It provides a set of symbols to represent the pronunciation of Catalan in Wikipedia 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 value without establishing consensus on the talk page first.
There are two major standards, one of Catalan (C)—based in the Central Coast of Catalonia, encompassing most Eastern Catalan features—and one of Valencian (V)—based in Southern Valencia, encompassing most Western Catalan features. Neither variant is preferred over the other in Wikipedia articles except in cases where a local pronunciation is clearly more relevant (such as a place in Catalonia or a Valencian artist).
See Catalan phonology for a more thorough look at the sounds of standard Catalan and Valencian, and Catalan orthography for the main correspondences between spelling and pronunciation. (For an extensive list of spelling-to-sound correspondences, see this)
For introducing a pronunciation in Standard Catalan use {{IPA|ca|...}} and in Standard Valencian use {{IPA|ca-valencia|...}}.
Catalan in Andorra, Western Catalonia and La Franja (NW)
North-Western, a continuous dialect of the Western Catalan branch, uses the same pronunciation pattern as Standard Valencian (see V above). However, there are some differences that should be used in the transcription of local names in Andorra, Western Catalonia (Lleida and part of Tarragona) and parts of the Aragonese border (La Franja). Those differences are:
(Note for transcriptions of North-Western Catalan use the label {{IPA|ca|...|local}} with the corresponding local pronunciation, next to Standard Catalan)
Help:IPA/Insular Catalan (use {{IPA|ca-ES-IB|...}} and {{IPA|ca-IT|...}} to transcribe Insular Catalan pronunciations – the first is for Balearic and the latter for Alguerese)
Assimilations and vowel harmony in local transcriptions of Western Catalan
In a number of Western Catalan varieties (and notably in Valencian) unstressed /a/ (especially in the coda) is particularly unstable and may be subject to assimilation to adjacent low (open) vowels (this is often called vowel harmony, and is accepted by the Standard norms):
Progressive and regressive vowel harmony with /ɛ/ (rare)
[ɛ] ← /a/ → [ɛ]
afecta
acrobat
Progressive and regressive vowel harmony with /ɔ/ (rare)
[ɔ] ← /a/ → [ɔ]
carxofa
out-talk
Final /a/ reduction to [ɛ] regardless of the preceding sounds
Lleida
acrobat
(For transcriptions of vowel assimilations or vowel harmony use the label {{IPA|ca-valencia|...|local}} or {{IPA|ca-valencia|...|also}} in the Valencian Community and {{IPA|ca|...|local}} or {{IPA|ca|...|also}} in Catalonia and Aragon)
There are further dialectal variations in different regions of Catalonia and the Valencian Community, as well as the rest of Catalan-speaking territories, that might not be covered on these keys and not recommended in standard registers. These variations may include other contrasts (such as /θ/ vs. /s/ found in Eastern and Lower Aragon) or mergers (such as /aw/ vs. /ɔw/ found in Southern Valencian). If you wish to add a relevant local pronunciation of these varieties, you may use a "local" label (e.g. {{IPA|ca|...|local}} or {{IPA|ca-valencia|...|local}}) besides the standard transcription.
12Catalan orthography distinguishes between ⟨ll⟩ (representing /ʎ/) and ⟨ŀl⟩ (representing a geminated/lː/). In regular speech gemination of ⟨ŀl⟩ is ignored altogether. Some dialects as well as young speakers can merge /ʎ/ with the glide [j] in a process similar to Spanish yeísmo.
12The rhotic consonants⟨r⟩/ɾ/ and ⟨rr⟩/r/ only contrast between vowels. Otherwise, they are in complementary distribution as ⟨r⟩ with [r] occurring word-initially, after /l/, /n/, and /s/, and in compounds; and [ɾ] after hard plosives, the softspirants[β,ð,ɣ], and /f/. Syllable-final /ɾ/ varies according to dialect, emphasis, morpheme and the following sound. In all Catalan dialects, except most of Valencian, /ɾ/ is lost in coda position in suffixes of nouns and adjectives denoting the masculine singular and in the infinitive suffixes of verbs, except when the following morpheme begins with a vowel, although this may vary (Carbonell Costa & Llisterri Boix (1999:63–64), Wheeler (2005:24–25)).
Eastern Catalan (in particular, Central and Northern Catalan): [a,ɛ,e] merge to [ə], whereas [ɔ,o,u] merge to [u], leaving only [ə,i,u] in most unstressed syllables.
In Standard Eastern Catalan, unstressed [e] and [o] appear only in some words, especially from other languages. In other cases, they merge with [ə] and [u] (Wheeler (2005:61–72)).
Western Catalan (North-Western and Valencian): [ɛ,e] merge to [e] and [ɔ,o] merge to [o]. Exceptionally there are some cases where unstressed ⟨e⟩ may merge with [a] or [i], and unstressed ⟨o⟩ may merge with [u] (Carbonell Costa & Llisterri Boix (1999:62–63), Wheeler (2005:52–77)).
In further cases, unstressed [ɛ] and [ɔ] may appear in compounds.
12The vowel /œ/—found mainly in the Northern dialects–is usually replaced by /e/ in the standard.
[œ] is pronounced like /ɛ/, but with the lips rounded.
12The vowel /y/—found mainly in the Northern dialects–is usually replaced by /u/ or /i/ in the standard.
[y] is pronounced like /i/, but with the lips rounded.
Bibliography
Carbonell Costa, Joan F.; Llisterri Boix, Joaquim (1999), "Catalan", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the Usage of the International Phonetic Alphabet (in Catalan), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.61–65, ISBN978-0-521-63751-0
