Help:IPA/English
Category:Wikipedia semi-protected project pages#IPA/English
 | This is the pronunciation key for IPA transcriptions of English on Wikipedia. It provides a set of symbols to represent the pronunciation of English in Wikipedia articles, and example words that illustrate the sounds that correspond to them. Integrity must be maintained between the key and the transcriptions that link here; do not change any symbol or value without establishing consensus on the talk page first. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ]Category:Pages with plain IPA, / /Category:Pages with plain IPA and ⟨ Category:Pages with plain IPA⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters. |
Throughout Wikipedia, the pronunciation of words is indicated using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). The following tables list the IPA symbols used for English words and pronunciations. Please note that several of these symbols are used in ways that are specific to Wikipedia, and differ from those used by dictionaries.
If the IPA symbols are not displayed properly by your browser, see the links below.
If you are adding a pronunciation using this key, such pronunciations should generally be formatted using the template {{IPAc-en}}. The template provides tooltips for each symbol in the pronunciation. See the template page for instructions.
Key
If there is an IPA symbol you are looking for that you do not see here, see Help:IPA, which is a more complete list. For a table listing all spellings of the sounds on this page, see English orthography § Sound-to-spelling correspondences. For help converting spelling to pronunciation, see English orthography § Spelling-to-sound correspondences.
The words given as examples for two different symbols may sound the same to you. For example, you may pronounce cot and caught, do and dew, or marry and merry the same. This often happens because of dialect variation (see our articles English phonology and International Phonetic Alphabet chart for English dialects). If this is the case, you will pronounce those symbols the same for other words as well.[1] Whether this is true for all words, or just when the sounds occur in the same context, depends on the merger.[2] The footnotes explain some of these cases.
Notes
- Words in SMALL CAPITALS are the standard lexical sets. Not all of the sets are used here. In particular, we excluded words in the lexical sets BATH and CLOTH, which may be given two transcriptions, the former either with /ɑː/Category:Pages with plain IPA or /æ/Category:Pages with plain IPA, the latter with /ɒ/Category:Pages with plain IPA or /ɔː/Category:Pages with plain IPA.
- The length mark ⟨ːCategory:Pages with plain IPA⟩ does not mean that the vowels transcribed with it are always longer than those without it. When unstressed, followed by a voiceless consonant, or in a polysyllabic word, a vowel in the former group is frequently shorter than the latter in other environments (see Clipping (phonetics) § English). /i, u/Category:Pages with plain IPA likewise do not mean shorter versions of /iː, uː/Category:Pages with plain IPA but represent a situation in which some speakers have /iː, uː/Category:Pages with plain IPA and others /ɪ, ʊ/Category:Pages with plain IPA (see Happy tensing).
Dialect variation
This key represents diaphonemes, abstractions of speech sounds that accommodate General American, British Received Pronunciation (RP) and to a large extent also Australian, Canadian, Irish (including Ulster), New Zealand, Scottish, South African and Welsh English pronunciations. Therefore, not all of the distinctions shown here are relevant to a particular dialect.
- ⟨iCategory:Pages with plain IPA⟩ does not represent a phoneme but a variation between /iː/Category:Pages with plain IPA and /ɪ/Category:Pages with plain IPA in unstressed positions. Speakers of dialects with happy tensing (Australian English, General American, modern RP) should read it as an unstressed /iː/Category:Pages with plain IPA, whereas speakers of other dialects (e.g. some Northern England English) should treat it the same as /ɪ/Category:Pages with plain IPA. In Scotland, this vowel can be considered the same as the short allophone of /eɪ/Category:Pages with plain IPA, as in take. Before /ə/Category:Pages with plain IPA within the same word, another possible pronunciation is /j/Category:Pages with plain IPA as in yet.
- Many speakers of American, Canadian, Scottish and Irish English pronounce cot /ˈkɒt/Category:Pages with plain IPA and caught /ˈkɔːt/Category:Pages with plain IPA the same.[k] You may simply ignore the difference between the symbols /ɒ/Category:Pages with plain IPA and /ɔː/Category:Pages with plain IPA, just as you ignore the distinction between the written vowels o and au when pronouncing them.
