Catalan phonology
Vowel Example IPA Gloss
[ i ] si [ si ] 'if '
[ ə ] se [ sə ] 'itself '
[ ə ] sa [ sə ] 'her '
[ o ] -nos [ nos ] 'us '
[ u ] uns [ uns ] 'some '
Vowels -- Unstressed vowels
In Eastern Catalan , vowels in unstressed position reduce to three : /a/ , /e/ , /ɛ/ → [ ə ] ; /o/ , /ɔ/ , /u/ → [ u ] ; /i/ remains unchanged . However there are some dialectal differences : Alguerese merges /a/ , /e/ , and /ɛ/ with [ a ] ; and in most areas of Majorca , [ o ] can appear in unstressed position ( that is , /o/ and /ɔ/ are usually reduced to [ o ] ) . [ 54 ] In Western Catalan , vowels in unstressed position reduce to five : /e/ , /ɛ/ → [ e ] ; /o/ , /ɔ/ → [ o ] ; /a/ , /u/ , /i/ remain unchanged . [ 55 ] However , in some Western dialects reduced vowels tend to merge into different realizations in some cases : Unstressed /e/ may merge with [ a ] before a nasal or sibilant consonant ( e.g . enclusa [ aŋˈkluza ] 'anvil ' , eixam [ ajˈʃam ] 'swarm ' ) , in some environments before any consonant ( e.g . terròs [ taˈrɔs ] 'earthy ' ) , and in monosyllabic clitics . This sounds almost the same as the Barcelonian open schwa [ ɐ ] . [ 56 ] Likewise , unstressed /e/ may merge into [ i ] when in contact with palatal consonants ( e.g . senyor [ siˈɲoɾ ~ siˈɲo ] 'lord ' ) . [ 57 ] Unstressed /o/ may merge with [ u ] before a bilabial consonant ( e.g . cobert [ kuˈβɛɾt ] 'covered ' ) , before a stressed syllable with a high vowel ( e.g . conill [ kuˈniʎ ] 'rabbit ' ) , in contact with palatal consonants ( e.g . Josep [ d͡ʒuˈzɛp ] 'Joseph ' ) , and in monosyllabic clitics . [ 58 ] Eastern and Northern Catalan [ 20 ] Vowel Example IPA Gloss [ i ] si [ si ] 'if ' [ ə ] se [ sə ] 'itself ' sa 'her ' [ u ] -nos [ nus ] 'us ' uns [ uns ] 'some ' Western Catalan [ 20 ] Vowel Example IPA gloss [ i ] si [ si ] 'if ' [ e ] se [ se ] 'itself ' [ a ] sa [ sa ] 'her ' [ o ] -nos [ nos ] 'us ' [ u ] uns [ uns ] 'some '
The phonology of Catalan, a Romance language, has a certain degree of dialectal variation. Although there are two standard dialects, one based on Eastern Catalan and one based on Valencian, this article deals with features of all or most dialects, as well as regional pronunciation differences. Various studies have focused on different Catalan varieties; for example, and analyze Central Eastern varieties, the former focusing on the educated speech of Barcelona and the latter focusing more on the vernacular of Barcelona, and does a careful phonetic study of Central Eastern Catalan. Catalan is characterized by final-obstruent devoicing, lenition, and voicing assimilation; a set of 7 or 8 phonemic vowels, vowel assimilations (including vowel harmony), many phonetic diphthongs, and vowel reduction, whose precise details differ between dialects. Several dialects have a dark l, and all dialects have palatal l () and n ().