French IPA

French

The French that is sung classically is known as style soutenu, or “the sustained style”. There are a few differences between this and spoken French (the kind you would learn in high school) and some of the most salient are the rules governing “r” and the “e” at the end of some words. The “r” is never uvular, but is always flipped, and the muted “e” at the end of a word is frequently set to music and therefore pronounced and sung. Other than those, there are three features of French which make it the trickiest of the four languages in this series (as evidenced by the fact that the French notes are two pages long, not just one!). The first is that, as opposed to German and frequently English, where an agile tongue is needed to rapidly and accurately articulate all of the consonants, with French one’s whole mouth must be able to switch from foreign vowel to foreign vowel without marring the precision of each sound; these vocal acrobatics are particularly challenging to English speakers. The second challenging feature is that there are so many different vowels. Most complicated of all, however – particularly to those who have never studied even spoken French – is the fact that frequently, up to five different letters will boil down to just one IPA sound. Fortunately, there are consistent spelling rules, and with a few of these memorized, figuring out most words should not be impossible. When in doubt – use a dictionary!

The Vowels:

u - doux [du], pour [pur]

o - beau [bo], trop [tro]

ɔ - homme [ɔm(ə)], flotait [flɔtɛ]

ɑ - bas [bɑ], pâle [pɑl(ə)]

a - la [la], amour [amur]

ɛ - belle [bɛl(ə)], parfait [parfɛ], c’est [sɛ]

e - aimer[eme]*, apportez [apɔrte]

i - il [il], dit [di]

ə - vie [vi(ə)], parlerai [parlərɛ] note that the schwa is in parenthesis because it is omitted in the case of elision or liason

y - sur [syr], dure [dyr(ə)]

œ - coeur [kœr], seul [sœl]

ø - deux [dø], heureux [ørø]

ɑ̃ - avant [avɑ̃], femme [fɑ̃m(ə)], entendre [ɑ̃tɑ̃dr(ə)]

õ - bon [bõ], tomber [tõbe]

ɛ̃ - ainsi [ɛ̃si], instant [ɛ̃stɑ̃]

œ̃ - un [œ̃], parfum [parfœ̃]

Glides:

j - ciel [sjɛl], travailler [travaje]

w - oui [wi], trois [trwa]

ɥ - nuit [nɥi], puis [pɥi]

Accents (Diacritical marks):

è: The accent grave (down) means that the “e” becomes open; lèvre [lɛvr(ə)]

é: The accent aigu (up) means that the “e” is closed; été [ete]

ê: The accent circonflexe (hat) means that e is open; rêve [rɛv(ə)]

â: The circonflexe makes “a” dark; âme [ɑm(ə)]

ô: The circonflexe makes “o” closed; drôle [drol(ə)]

ë: Dieresis means that the second vowel of two that are next two each other is independent of the first; noel [noɛl]

General Spelling Rules:

Many of these you can probably extrapolate from the examples above, but to generalize, most of the following always apply:

(e)au = [o]

ai(s, t) = [ɛ]*

-er, -ez = [e]

ll = [j]

-eil = [ɛj]

en, em = [ɑ̃]

-u- = [y]

-eux = [ø]

-eur = [œ]

-aient = [ɛ]

quand = [kɑ̃]

ti = [sj] as in insatiable [ɛ̃sasjabl(ə)]

ch = [ʃ]

Elision/Liason:

In lyric French, as in spoken French, words sometimes overlap if they are next to each other in a phrase. Technically, words will not combine under certain grammatical circumstances which are too complex to explain here. As a general rule, however, you can be sure that if there is not an extra note for the muted “e” at the end of a word, and the subsequent word begins with a vowel, the two words will combine such that you will say the last consonant of the first immediately preceding the first vowel of the second. For example:

tes yeux [tɛz_jø]

vous ainsi [vuz_ɛ̃si]

peut-etre [pøt_ɛtr(ə)]

part une [part_yn(ə)]

ton âme [tõn_ɑm(ə)]

If a word beginning with a vowel seems to be in a position to elide with the word before it, but is capitalized, then it does not elide – it is the beginning of a new line of poetry and is not usually combined with the preceding line.

*A note on vocalic harmonization: the reason that aimer is written as [eme] in IPA is because of a French lyric diction quirk called vocalic harmonization. The concept is that if an open vowel is immediately followed by its closed counterpart, both vowels can be pronounced closed. This extends to phrases such as “tes baisers” (your kisses) which, even though it would be read syllable by syllable as [tɛ bɛze] is actually sung [te beze].

Thanks to David Adams and his book, A Handbook of Diction for Singers 2^nd edition, Oxford University Press, 2008.

