vikipeediya:IPA for Australian languages

The charts below show the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents pronunciations of most Australian Aboriginal languages in Wikipedia articles. Only a few languages on the continent have sounds which do not appear in the tables below.

1. ↑ ^{a aa i E u oo} The sounds [b̥ d̪aḁ d̥ ɖaḁ ɟaå ɡaå] are often pronounced tenuis like spy, sty, stew/chew, sky (like French or Spanish p, t, tch/ch, k) at the beginnings of words, and voiced like buy, die, dew/Jew, guy between vowels, but this is variable, as the distinction is not meaningful in Australian languages.
2. ↑ ^{a aa i E u oo} The plain consonants [d̥ l n] are like English sty, noose, lose, with the tip of the tongue touching the gums, whereas the consonants with the 'bridge' under them, [d̪aḁ l̪ n̪], are like t n l in French or Spanish, with the tip of the tongue touching the teeth and its upper surface touching the gums, giving them a light sound. This alveolar–dental distinction is very important in most Australian languages.
3. ↑ ^{a aa i E} The consonants with a 'tail', [ɖaḁ ɭ ɳ ɽ], are pronounced with the tonɡaaue curled back, giving them a dark "r"-like retroflex quality
4. ↑ ^{a aa i} The consonants [ɟaå ʎ ɲ] are pronounced with a y-like quality. English dy, ly, ny are not far off.
5. ↑ ^{a aa i E} The vowels i and u typically vary across [i] ~ [ɪ] ~ [e] and [u] ~ [ʊ] ~ [o], respectively. However, a few Australian languages distinguish these sounds.

• Transcription of Australian Aboriginal languages