Language/Afrikaans/Pronunciation/Alphabet-and-Pronunciation

Welcome to our lesson on Afrikaans Alphabet and Pronunciation! In this lesson, we will discuss the Afrikaans alphabet and pronunciation of letters and words. This knowledge will help you improve your Afrikaans pronunciation and enhance your communication skills in the language. 📚🗣️

After completing this lesson, we encourage you to also visit other related lessons, such as Afrikaans Grammar - Nouns and Introduction to Afrikaans Verbs and Tenses - Tips and Examples. These lessons will help you gain a better understanding of Afrikaans grammar and further expand your language skills.

Enjoy your study of the Afrikaans alphabet and pronunciation, and remember to visit the other lessons for a more comprehensive learning experience!

Specificities

• Afrikaans has 22 consonants, 20 vowels, and 9 diphthongs.
• Q, X, and Z are rarely used.
• The alphabet includes diacritics such as ê
• Most vowels have long and short varieties.

Letters and IPA

Letter	A a	B b	C c	D d	E e	F f	G g	H h	I i	J j	K k	L l	M m	N n	O o	P p	Q q	R r	S s	T t	U u	V v	W w	X x	Y y	Z z
Name	aa	bee	see	dee	ee	ef	gee	haa	ie	jee	kaa	el	em	en	oo	pee	kuu	er	es	tee	uu	vee	wee	ex	y	set
IPA	ɐ/ɑː	b/p	s/k	d/t	ɛ/æː/ə	f	χ/g/ç	ɦ	ə/i	j	k	l	m	ŋ/n	ɔ	p	kw	r/ɾ	s	t/d	œ	f	w/v	ks	əi	z

Diphthong

Diphthong	aa	ai	ee	eeu	ei/ey	eu	îe	ieu	ieë	ieu	ôe	oe	oeë	oei	oi/oy	oo	ooi	ou	ow	ûe	ui	uu	uy
IPA	ɑː	ɐi	eə	iːu	əi	eø	əːə	i	iː	iu	ɔː	u	uː	uiː	ɔi	oə	oːi	œu	ou	œː	œi	y	œy

Common Errors in Phonology

• The /th/ sound as in ‘this’ is hard to pronounce and many times is substituted with /dis/ or /f/. ex. ‘with’-wiff & ‘thought’- fought.
• Consonant diagraphs like /ch/ are difficult to pronounce. ex. chicken.
• /v, d, w/ may sound like /f, t, v/ ex. (paid-pait)
• Over emphasis of /r/ occurs due to rolling of the letter in L1.
• English words that represent one concept may be condensed to one word as the Afrikaans orthography rule states. Ex. “Traffic light” which is one concept is “Verkeerslig” Verkeer(s) = Traffic Lig = Light. (C. Kolbe, personal communication, February 22, 2012).
• Excess letters are used in spelling English words. Ex. briek (brick)
• The ‘ie’ in Afrikaans is used as a short i in English.
• The /c/ sound in English is always spelled with a ‘k’ in Afrikaans and so this can lead to misspellings: Ex. kat (cat), brik (brick)
• ‘c’ is rarely used in L1.

Sources

• Sajavaara, 1983
• Donaldson, 1993
• http://www.ritell.org/resources/documents/language%20project/afrikaans.pdf