Silesian/Pronunciation

Lesson 1 - Silesian alphabet and pronunciation edit

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 edit

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 edit

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 edit

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 (no sound) Like in cheese, but more with -y sound
Čč (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

Digraphs edit

Notes edit

Stress edit

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.

Exercises edit