Lesson 1 - Silesian alphabet and pronunciation
It's really important to learn the material from this lesson very carefully. If you learn to pronounce the words incorrectly, you'll do it forever! So, let's start with the alphabet of the Silesian language. Each time I will add the IPA signs so as to give you the exact pronunciation without recording it.
Silesian alphabet
There are also some digraphs in the Silesian language, which don't have a place in the standard alphabet.
All right, I'm sure that you don't even have any idea how to read these strange lines and carons above the letters. Carefully read the next chapters — vowels and consonants — and learn how to do that!
Vowels
| Vowel | IPA | Pronunciation | English equvalent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aa | a |  |
Like in father, but shorter |
| Ee | ɛ | |
Like in bet |
| Ii | i | |
Like in cheese, but shorter |
| Oo | ɔ | |
Like in boy |
| Uu | u | |
Like in French vous |
| Ůů | o | |
Like in more |
| Yy | ɨ | |
Like in unstressed roses |
Consonants
| Vowel | IPA | Pronunciation | English equvalent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bb | b | |
Like in babble |
| Cc | ts | |
Like in cats, but making only one sound |
| Ćć | tɕ | (no sound) | Like in cheese, but more with -y sound |
| Čč | tʂ | (no sound) | Like in church, with the tongue curled or pulled back |
| Dd | d | |
Like in done |
| Ff | f | |
Like in fun |
| Gg | g | |
Like in girl |
Digraphs
Notes
Stress
Usually, stress falls onto the prelast syllable, eg. Amerika (America). There are of course some exceptions. The nouns which end with -cyjo, -syjo, -zyjo, -ńijo have two variants of accentuation, eg. the word informacyjo (information) can be said informacyjo or informacyjo. What's interesting, some words of Greek and Latin origin, of which the accentuation is irregular in Polish, is normal in Silesian, eg. matematyka (mathematics) in Polish would be matematyka, the Silesian people say it usually as matymatyka.