- Most speakers of North American English (with the exception of Eastern New England) do not distinguish between the vowels in father /'fɑːðər/Category:Pages with plain IPA and bother /'bɒðər/Category:Pages with plain IPA, pronouncing the two words as rhymes. If you speak such a dialect, ignore the difference between the symbols /ɑː/Category:Pages with plain IPA and /ɒ/Category:Pages with plain IPA.
- Speakers of some rhotic dialects, for instance in Ireland and Scotland, may not distinguish between the vowels of near /ˈnɪər/Category:Pages with plain IPA, cure /ˈkjʊər/Category:Pages with plain IPA and square /ˈskwɛər/Category:Pages with plain IPA on the one hand and freerunning /ˈfriːrʌnɪŋ/Category:Pages with plain IPA, Q-rating /ˈkjuːreɪtɪŋ/Category:Pages with plain IPA and dayroom /ˈdeɪruːm/Category:Pages with plain IPA on the other. If you speak such a dialect, read /ɪər, ʊər, ɛər/Category:Pages with plain IPA as /iːr, uːr, eɪr/Category:Pages with plain IPA.
- In Northern Ireland, Scotland and many North American dialects the distinction between /ʊr/Category:Pages with plain IPA as in courier and the aforementioned /ʊər/Category:Pages with plain IPA and /uːr/Category:Pages with plain IPA does not exist. If you speak such a dialect, ignore the difference between /ʊr/Category:Pages with plain IPA, /ʊər/Category:Pages with plain IPA and /uːr/Category:Pages with plain IPA.
- In Northern Ireland and Scotland this merger occurs in all environments, which means that foot /ˈfʊt/Category:Pages with plain IPA and goose /ˈɡuːs/Category:Pages with plain IPA also have the same vowel.[l][m] If you speak such a dialect, ignore the difference between /ʊ/Category:Pages with plain IPA and /uː/Category:Pages with plain IPA in all contexts.
- In North America, the /ʊr/Category:Pages with plain IPA of courier and the /ʊər/Category:Pages with plain IPA of cure may instead merge with /ɔːr/Category:Pages with plain IPA as in north or /ɜːr/Category:Pages with plain IPA as in nurse. No such merger is possible in the case of the sequence which we transcribe as /uːr/Category:Pages with plain IPA as there is an implied morpheme boundary after the length mark.
- In North American dialects that do not distinguish between /ʊr/Category:Pages with plain IPA, /ʊər/Category:Pages with plain IPA and /uːr/Category:Pages with plain IPA there is also no distinction between the /ɪr/Category:Pages with plain IPA of mirror and the aforementioned /ɪər/Category:Pages with plain IPA and /iːr/Category:Pages with plain IPA. If you speak such a dialect, ignore the difference between /ɪr/Category:Pages with plain IPA, /ɪər/Category:Pages with plain IPA and /iːr/Category:Pages with plain IPA.
- In many North American dialects there is also no distinction between the vowels in merry /ˈmɛri/Category:Pages with plain IPA, Mary /ˈmɛəri/Category:Pages with plain IPA and marry /ˈmæri/Category:Pages with plain IPA. If you speak such a dialect, ignore the difference between /ɛr/Category:Pages with plain IPA, /ɛər/Category:Pages with plain IPA and /ær/Category:Pages with plain IPA. Some speakers keep marry and/or merry separate from the rest, but in the General American accent all three vowels are the same and may not be distinct from /eɪr/Category:Pages with plain IPA as in dayroom /ˈdeɪruːm/Category:Pages with plain IPA.
- In rhotic North American English there is no distinction between the vowels in nurse /ˈnɜːrs/Category:Pages with plain IPA and letter /ˈlɛtər/Category:Pages with plain IPA. If you speak such a dialect, read /ɜːr/Category:Pages with plain IPA as /ər/Category:Pages with plain IPA. The /ʌr/Category:Pages with plain IPA of hurry often joins this neutralization; if you have it in your speech, read /ɜːr/Category:Pages with plain IPA, /ər/Category:Pages with plain IPA and /ʌr/Category:Pages with plain IPA as /ər/Category:Pages with plain IPA.
- Some speakers from Northern England do not distinguish the vowel of square /ˈskwɛər/Category:Pages with plain IPA and nurse /ˈnɜːrs/Category:Pages with plain IPA.[n] If you speak such a dialect, ignore the difference between the symbols /ɛər/Category:Pages with plain IPA and /ɜːr/Category:Pages with plain IPA.
