International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)

The lessons in this website uses the International Phonetic Alphabet or IPA to represent the sounds of words in Penang Hokkien. Only a small number of IPA symbols are used, as these are sufficient to represent most of the sounds you will encounter in the language. You will see the IPA symbols in the dictionary as well as other pages of this website. They appear in square brackets immediately after the word. To show the exact expected sound to be pronounced, the IPA symbol is written between two slashes, like this: /o/

For example: ae1kau4 [ɛ-kau]

Each syllable is separate from the other with a hyphen (-). As the purpose here is to show the pronunciation, no tone marks or stress mark is added to the IPA symbols. Where entire sentences are rendered in IPA, space is often used in place of hyphen to separate words.

IPA Vowels and Semivowels

  
The open front unrounded vowel. It sounds like the "a" in the English word father.
ka1 [ka] : (verb) to cut

  
The close-mid front unrounded vowel. It sounds like the "e" in the English word hey. This sound can be spelled in many other ways in Penang Hokkien, and often I have to retain spellings that are commonly accepted. The digraphs "-ay", "-ey" and "ei" may be used to represent this sound too.
se3 [se] : (adjective) small
koay3 [koe] : (verb) to pass
boey4 [boe] : (noun) tail


  
The open-mid front unrounded vowel. It sounds like the "e" in Esso. It is usually spelled with "ae" in Penang Hokkien, however some syllables ending in "m", "n" or "t", spell this sound with just "e" rather than "ae". Some words that have been commonly spelled using "e" retain their spelling.
kae1 [kɛ] : (verb) to add
en1 [ɛn] : (noun) smoke
Ah3 Pek1 [a-pɛʔ] : (noun) uncle


  
The mid central vowel or schwa. It sounds like the "e" in the English word early. It is spelled with the letter "e" and is most common in Malay loanwords.
be3la3can1 [bə-la-tsan] : (noun) shrimp paste solids

  
The close front unrounded vowel. This is "i" in the English word it.
ki2 [ki] : (noun) flag

  
The palatal approximant. It sounds like the "y" in the English word yes.
yau1 [jau] : (adjective) hungry

Reminder: The IPA symbol [j] is not the same as the letter "j" in English, which is represented by the IPA symbol [dz].

  
The close-mid back rounded vowel. It sounds like the "o" in the English word old.
go2 [go] : (noun) goose

  
This is the open-mid back rounded vowel. It sounds like the "o" in toy. It is usually spelled with "or" in Penang Hokkien.
kor1 [kɔ] : (noun) mushroom

When followed by "ng", this sound is spelled with "o" rather than "or".

kong1 [kɔŋ] : (noun) grandfather

  
The closed back rounded vowel. It sounds like the "u" in the English word sue.
ku1 [ku] : (noun) tortoise

  
The voiced labial-velar approximant. It sounds like the "w" in the English word woe.
wah4 [wa] : (pronoun) I
wa33 [wa] : (noun) language

IPA Consonant Symbols similar to English letters

These are phonetic symbols representing consonant sounds that correspond to letters in English. I pronounce these IPA symbols as the initial consonant followed by the vowel /ə/ .

  
The voiced bilabial plosive
bang33 [baŋ] : (noun) dream, net
bi3 [bi] : (noun) smell

  
The voiced alveolar or voiced dental plosive
dan3-dan1 [dan-dan] : (adverb) immediately

  
The voiceless labiodental fricative. This sound appears only in loanwords from other languages.
foo1kui1hua1 [fu-kui-hua] : (noun) adenium

  
The voiced velar plosive
gau2 [gau] : (noun) clever

  
The voiceless glottal fricative
hua1 [hua] : (noun) flower

  
The unaspirated voiceless velar plosive
kau3 [kau] : (adjective) thick
bark1 [bak] : (noun) ink

  
The alveolar lateral approximant
lam2 [lam] : (adjective) blue

  
The bilabial nasal
mua1 [mua] : (noun) sarong
kam1 [kam] : (noun) orange

  
The dental nasal or alveolar nasal
nau4 [nau] : (noun) brain
ban33 [ban] : (adjective) slow

  
The unaspirated voiceless bilabial plosive
pan1 [pan] : (noun) classroom
kap3 [kap] : (noun) pigeon

  
The alveolar trill. This sound appears only in loanwords
ro3ti1 [ro-ti] : (noun) bread

Note: Penang Hokkien speakers often slur the "r" so that it often comes out sounding like "l", hence ro3ti1 is often pronounced [lo-ti]   
The voiceless alveolar or voiceless dental sibilant
sua1 [sua] : (noun) sand

  
The unaspirated voiceless alveolar plosive
tan2 [tan] : (verb) to sound
at3 [at] : (verb) to bend

IPA Consonant Symbols not similar to English letters

These are IPA symbols representing consonant sounds that do not correspond to letters in English. I pronounce these IPA symbols as the initial consonant followed by the vowel /ə/.

