Italian phonetics

1. Italian Phonetics

2. General Information
Almost all native Italian words end with vowels, a factor that makes
Italian words extremely easy to use in rhyming.
Italian is a romance language of the Indo-European language family.
It is the second most widely spoken native language in the European
Union with 67 million speakers.
Italian is the official language of Italy, San Marino, Switzerland,
Vatican City and some parts of Croatia and Slovenia.
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3. Italian
Is a language that is mostly pronounced
like it is written

4. Consonants
01

5.  The distinctive feature of Italian
that separates it from English
pronunciation is the absence of
aspiration of voiceless stops like
/p/, /t/, /k/

6. Balena
/ba’leːna/
[b]

7. Filo
/’fiːlo/
[f]

8. Gonna
/’gɔnːa/
[g]

9. Molla
/’mɔlːa/
[m]

10. Nido
/’niːdo/
[n]

11. sasso
/’sasːo/
[s]

12. sbarbarsi
/zbar’barsi/
[z]

13. volo
/’volo/
[v]

14. uovo
/’wɔːvo/
[w]

15. Dinosauro
/dino’zauro/
[d]

16. tuta
/’tuːta /
[t]

17. pane
/’paːne /
[p]

18. carne
/’kaɾne /
[k]

19. lago
/’laːgo /
[l]

20. Fiamma
/’fjamːa /
[j]

21. Banca
/’baŋka/
[ɳ]

22. Scimmia
/’ʃimːja/
[ʃ]

23. Gelato
/dʒe’laːto/
[dʒ]

24. cibo
/’ tʃiːbo/
[tʃ]

25. Stanza
/’ stantsa/
[ts]

26. zanzara
/dzan’dzaːra/
[dz]

27. Rotto
/rotːo/
[r]

28. gnocco
/’ɲɔkːo/
[ɲ]

29. Agilo
/’aʎːo/
[ʎ]

30. /’papːa/
Geminates
All Italian consonants can occur doubly.
Pappa
Papa
/’paːpa/

31. Vowels
02

33. Isola
/’iːzola/
[i]

34. uva
/’uːva/
[u]

35. Abaco
/’aːbako/
[a]

36. Treno
/’trɛːno/
[ɛ]

37. Freno
/’freːno/
[e]

38. Forno
/’forno/
[o]

39. Oca
/’ɔːka/
[ɔ]

40. Diphthongs
[uo] – Buono
[ui] – Lui
[iu] – Fiume
[eu] + [eo] – Euriopeo

41. CREDITS: This presentation template was created by
Slidesgo, including icons by Flaticon, infographics & images
by Freepik
THANKS!

42. RESOURCES
● Agard, F. B., & Di Pietro, R. J. (1965). The sounds of English and Italian. Chicago: The University of
Chicago Press.
● Rogers, D., & d’Arcangeli, L. (2004). Illustrations of the IPA: Italian, Journal of the International
Phonetic Association, 34(1), 117-121.
● Fluent Forever. (2015a, March 13). Italian Pronunciation, Video 1: Consonants. YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Nt_w0GAfgE
● Fluent Forever. (2015b, March 13). Italian Pronunciation, Video 2: Italian’s Vowels. YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAxkDTQF0xQ&t=309s