- In New Zealand English, the vowels of kit /ˈkɪt/Category:Pages with plain IPA and focus /ˈfoʊkəs/Category:Pages with plain IPA have the same schwa-like quality.[o][p] If you are from New Zealand, ignore the difference between the symbols /ɪ/Category:Pages with plain IPA and /ə/Category:Pages with plain IPA.
- In contemporary New Zealand English and some other dialects, the vowels of near /ˈnɪər/Category:Pages with plain IPA and square /ˈskwɛər/Category:Pages with plain IPA are not distinguished.[q] If you speak such a dialect, ignore the difference between the symbols /ɪər/Category:Pages with plain IPA and /ɛər/Category:Pages with plain IPA.
- In Northern England English and some varieties of Irish and Welsh English, the vowels of foot /ˈfʊt/Category:Pages with plain IPA and strut /ˈstrʌt/Category:Pages with plain IPA are not distinguished.[r] If you speak such a dialect, ignore the difference between the symbols /ʊ/Category:Pages with plain IPA and /ʌ/Category:Pages with plain IPA.
- In some varieties of Scottish English and in Northern Irish English, the vowels of trap /ˈtræp/Category:Pages with plain IPA and palm /ˈpɑːm/Category:Pages with plain IPA are not distinguished.[s] If you speak such a dialect, ignore the difference between the symbols /æ/Category:Pages with plain IPA and /ɑː/Category:Pages with plain IPA.
- In Welsh English and some other dialects, the vowels of unorthodoxy /ʌnˈɔːrθədɒksi/Category:Pages with plain IPA and an orthodoxy /ən ˈɔːrθədɒksi/Category:Pages with plain IPA are not distinguished.[t] If you speak such a dialect, ignore the difference between the symbols /ʌ/Category:Pages with plain IPA and /ə/Category:Pages with plain IPA.
- Depending on the dialect, vowels can be subject to various mergers before /l/Category:Pages with plain IPA, so that e.g. fill /ˈfɪl/Category:Pages with plain IPA and feel /ˈfiːl/Category:Pages with plain IPA or pull /ˈpʊl/Category:Pages with plain IPA and pool /ˈpuːl/Category:Pages with plain IPA may not be distinguished. L-vocalization may trigger even more mergers, so that e.g. cord /ˈkɔːrd/Category:Pages with plain IPA and called /ˈkɔːld/Category:Pages with plain IPA may be homophonous as /ˈkɔːd/Category:Pages with plain IPA in non-rhotic dialects of South East England. See English-language vowel changes before historic /l/ for more information.
- In many dialects, /r/Category:Pages with plain IPA occurs only before a vowel; if you speak such a dialect, simply ignore /r/Category:Pages with plain IPA in the pronunciation guides where you would not pronounce it, as in cart /kɑːrt/Category:Pages with plain IPA.
- In other dialects, /j/Category:Pages with plain IPA (yes) cannot occur after /t, d, n/Category:Pages with plain IPA, etc., within the same syllable; if you speak such a dialect, then ignore the /j/Category:Pages with plain IPA in transcriptions such as new /njuː/Category:Pages with plain IPA. For example, New York is transcribed /njuː ˈjɔːrk/Category:Pages with plain IPA. For most people from England and for some New Yorkers, the /r/Category:Pages with plain IPA in /jɔːrk/Category:Pages with plain IPA is not pronounced; for most people from the United States, including some New Yorkers, the /j/Category:Pages with plain IPA in /njuː/Category:Pages with plain IPA is not pronounced and may be ignored. (See yod-dropping.)
On the other hand, there are some distinctions which you might make but which this key does not encode, as they are seldom reflected in the dictionaries used as sources for Wikipedia articles:
- The vowels of kit and bit, distinguished in South Africa.[u] Both of them are transcribed as /ɪ/Category:Pages with plain IPA in stressed syllables and as /ɪ/Category:Pages with plain IPA or /ə/Category:Pages with plain IPA in unstressed syllables.
- The difference between the vowels of fir, fur and fern, maintained in some Scottish and Irish English but lost elsewhere.[v] All of them are transcribed as /ɜːr/Category:Pages with plain IPA.
- The vowels of north and force, distinguished in Scottish English, Irish English and by a minority of American speakers.[v] Both of them are transcribed as /ɔːr/Category:Pages with plain IPA.
