West Frisian phonology

This article is about the phonology and phonetics of the West Frisian language.

Monophthongs

 * Long vowels tend to be slightly diphthongized to . This is especially true of word-final, which are regularly diphthongized.
 * is lower than, i.e..
 * before has the same quality as, but stays long
 * is slightly rounded close-mid central . It may be treated as stressed.
 * In some words, short is phonetically half-long . Unlike, the half-long allophone of  is not diphthongized.
 * are central, but many speakers realize them as back . Regardless of their quality, the only difference between them is length.

Diphthongs
West Frisian diphthong phonemes are as follows:


 * Falling:
 * Some varieties realize as.
 * Rising:
 * also lists.

argues that the rising diphthongs are in fact glide-vowel sequences, not real diphthongs. This view is supported by, who transcribe them as.

Breaking
Some falling diphthongs alternate with the rising ones:


 * The -  alternation occurs only in the pair mentioned above.

Length reduction methods
On average Frisians use a high number of long vowels. To reduce the length of speech there are two systems to reduce sound length:


 * The first is the new Frisian breaking. New Frisian breaking reduces the length of a long vowel by replacing it with a consonant and a vowel or semi vowel. Breaking pairs are ie-ji/i, ue-uo, oa-ua and dei-je/dje.


 * The second system is article and suffix reduction to glottal stops. Both definite articles (de and it ) and the indefinite article (in ) may undergo article reduction. Popular suffixes for reduction include -en  and -t . "it tinken" (the act of thinking) for example may be reduced from  to . This however is an extreme reduction and does not occur in most dialects. More common is removing the schwa  and in case of a reduced article following a reduced dental suffix one of the 's is dropped. In Standard Frisian writing this phenomenon can be represented by replacing the character representing the schwa by an apostrophe.

The use of both systems varies from dialect to dialect and in the standard language there are irregularities whether to write broken vowels in their broken or unbroken form.

Consonants

 * Syllabic occur in the following circumstances:
 * In the ending $\langleen\rangle$, which in careful speech is pronounced :
 * It is realized as when preceded by.
 * It is realized as when preceded by.
 * It is realized as when preceded by.
 * In the endings $\langleel\rangle$ and $\langleer\rangle$ (in careful speech: and, respectively), which after consonants are realized as  and , respectively.
 * In some other cases. See for more information.
 * The sequence coalesces to.
 * are velar, whereas is palatal.
 * occurs only word-initially. Intervocalically, it is realized as fricative.
 * are bilabial, whereas are labiodental.
 * are apical alveolar.
 * Glottal stop may precede word-initial vowels. In careful speech, it may also occur between unstressed and stressed vowel or diphthong.
 * Among fricatives, only can occur word-initially.
 * is pronounced as alveolar trill . The uvular realization is considered a speech impediment.
 * The approximants are slightly fricated.  has weaker friction than, and  is very lightly fricated.
 * is bilabial after.
 * is velarized.