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This is the pronunciation key for IPA transcriptions of Basque on Wikipedia.

It provides a set of symbols to represent the pronunciation of Basque in popflock.com resource articles, and example words that illustrate the sounds that correspond to them. Integrity must be maintained between the key and the transcriptions that link here; do not change any symbol or its value without establishing consensus on the talk page first.

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The charts below show the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents Basque language pronunciations in popflock.com resource articles. For a guide to adding IPA characters to popflock.com resource articles, see {{IPA-eu}} and popflock.com Resource: Manual of Style/Pronunciation § Entering IPA characters.

See Basque dialects for a more thorough discussion of regional variation.

Consonants
IPA	Examples	English approximation
b	bat	best
?	alaba^[1]	between baby and bevy
c	kuttun	skew
d	doa	dead
ð	adar^[1]	this
f	foru	face
?	gauak	got
?	hego^[1]	between go and ahold
h	hamar^[2]	hot
j	jakintsu^[3]	you
?	onddo	argue
k	ke	scan
l	lagun	lean
?	zailenak	million
m	maixu	mother
n	naharo	need
?	ikurrina	canyon
p	piztu	spouse
r	urre^[4]	trilled r
?	urre^[4]	roughly like loch (Scottish English)
?	zauri	ladder in American English
s?	uso	sack^[5]
s?	zeru	sack^[5]
?	xehe	shine
t	talde	stand
ts?	urretsu	cats^[5]
ts?	aitzin	cats^[5]
t?	tximist	choice

Vowels
IPA	Examples	English approximation
a	gela	father
e	eder	bed^[6]
i	nire	see
o	aho	bore^[7]
u	hiru	food
y	hirü	roughly like cute (Souletin)

Diphthongs
IPA	Examples	English approximation
ai	bai	eye
oi	doinu	boy
ei	leiho	ray
au	hau	house
eu	euri	eh-oo or ey-oo

Suprasegmentals
IPA	Examples	English approximant
.	gauak [?au.ak]	moai

Notes

^ ^a ^b ^c Lenition of /b d g/ occurs in regular speech in most Southern Basque dialects. Hualde (1991:99-100).
^ Silent in Southern Basque dialects.
^ /x/ is frequently heard because of its prevalence in Gipuzkoan, but the realisation of the grapheme j varies depending on dialect and can be [j, ?, ?, d?, ?, ?, ?]. The last, which resembles Scottish English loch, is typical of Gipuzkoan, and it has extended to eastern varieties of Biscayan and the Sakana variety of the Upper Navarrese. The standard pronunciation ruled by Euskaltzaindia is /j/.
^ The double rr is pronounced as an alveolar trill in Southern Basque dialects but as a guttural in Northern Basque dialects.
^ ^a ^b Basque contrasts two consonants that sound similar to the /s/ of English: /s?/, which is apical, and /s?/, which is laminal. /ts?/ and /ts?/ are contrasted the same way.
^ The Basque /e/ is different from any English vowel, but it is usually articulated between the vowel of play (for most English dialects) and the vowel of bed.
^ The Basque /o/ is different from any English vowel, but it is usually articulated between the vowel of coat (for most English dialects) and the vowel of raw.

References

Trask, Larry (1997), The History of Basque, Routledge, ISBN 0-415-13116-2
Hualde, José Ignacio (1991), Basque Phonology, Routledge, ISBN 0-415-05655-1

[lenition-1] Lenition of /b d g/ occurs in regular speech in most Southern Basque dialects. Hualde (1991:99-100).

[2] Silent in Southern Basque dialects.

[3] /x/ is frequently heard because of its prevalence in Gipuzkoan, but the realisation of the grapheme j varies depending on dialect and can be [j, ?, ?, d?, ?, ?, ?]. The last, which resembles Scottish English loch, is typical of Gipuzkoan, and it has extended to eastern varieties of Biscayan and the Sakana variety of the Upper Navarrese. The standard pronunciation ruled by Euskaltzaindia is /j/.

[4] The double rr is pronounced as an alveolar trill in Southern Basque dialects but as a guttural in Northern Basque dialects.

[sibilants-5] Basque contrasts two consonants that sound similar to the /s/ of English: /s?/, which is apical, and /s?/, which is laminal. /ts?/ and /ts?/ are contrasted the same way.

[6] The Basque /e/ is different from any English vowel, but it is usually articulated between the vowel of play (for most English dialects) and the vowel of bed.

[7] The Basque /o/ is different from any English vowel, but it is usually articulated between the vowel of coat (for most English dialects) and the vowel of raw.

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