The chart below explains how Wikipedia represents Modern Standard Arabic pronunciations with the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). Wikipedia also has specific charts for Egyptian Arabic, Hejazi Arabic, Lebanese Arabic, and Tunisian Arabic. For a guide to adding IPA characters to Wikipedia articles, see {{IPA-ar}}, {{IPAc-ar}} and Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation § Entering IPA characters.
Wikipedia transcriptions for Arabic may be either more general and abstract (phonemic), using only the symbols from the first column, or more detailed and precise (phonetic), using the symbols explained in the "Notes" section.
See Arabic phonology for a more thorough discussion of the sounds of Modern Standard Arabic, and varieties of Arabic for regional variation.
| IPA | English approximation |
Arabic letter/symbol |
Usual romanization |
Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A–B | ||||
| a | cat in British English, only approx. in American English | َ | a, á, e | [a][b] |
| aː | No exact, longer far | ـَا ,ى | ā, â, aa, a | [c] |
| aj | /a/+/j/, similar to bay | ْـَي | ay, ai, ey, ei | [d] |
| aw | /a/+/w/, similar to pawn | ْـَو | aw, au | [e] |
| b | bee | ب | b | [f] |
| D | ||||
| d | dash | د | d | [g] |
| dˤ | emphatic and pharyngealized /d/, no equivalent | ض | ḍ, dh | [h][g] |
| dʒ | jam | ج | j, ǧ, dj, g | [i] |
| ð | these | ذ | dh, ḏ | [j] |
| ðˤ | emphatic and pharyngealized /ð/, similar to zealous | ظ | ẓ | [h][k] |
| F–H | ||||
| f | father | ف | f | [l] |
| h | hi | phonemic), using only the symbols from the first column, or more detailed and precise (phonetic), using the symbols explained in the "Notes" section.
See Arabic phonology for a more thorough discussion of the sounds of Modern Standard Arabic, and varieties of Arabic for regional variation. | ||