  
The unaspirated voiceless alveolar sibilant affricate. It sound is similar to but not exactly the same as the "ch" in the English word chair. It is usually represented by the letter "c" in Penang Hokkien. Some words with this sound that were spelled with "ch" before the present writing convention came into being retain their spelling.
cau4 [tsau] : (verb) to run
chooi4 [tsui] : (noun) water


  
The voiced alveolar sibilant affricate. This sound is usually represented by the letter "j" in Penang Hokkien. It is the "j" in the English word joy.
jip1 [dzip] : (verb) to go in
juak1 [dzuaʔ] : (adjective) hot

Reminder: The IPA symbol "j" represents a different sound which is similar to the "y" in English.


  
The voiceless postalveolar fricative. This sound rarely occurs in Penang Hokkien, but when it does, it is spelled with the digraph "sh". It is the "sh" sound in the English word shout.
shiok1 [ʃiɔk] : (adjective) pleasureable

  
The aspirated voiceless alveolar sibilant affricate
This sound is usually represented by the digraph "ch" in Penang Hokkien. There is no English equivalent to this. It is similar to the choo choo of the train. Say the "ch" of chair accompanied by a release of air.
chau4 [ts^hau] : (noun) grass

  
The aspirated voiceless velar plosive
. This sound is represented by the digraph "kh" in Penang Hokkien.
khat3 [k^hat] : (verb) to scoop

  
The aspirated voiceless bilabial plosive. This sound is represented by the digraph "ph" in Penang Hokkien.
phang1 [p^haŋ] : (adjective) fragrant

  
The aspirated voiceless alveolar plosive. This is represented by the digraph "th" in Penang Hokkien.
that3 [t^hat] : (verb) to kick

  
This is the velar nasal. It may appear at the beginning or end of syllables, and is spelled with "ng" in Penang Hokkien.
ong2 [ɔŋ] : (noun) king
ngam1 [ŋam] : (adjective) suitable

Reminder: When the letter "o" appears in front of "ng", the "o" is always pronounced /ɔ/ and not /o/, as in the above example, ong2 [ɔŋ].

Other examples:
kong1 [kɔŋ] : (noun) grandfather
tong3 [tɔŋ] : (verb) to touch

  
This is the glottal stop. This sound appears at the end of some syllables in Penang Hokkien. Such syllables always end with a "k". The sound is produced by stopping midway when pronouncing "ah". (In other forms of Hokkien romanisation such as Peh-oe-ji and Tai-lo, it is represented by a final "h").
bak3 [baʔ] : (noun) meat
pek3 [peʔ] : (number) eight

IPA Nasal Symbols

The vowel sounds /a/, /ɛ/ and /i/ have a corresponding set of nasalized versions, being /ã/, /ɛ̃/ and /ĩ/. To pronounce these nasal sounds, move your lower jaw forward as you pronounce the three regular vowels. Nasal sounds are usually spelled by inserting an "n" within the syllable, usually between the initial consonant and the following vowel.

  
The nasal open front unrounded vowel. Words with this sound has an "n" within the syllable, either immediately before an "a" or one letter removed from "a".
snar1 [sã] : (number) three
pnua1 [puã] : (verb) to shift
tnia4 [tiã] : (noun) wok


  
The nasal open-mid front unrounded vowel. Words with this sound has an "n" within the syllable, either immediately before an "ae" or one letter removed from "ae".
pnae1 [pɛ̃] : (verb) to pry open
snaeh1 [sɛ̃] : (verb) to give birth
chnae1 [ts^hɛ̃] : (adjective) green

  
The nasal close front unrounded vowel. Words with this sound as an "n" within the syllable, either immediately before an "i" or one letter removed from "i" or "ee". Where this sound occurs at the front of a syllable, it is spelled with "ny". pni4 [pĩ] : (adjective) flat
tnee1 [ĩ] : (adjective) sweet
ny2 [ĩ] : (adjective) round
nya2 [ĩa] : (verb) to win
nyau2 [ĩ] : (noun) goat

Silent Consonants

The letter "h" often appear at the end of syllables as a pseudo-fricative. Its purpose is often to disambiguate between different words, those spelled with and without the final "h".

The letter "r" often appear in syllables. Its purpose includes:

Acknowledgement

I am so grateful to Tee Joo Tatt for helping me with the tag required to output audio on this page.

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