IPA |
|---|---|---|
| aj | bye | [[[Template:IPA]], ] |
| aŭ | bough | [[[Template:IPA]], ] |
| ej | bay | [[[Template:IPA]], ] |
| eŭ | * | [[[Template:IPA]], ] |
| oj | boy | [[[Template:IPA]], ] |
| uj | booey (said as one syllable) | [[[Template:IPA]], ] |
* Something similar to eŭ is sometimes heard for "oh" in exagerations of the Queen's English by American comedians such as Carol Burnett.
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