- The vowels of pause and paws, distinguished in Cockney and by some Estuary English speakers.[w] Both of them are transcribed as /ɔː/Category:Pages with plain IPA when the spelling does not contain ⟨r⟩ and /ɔːr/Category:Pages with plain IPA or /ʊər/Category:Pages with plain IPA (depending on the word) when it does.
- The vowels of manning and Manning, distinguished in some parts of the United States (see /æ/ raising). Both of them are transcribed as /æ/Category:Pages with plain IPA.
- The difference between the vowels of pain and pane found in some English, Welsh, and Newfoundland dialects. Both of them are transcribed as /eɪ/Category:Pages with plain IPA.
- The difference between the vowels of toe and tow found in some English, Welsh, and Newfoundland dialects. Both of them are transcribed as /oʊ/Category:Pages with plain IPA.
- The difference between the vowels of holy and wholly found in Cockney and many Estuary English speakers.[x] Both of them are transcribed as /oʊ/Category:Pages with plain IPA.
- Any allophonic distinctions, such as:
- The vowels of bad and lad, distinguished in many parts of Australia and Southern England. Both of them are transcribed as /æ/Category:Pages with plain IPA.
- The vowels of spider and spied her, distinguished in many parts of Scotland,[y] plus many parts of North America. Both of them are transcribed as /aɪ/Category:Pages with plain IPA.
- The vowels of rider and writer, distinguished in most parts of Canada and many parts of the United States. Both of them are transcribed as /aɪ/Category:Pages with plain IPA.
- The vowels of powder and pouter distinguished in most parts of Canada and some parts of the United States. Both of them are transcribed as /aʊ/Category:Pages with plain IPA.
- Allophonic vowel length (including the Scottish vowel length rule), as in knife /ˈnaɪf/Category:Pages with plain IPA vs. knives /ˈnaɪvz/Category:Pages with plain IPA. Phonemic vowel length, which exists in some dialects and involves pairs such as /ɛ/Category:Pages with plain IPA vs. /ɛər/Category:Pages with plain IPA and /ə/Category:Pages with plain IPA vs. /ɜːr/Category:Pages with plain IPA is also not marked explicitly. /i/Category:Pages with plain IPA and /u/Category:Pages with plain IPA do not represent phonemes; see above.
- Flapping in words such as better, which we write /ˈbɛtər/Category:Pages with plain IPA, rather than /ˈbɛdər/Category:Pages with plain IPA.
- Glottalization in words such as jetlag and, in some accents, daughter, which we write /ˈdʒɛtlæɡ/Category:Pages with plain IPA and /ˈdɔːtər/Category:Pages with plain IPA, rather than /ˈdʒɛʔlæɡ/Category:Pages with plain IPA and /ˈdɔːʔər/Category:Pages with plain IPA. In this system, /ʔ/Category:Pages with plain IPA is used only for paralanguage or in loanwords where it occurs phonemically in the original language.
- L-vocalization in words such as bottle and Alps, which we write /ˈbɒtəl/Category:Pages with plain IPA and /ˈælps/Category:Pages with plain IPA, rather than /ˈbɒtʊ/Category:Pages with plain IPA and /ˈæwps/Category:Pages with plain IPA.
- The difference between allophones of /ə/Category:Pages with plain IPA in balance ([ə]) vs. the ones in about and Russia (and, in non-rhotic dialects, better), both of which may be closer to /ʌ/Category:Pages with plain IPA in dialects with the foot–strut split (that is, [ɐ]) vs. the one in button (the syllabicity of the following consonant). All are transcribed as /ə/Category:Pages with plain IPA in our system.