German IPA

German

German is deceptively similar to English – English is derived from German, so many structures and words may look familiar, but the consonants in particular are consistently pronounced differently than in English. It is similar to Italian (and unlike English) in that the letter combinations very logically and consistently produce their specific sounds. Also as in Italian, the most difficult part about German vowels is determining whether they are open or closed.

The Vowels:

u - buch [bux], zu [tsu]

ʊ - lust [lʊst], mutter [mʊtɐ]

o - sohn [zon], boot [bot]

ɔ - noch [nɔx], sonne [zɔnə]

a - mann [man], vater [fatɐ]

ɛ - träne [trɛnə], wenn [vɛn]

e - sehr [zeɐ], dem [dem]

ɪ - bist [bɪst], ich [ɪç]

i - lied [lit], ihnen [inən]

y - brüder [brydɐ], fühlen [fylən]

Y - fünf [fYnf], füllen [fYlən]

ø - schön [ʃøn], frölich [frølɪç]

œ - können [kœnən], völlig [fœlɪç]

ə - sehnen [zenən], gegangen [gəgaŋən] note that the German schwa is closest to the vowel ɛ

ɐ - der [deɐ], mir [miɐ], herz [hɛɐts] note that the r-schwa is closest to the “–ea” in the English word “idea”

Diphthongs:

ao - aug [aok]

ɔø - treulich [trɔølɪç], träume [trɔømə]

ae - mein [maen]

German consonants not in English:

x - the “ach-laut” comes after any vowel on the lip side of the pyramid

ç - the “ich-laut” comes after any vowel on the tongue side of the pyramid, and after “n”

As they differ from English:

v = [f] vor [foɐ]

j = [j] ja [ja]

z = [ts] zwei [tsvae]

w = [v] willst [vɪlst]

d = [t] at the end of a word; und [ʊnt]

s = [z] so [zo]

b = [p] at the end of a word; treib [traep]

qu = [kv] quelt [kvɛlt]

kn = [kn] knie [kniə]

g = k after lip vowels, ç after tongue vowels, and g at the beginning of a syllable; ligt [likt], ewig [eviç], gegangen [gəgaŋən]

Notes:

All words beginning with vowels are articulated separately from the word preceding them. This glottal stroke is symbolized in IPA by a question mark. For example, “mein aug” is transcribed “maen ?aok” and the “n” does not elide into the following “a”.

If a vowel is followed by an “h”, it is closed.

ie = [i] and ei = [ae].

Doubled vowels are closed; seele [zelə]

Thanks to David Adams and his book, A Handbook of Diction for Singers 2^nd edition, Oxford University Press, 2008.

Italian IPA

Italian

Italian is a favorite for singers because there relatively few vowels. These vowels are always pure (unaccented syllables do not become schwas), which can be challenging to English speakers but ultimately makes singing in Italian much easier than, say, French. The symbols for each sound are very consistent, so there are only a few rules to learn. Mastery of the language requires a dictionary and a knowledge of the grammar, but some general guidelines can get you most of the way there. To capture a proper Italian sound, singers are challenged to make the vowels bright enough and to appropriately pronounce doubled consonants.

The Vowels

u - tuo [tuo], crudele [kɾudɛle]

o - voce [votʃe], sonno [sɔnno]

ɔ - sposa [spɔza], donna [dɔnna]

a - amore [amore], stella [stella]

ɛ - bella [bɛlla], gelida [dʒɛlida]

e - pieta [pjeta], belta [belta]

i - sguardi [zgwaɾdi], voi [voi]

Glides:

j - piace [pjatʃe], buio [bujo]

w - tuoi [twoi], sangue [sangwe]

Doubling:

When an Italian consonant is doubled, the consonant is lengthened if it is voiced (such as l, m, or n, in bella, mamma, or donna) and there is a stop put before it if it is unvoiced (such as tt, gg, or cc in tutto, leggiere, caccia, or pizza [pittsa] or mezzo [mɛddzo]).

“R”

The Italian “r” is always either flipped, ɾ: cara [kaɾa]

or rolled, rr: correnti [kɔrrɛnti]

Italian consonants as they differ from English:

z = [ts] - danza [dantsa]

g = [dʒ] (in front of “i” or “e”) - gia [dʒja]

c = [tʃ] (in front of “i” or “e”) - cello [tʃɛllo]

sc = [ʃ] (in front of “i” or “e”) - nascere [naʃɛre]

ch = [k] - che [ke]

qu = [kw] - qui [kwi]

gn = [ɲ] - sogno [sɔɲo]

j = [j] – gioja [dʒjoja]

h: this consonant usually ‘disappears’: ahi = [ai]

-but it serves a purpose after “g” to make it a [g] sound: luoghi [lwogi]

gli = [ʎ] figlio [fiʎʎo]

s = [z] (between vowels) posa [poza]

Thanks to David Adams and his book, A Handbook of Diction for Singers 2^nd edition, Oxford University Press, 2008.