This article is about the phonology and phonetics of the West Frisian language.
The vowel inventory of West Frisian is very rich.
Close and mid vowels
/yː/ is infrequent. It and the other long close rounded vowel /uː/ are absent from the dialect of Ljouwert.
/ʏ/ is more often transcribed with the symbol ⟨ø⟩, yet this article uses the symbol ⟨ʏ⟩ to show that it is identical to Standard Dutch /ʏ/.
Although they pattern with monophthongs, the long close-mid vowels transcribed /eː, øː, oː/ are often realized as narrow closing diphthongs [eɪ, øʏ, oʊ]. One of the exceptions is /øː/ in the Hindeloopers dialect, which is realized as a long monophthong [øː].
/oː/ doesn't occur before /s/.
Although they pattern with monophthongs, the long open-mid vowels transcribed /ɛː, ɔː/ tend to be realized as centering diphthongs [ɛə, ɔə].
The Hindeloopers and Súdwesthoeksk dialects also feature open-mid front rounded vowels /œ, œː/, which are not a part of the standard language.
Many scholars transcribe /ɑ/ as /a/, but de Haan (2010) transcribes it as /ɑ/, and that is the transcription that we use in this article. Its phonetic quality has been variously described as slightly retracted central [ɑ̈]; and less central than /aː/ ([ɑ]).
/aː/ is slightly retracted central [äː].
Booij (1989) argues that the rising diphthongs /jɪ, jɛ, wɑ, wo/ (he also lists the rare /jʏ/) are in fact glide-vowel sequences, not real diphthongs. This view is supported by Hoekstra & Tiersma (2013) who transcribe them as /jɪ, jɛ, wɑ, wo/, which is the convention used in this article.
In Southwestern dialects, /wɑ, wo/ are monophthongized to short central [ɞ, ɵ].
Phonetically, the first element of /ɛi/ can be either [ɛ] or [æ].
Many scholars transcribe /øy/ as /øy/, but Booij (1989) transcribes it as /ʌy/. According to Tiersma (1999), the first element of /øy/ is lower than the vowel /ʏ/ (i.e. more like [œ], similar to the traditional Standard Dutch pronunciation of /œy/).
Some scholars transcribe /ɔu/ as /ɔu/, yet others transcribe it as /au/. Phonetically, the first element of this diphthong may be either of these, i.e. [ɔ] or, less often, [a].
Some varieties realize /ai/ as [ɔi].
Many speakers round the first element of /aːi/ to [ɔː].
Some falling diphthongs alternate with the rising ones:
The /yə/ - /jʏ/ alternation occurs only in the pair mentioned above.
/m, p, b/ are bilabial, whereas /f, v/ are labiodental./v/ has two allophones: an approximant [ʋ], which appears word-initially, and a fricative [v], which occurs elsewhere.
In some cases, /d/ alternates with /r/.
/r/ is silent before other alveolar consonants. An exception to this rule are recent loanwords from Standard Dutch (e.g. sport), which may or may not be pronounced with [r].
/ŋ, k, x, ɣ/ are velar, whereas /j/ is palatal./ɣ/ has two allophones: a plosive [ɡ], which appears word-initially and syllable-initially (the latter only when stressed), and a fricative [ɣ], which occurs elsewhere.
The syllabic sonorants [m̩, n̩, ŋ̍, l̩, r̩] occur in the following circumstances:
In the ending ⟨en⟩, which in careful speech is pronounced [ən]:It is realized as [m̩] when preceded by /m, p, b/.
It is realized as [n̩] when preceded by /f, v, n, t, d, s, z, r, l/.
It is realized as [ŋ̍] when preceded by /k, x, ɣ/.
In the endings ⟨el⟩ and ⟨er⟩ (in careful speech: [əl] and [ər], respectively), which after consonants are realized as [l̩] and [r̩], respectively.
In some other cases. See Sipma (1913:36) for more information.
/j/ and the [ʋ] allophone of /v/ are the only sonorants which cannot be syllabic.
The sequences /nj, tj, sj, zj/ coalesce to [ɲ, c, ɕ, ʑ].
Glottal stop [ʔ] may precede word-initial vowels. In careful speech, it may also occur between unstressed and stressed vowel or diphthong.
Among fricatives, neither /x/ nor any of the voiced fricatives can occur word-initially.
/l/ is velarized [ɫ] in all environments except before the close front vowels /i, iː, y, yː/, where it is realized as clear [l].
Word-final /b, d/ are realized as voiceless [p, t] in all dialects except Amelansk. Note, however, that final /b/ is rare, and that in loanwords from Standard Dutch, final /ɣ/ can also appear, and is also devoiced to [x].