- The difference between the phonetic realization of English sounds (mostly vowels) in various dialects. Let's pick some grapes for Betty should be transcribed /lɛts ˈpɪk səm ˈɡreɪps fər ˈbɛti/Category:Pages with plain IPA regardless of the variety of English and everyone should interpret that transcription according to their own dialect. Thus, a person from South East England will read it as something like [lɛʔs ˈpʰɪk səm ˈɡɹɛɪps fə ˈbɛtˢɪi]Category:Pages with plain IPA, a Scot as [ɫɛts ˈpʰɪk səm ˈɡɾeps fɚ ˈbɛte]Category:Pages with plain IPA, whereas someone from New Zealand will interpret that transcription as [ɫɪts ˈpʰək səm ˈɡɹæɪps fə ˈbɪɾi]Category:Pages with plain IPA. Because we are transcribing diaphonemes rather than phones (actual sounds), it is irrelevant that, for example, the vowel in let's as pronounced by someone from New Zealand overlaps with how people with England and Scotland typically pronounce the first vowel in pick, or that the Scottish realization of /r/Category:Pages with plain IPA after /ɡ/Category:Pages with plain IPA overlaps with the New Zealand realization of /t/Category:Pages with plain IPA between vowels. In other words, the symbol ⟨ɛCategory:Pages with plain IPA⟩ does not stand specifically for the open-mid front unrounded vowel in our system but any vowel that can be identified as the vowel in let's, depending on the accent. This is also why we use the simple symbol ⟨rCategory:Pages with plain IPA⟩ for the second sound in grapes.
Other words may have different vowels depending on the speaker.
For more extensive information on dialect variations, you may wish to see the IPA chart for English dialects.
Note that place names are not generally exempted from being transcribed in this abstracted system, so rules such as the above must be applied in order to recover the local pronunciation. Examples include place names in much of England ending -ford, which although locally pronounced [-fəd]Category:Pages with plain IPA are transcribed /-fərd/Category:Pages with plain IPA. This is best practice for editors. However, readers should be aware that not all editors may have followed this consistently, so for example if /-fəd/Category:Pages with plain IPA is encountered for such a place name, it should not be interpreted as a claim that the /r/Category:Pages with plain IPA would be absent even in a rhotic dialect.
Other transcriptions
If you feel it is necessary to add a pronunciation respelling using another convention, then please use the conventions of Wikipedia's pronunciation respelling key.
- To compare the following IPA symbols with non-IPA American dictionary conventions that may be more familiar, see Pronunciation respelling for English, which lists the pronunciation guides of fourteen English dictionaries published in the United States.
- To compare the following IPA symbols with other IPA conventions that may be more familiar, see Help:IPA/Conventions for English, which lists the conventions of eight English dictionaries published in Britain, Australia, and the United States.
See also
- If your browser does not display IPA symbols, you probably need to install a font that includes the IPA (for good, free IPA fonts, see the download links in the articles for Gentium, and the more complete Charis SIL; for a monospaced font, see the complete Everson Mono).
- For a guide to adding IPA characters to Wikipedia articles, see Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation § Entering IPA characters.
- Help:IPA/Conventions for English
- Help:Pronunciation respelling key
- Pronunciation respelling for English
- Category:Pages with English IPA (138)
Notes
- ↑ This rule is generally employed in the pronunciation guide of our articles, even for local terms such as place names. However, be aware that not all editors may have followed this consistently, so for example if a pronunciation of an English town ending in ‑ford reads /‑fəd/, it doesn't mean that the /r/ would be absent in a rhotic dialect.
- ↑ For example, if you have the marry–merry merger, you probably only merge /æ/Category:Pages with plain IPA and /ɛ/Category:Pages with plain IPA before /r/Category:Pages with plain IPA. You would still distinguish man and men.
- 1 2 In varieties with flapping, /t/Category:Pages with plain IPA and sometimes also /d/Category:Pages with plain IPA between a vowel and a weak or word-initial vowel may be pronounced with a voiced tap [ɾ], making latter sound similar or identical to ladder. Some dictionaries transcribe /t/Category:Pages with plain IPA subject to this process as ⟨dCategory:Pages with plain IPA⟩ or ⟨t̬Category:Pages with plain IPA⟩, but they are not distinguished in this transcription system. In those varieties, the sequence /nt/Category:Pages with plain IPA in the same environment may also be realized as a nasalized tap [ɾ̃], making winter sound similar or identical to winner. This is also not distinguished in this system.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 In dialects with yod dropping, /j/Category:Pages with plain IPA in /juː/Category:Pages with plain IPA, /ju/Category:Pages with plain IPA, or /jʊər/Category:Pages with plain IPA is not pronounced after coronal consonants (/t/Category:Pages with plain IPA, /d/Category:Pages with plain IPA, /s/Category:Pages with plain IPA, /z/Category:Pages with plain IPA, /n/Category:Pages with plain IPA, /θ/Category:Pages with plain IPA, and /l/Category:Pages with plain IPA) in the same syllable, so that dew /djuː/Category:Pages with plain IPA is pronounced the same as do /duː/Category:Pages with plain IPA. In dialects with yod coalescence, /tj/Category:Pages with plain IPA and /dj/Category:Pages with plain IPA mostly merge with /tʃ/Category:Pages with plain IPA and /dʒ/Category:Pages with plain IPA, so that the first syllable in Tuesday is pronounced the same as choose. In some dialects /sj/Category:Pages with plain IPA and /zj/Category:Pages with plain IPA are also affected and frequently merge with /ʃ/Category:Pages with plain IPA and /ʒ/Category:Pages with plain IPA. Where /j/Category:Pages with plain IPA in /juː/Category:Pages with plain IPA, /ju/Category:Pages with plain IPA, or /jʊər/Category:Pages with plain IPA following a coronal is still pronounced in yod-dropping accents, place a syllable break before it: menu /ˈmɛn.juː/Category:Pages with plain IPA.
