Silesian/Pronunciation

Lesson 1 - Silesian alphabet and pronunciation

It's really important to learn the material from this lesson very carefully. If you learn to pronounce the words incorrectly, you'll do it forever! So, let's start with the alphabet of the Silesian language. Each time I will add the IPA signs so as to give you the exact pronunciation without recording it.

Silesian alphabet

Aa

Bb

Cc

Ćć

Čč

Dd

Ee

Ff

Gg

Hh

Ii

Jj

Kk

Ll

Mm

Nn

Ńń

Oo

Pp

Rr

Řř

Ss

Śś

Šš

Tt

Uu

Ůů

Ww

Yy

Zz

Źź

Žž

There are also some digraphs in the Silesian language, which don't have a place in the standard alphabet.

Ch ch

Dz dz

Dź dź

Dž dž

Iu iu

Uo uo

Uů uů

Ůu ůu

All right, I'm sure that you don't even have any idea how to read these strange lines and carons above the letters. Carefully read the next chapters — vowels and consonants — and learn how to do that!

Vowels

Vowel	IPA	Pronunciation	English equvalent
Aa	a	Open front unrounded vowel.ogg	Like in father, but shorter
Ee	ɛ	Open-mid front unrounded vowel.ogg	Like in bet
Ii	i	Close front unrounded vowel.ogg	Like in cheese, but shorter
Oo	ɔ	Open-mid back rounded vowel.ogg	Like in boy
Uu	u	Close back rounded vowel.ogg	Like in French vous
Ůů	o	Close-mid back rounded vowel.ogg	Like in more
Yy	ɨ	Close central unrounded vowel.ogg	Like in unstressed roses

Consonants

Vowel	IPA	Pronunciation	English equvalent
Bb	b	Voiced_bilabial_plosive.ogg	Like in babble
Cc	ts	Voiceless alveolar sibilant affricate.oga	Like in cats, but making only one sound
Ćć	tɕ	(no sound)	Like in cheese, but more with -y sound
Čč	tʂ	(no sound)	Like in church, with the tongue curled or pulled back
Dd	d	Voiced alveolar plosive.ogg	Like in done
Ff	f	Voiceless labiodental fricative.ogg	Like in fun
Gg	g	Voiced velar plosive.ogg	Like in girl

Stress

Usually, stress falls onto the prelast syllable, eg. Amerika (America). There are of course some exceptions. The nouns which end with -cyjo, -syjo, -zyjo, -ńijo have two variants of accentuation, eg. the word informacyjo (information) can be said informacyjo or informacyjo. What's interesting, some words of Greek and Latin origin, of which the accentuation is irregular in Polish, is normal in Silesian, eg. matematyka (mathematics) in Polish would be matematyka, the Silesian people say it usually as matymatyka.