The charts below show the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents Afrikaans pronunciations in Wikipedia articles.

See Afrikaans phonology for a more thorough look at the sounds of Afrikaans, as well as dialectal variations that are not represented here.

Consonants
IPA Examples English approximation
b beet beet
d dak den
f fiets, ver fast
ɦ hoekom behind
j jas yard
k kat skin
l land land
m mens man
n nek neck
ŋ eng long
p pen, rib, lip sport
r ras rolled r
s sak, seep sock
ʃ sjabloon, chef shall
t tak, hond stop
Tsjechië
tjek
chat
χ generaal, weg loch (Scottish English)
v wang velvet
ʒ jury vision
Marginal consonants
ʔ beëindig
[bəˈʔəindəχ]
the catch in uh-oh!
Jakarta jump
ɡ ghries[1], gholf goal
z Zoeloe zoo
Stress
ˈ vóórkom [ˈfʊərkɔm]
voorkóm [ˌfʊərˈkɔm]
as in commandeer
/ˌkɒmənˈdɪər/
ˌ
Vowels
IPA Examples English approximation
Monophthongs (oral)
a bad duck
ɑː aap father
æ vertrek, sel, geld, veld back
æː perd, wêreld, bêre jazz
ɛ met, wenner, Bester met
ɛː nè Modern RP square
hê No English equivalent, long [[[
en:close-mid front unrounded vowel|e]]]; Dutch mee
ə vis, hemel, vanaand[2] again
əː wîe[3] fur
i diep deep
spieël, bier[4] need
ɔ bot thought
ɔː môre[5] law
œ hut roughly like hug
œː rûe[5]
u hoed boot
koeël, moer[4] food
y fuut roughly like cute
muur[4] roughly like cue
Monophthongs (nasal)
ãː dans No English equivalent, long nasalized [[[
en:open front unrounded vowel|a]]]; Canadian French élan
ɛ̃ː mens No English equivalent, long nasalized [[[
en:mid front unrounded vowel|ɛ]]]; French main
ɔ̃ː spons No English equivalent, long nasalized [[[
en:mid back rounded vowel|ɔ]]]; French mon
Diphthongs
ai baie price
ɑːi draai prize
əi byt may
ɪə beet, esel rhea
ɪø neus roughly like nurse
iu sneeu free will
oːi nooi boys
œi buit house (Scottish English)
œu jou, dou boat
ʊə boot poor
  1. /ɡ/ is not a native phoneme of Afrikaans; it occurs only in loanwords like gholf or if /k/ is voiced: sakdoek [ˈsaɡduk]. It also occurs as an allophone of /χ/.
  2. In some words (such as vanaand), the unstressed allophone of /ə/ is written ⟨a⟩ (Donaldson (1993:4, 6)).
  3. /əː/ occurs in no other word (Donaldson (1993:7)).
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 As phonemes, /iː/ and /uː/ occur only in spieël and koeël, respectively. In other cases, [iː] and [uː] occur as allophones of /i/ and /u/ before /r/. /y/ is also lengthened to [yː] before /r/ (Donaldson (1993:4–6)).
  5. 5.0 5.1 /œː/ and /ɔː/ occur only in a few words (Donaldson (1993:7).
  • Donaldson, Bruce C. (1993). "1. Pronunciation". A Grammar of Afrikaans. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. pp. 1–35. ISBN 978-3-11-0134261. Retrieved 16 April 2017. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Lass, Roger (1987). "Intradiphthongal Dependencies". In Anderson, John; Durand, Jaques (eds.). Explorations in Dependency Phonology. Dordrecht: Foris Publications Holland. pp. 109–131. ISBN 9067652970. Retrieved 16 April 2017. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Wissing, Daan (2016). "Afrikaans phonology – segment inventory". Taalportaal. Archived from the original on 15 April 2017. Retrieved 16 April 2017. {{cite web}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help); Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (help)