- ↑ The phoneme /hw/Category:Pages with plain IPA is not distinguished from /w/Category:Pages with plain IPA in the many dialects with the wine–whine merger, such as RP and most varieties of General American. For more information on this sound, see voiceless labialized velar approximant.
- ↑ The IPA value of the letter ⟨jCategory:Pages with plain IPA⟩ may be counterintuitive to English speakers, but the spelling is found even in some common English words like hallelujah and fjord. Some dictionaries use ⟨yCategory:Pages with plain IPA⟩ instead, although it represents a close front rounded vowel in official IPA.
- ↑ /l/Category:Pages with plain IPA in the syllable coda, as in the words all, cold, or bottle, is pronounced as [o], [u], [w] or a similar sound in many dialects through L-vocalization.
- ↑ In most varieties of English, /r/Category:Pages with plain IPA is pronounced as an Voiced postalveolar approximant ⟨ɹ̠Category:Pages with plain IPA⟩. Although the IPA symbol ⟨rCategory:Pages with plain IPA⟩ represents the alveolar trill, ⟨rCategory:Pages with plain IPA⟩ is widely used instead of ⟨ɹ̠Category:Pages with plain IPA⟩ in broad transcriptions of English for convenience.
- ↑ A number of English words, such as genre and garage, may be pronounced with either /ʒ/Category:Pages with plain IPA or /dʒ/Category:Pages with plain IPA.
- ↑ In non-rhotic accents like RP, /r/Category:Pages with plain IPA is not pronounced unless followed by a vowel.
- ↑ In dialects with the father–bother merger such as General American, /ɒ/Category:Pages with plain IPA is not distinguished from /ɑː/Category:Pages with plain IPA.
- ↑ In most of the United States, /ɒr/Category:Pages with plain IPA is merged with /ɔːr/Category:Pages with plain IPA, except for a handful of words such as borrow, tomorrow and sorry, which instead have /ɑːr/Category:Pages with plain IPA. In some parts of the Southern and Northeastern US, it is always merged with /ɑːr/Category:Pages with plain IPA. In Canada, it is always merged with /ɔːr/Category:Pages with plain IPA.
- ↑ Some British sources, such as the Oxford English Dictionary, use ⟨aCategory:Pages with plain IPA⟩ instead of /æ/Category:Pages with plain IPA to transcribe this vowel. This more closely reflects the actual vowel quality in contemporary Received Pronunciation.[a]
- ↑ In North America, /æ/Category:Pages with plain IPA is often pronounced like a diphthong [eə~ɛə]Category:Pages with plain IPA before nasal consonants and, in some particular regional dialects, other environments. See /æ/ raising.
- 1 2 3 Many North American accents have the Mary–marry–merry merger and therefore don't distinguish between the corresponding sounds /ɛər/Category:Pages with plain IPA, /ær/Category:Pages with plain IPA, and /ɛr/Category:Pages with plain IPA. Some speakers merge only two of the sounds (most typically /ɛər/Category:Pages with plain IPA with one of the short vowels), and less than a fifth of speakers of American English make a full three-way distinction like in RP and similar accents.[b]
- 1 2 In much of North America, /aɪ/Category:Pages with plain IPA or /aʊ/Category:Pages with plain IPA may have a slightly different quality when it precedes a voiceless consonant, as in price or mouth, from that in ride/pie or loud/how, a phenomenon known as Canadian raising. Since this occurs in a predictable fashion, it is not distinguished in this transcription system.
