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Silesian/Pronunciation

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Lesson 1 - Silesian alphabet and pronunciation

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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

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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

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

Consonants

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Vowel IPA Pronunciation English equvalent
Bb b About this sound Voiced_bilabial_plosive.ogg Like in babble
Cc ts About this sound 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 About this sound Voiced alveolar plosive.ogg Like in done
Ff f About this sound Voiceless labiodental fricative.ogg Like in fun
Gg g About this sound Voiced velar plosive.ogg Like in girl

Digraphs

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Notes

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Stress

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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

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