- 1 2 3 Some speakers pronounce higher, flower and coyer ("more coy") with two syllables, and hire, flour and coir with one. Most pronounce them the same. For the former group of words, make use of syllable breaks, as in /ˈhaɪ.ər/, /ˈflaʊ.ər/, /ˈkɔɪ.ər/Category:Pages with plain IPA, to differentiate from the latter. Before vowels, the distinction between /aɪər, aʊər, ɔɪər/Category:Pages with plain IPA and /aɪr, aʊr, ɔɪr/Category:Pages with plain IPA is not always clear; choose the former if the second element may be omitted (as in [ˈdaəri]Category:Pages with plain IPA diary).
- ↑ /ɛ/Category:Pages with plain IPA is transcribed with ⟨eCategory:Pages with plain IPA⟩ in many dictionaries. However, /eɪ/Category:Pages with plain IPA is also sometimes transcribed with ⟨eCategory:Pages with plain IPA⟩, especially in North American literature, so ⟨ɛCategory:Pages with plain IPA⟩ is chosen here.
- 1 2 3 /ɛə/Category:Pages with plain IPA, /ɪə/Category:Pages with plain IPA, or /ʊə/Category:Pages with plain IPA may be separated from /r/Category:Pages with plain IPA only when a stress follows it. The IPAc-en template supports /ɛəˈr/Category:Pages with plain IPA, /ɪəˈr/Category:Pages with plain IPA, /ʊəˈr/Category:Pages with plain IPA, /ɛəˌr/Category:Pages with plain IPA, /ɪəˌr/Category:Pages with plain IPA, and /ʊəˌr/Category:Pages with plain IPA as distinct diaphonemes for such occasions.
- 1 2 3 4 ⟨ɪCategory:Pages with plain IPA⟩ and ⟨oʊCategory:Pages with plain IPA⟩ represent strong vowels in some words and weak vowels in others. It will not always be clear which they are.[c][d]
- 1 2 Words like idea, real, and theatre may be pronounced with /ɪə/Category:Pages with plain IPA and cruel with /ʊə/Category:Pages with plain IPA in non-rhotic accents such as Received Pronunciation, and some dictionaries transcribe them with /ɪə, ʊə/Category:Pages with plain IPA,[e] but since they are not pronounced with /r/Category:Pages with plain IPA in rhotic accents, they are transcribed with /iːə, uːə/Category:Pages with plain IPA, not with /ɪə, ʊə/Category:Pages with plain IPA, in this transcription system.
- ↑ /oʊ/Category:Pages with plain IPA is often transcribed with ⟨əʊCategory:Pages with plain IPA⟩, particularly in British literature, based on its modern realization in Received Pronunciation. It is also transcribed with ⟨oCategory:Pages with plain IPA⟩, particularly in North American literature.
- 1 2 Some accents, such as Scottish English, many forms of Irish English and some conservative American accents, make a distinction between the vowels in horse and hoarse (i.e. they lack the horse–hoarse merger). Since most modern dictionaries do not differentiate between them, neither does this key.
- ↑ /ɔː/Category:Pages with plain IPA is not distinguished from /ɒ/Category:Pages with plain IPA in dialects with the cot–caught merger such as Scottish English, Canadian English and many varieties of General American. In North America, the two vowels most often fall together with /ɑː/Category:Pages with plain IPA.
- ↑ /ʊər/Category:Pages with plain IPA is not distinguished from /ɔːr/Category:Pages with plain IPA in dialects with the cure–force merger, including many younger speakers. In England, the merger may not be fully consistent and may only apply to more common words. In conservative RP and Northern England English /ʊər/Category:Pages with plain IPA is much more commonly preserved than in modern RP and Southern England English. In Australia and New Zealand, /ʊər/Category:Pages with plain IPA does not exist as a separate phoneme and is replaced either by the sequence /uːər/Category:Pages with plain IPA (/uːr/Category:Pages with plain IPA before vowels within the same word, save for some compounds) or the monophthong /ɔːr/Category:Pages with plain IPA.
- ↑ Some, particularly North American, dictionaries notate /ʌ/Category:Pages with plain IPA with the same symbol as /ə/Category:Pages with plain IPA, which is found only in unstressed syllables, and distinguish it from /ə/Category:Pages with plain IPA by marking the syllable as stressed. Also note that although ⟨ʌCategory:Pages with plain IPA⟩, the IPA symbol for the open-mid back vowel, is used, the typical modern pronunciation is rather close to the near-open central vowel [ɐ]Category:Pages with plain IPA in some dialects, including Received Pronunciation.
- ↑ /ʌ/Category:Pages with plain IPA is not used in the dialects of the northern half of England and some parts of Ireland and Wales. These words would take the /ʊ/Category:Pages with plain IPA vowel: there is no foot–strut split.
- ↑ In Received Pronunciation, /ɜːr/Category:Pages with plain IPA is pronounced as a lengthened schwa, [əː]Category:Pages with plain IPA. In General American, it is phonetically identical to /ər/Category:Pages with plain IPA. Some dictionaries therefore use ⟨əː, ərCategory:Pages with plain IPA⟩ instead of the conventional notations ⟨ɜː, ɜrCategory:Pages with plain IPA⟩. When ⟨ərCategory:Pages with plain IPA⟩ is used for /ɜːr/Category:Pages with plain IPA, it is distinguished from /ər/Category:Pages with plain IPA by marking the syllable as stressed.
- ↑ /ʌr/Category:Pages with plain IPA is not distinguished from /ɜːr/Category:Pages with plain IPA in dialects with the hurry–furry merger such as General American.
- 1 2 In a number of contexts, /ə/Category:Pages with plain IPA in /ər/Category:Pages with plain IPA, /əl/Category:Pages with plain IPA, /ən/Category:Pages with plain IPA, or /əm/Category:Pages with plain IPA is often omitted, resulting in a syllable with no vowel. Some dictionaries show /ə/Category:Pages with plain IPA in those contexts in parentheses, superscript, or italics to indicate this possibility, or simply omit /ə/Category:Pages with plain IPA. When followed by a weak vowel, the syllable may be lost altogether, with the consonant moving to the next syllable, so that doubling /ˈdʌb.əl.ɪŋ/Category:Pages with plain IPA may alternatively be pronounced as [ˈdʌb.lɪŋ]Category:Pages with plain IPA, and Edinburgh /ˈɛd.ɪn.bər.ə/Category:Pages with plain IPA as [ˈɛd.ɪn.brə]Category:Pages with plain IPA.[i] When not followed by a vowel, /ər/Category:Pages with plain IPA merges with /ə/Category:Pages with plain IPA in non-rhotic accents.
- ↑ ⟨ɪCategory:Pages with plain IPA⟩ represents a strong vowel in some contexts and a weak vowel in others. In accents with the weak vowel merger such as most Australian and American accents, weak /ɪ/Category:Pages with plain IPA is not distinguished from schwa /ə/Category:Pages with plain IPA, making rabbit and abbot rhyme and Lenin and Lennon homophonous. (Pairs like roses and Rosa's are kept distinct in American accents because of the difference in morphological structure,[f] but may be homophonous in Australian.[g]) In these accents, weak /ɪl, ɪn, ɪm/Category:Pages with plain IPA merge with /əl, ən, əm/Category:Pages with plain IPA, so that the second vowel in Latin may be lost and cabinet may be disyllabic (see the previous note).
- 1 2 /oʊ/Category:Pages with plain IPA and /u/Category:Pages with plain IPA in unstressed, prevocalic positions are transcribed as /əw/Category:Pages with plain IPA by Merriam-Webster, but no other dictionary uniformly follows this practice.[h] Hence the difference between /əw/Category:Pages with plain IPA in Merriam-Webster and /oʊ/Category:Pages with plain IPA or /u/Category:Pages with plain IPA in another source is most likely one in notation, not in pronunciation, so /əw/Category:Pages with plain IPA in such cases may be better replaced with /oʊ/Category:Pages with plain IPA or /u/Category:Pages with plain IPA accordingly, to minimize confusion: /ˌsɪtʃəˈweɪʃən/Category:Pages with plain IPA → /ˌsɪtʃuˈeɪʃən/Category:Pages with plain IPA, /ˈfɒləwər/Category:Pages with plain IPA → /ˈfɒloʊər/Category:Pages with plain IPA.
- 1 2 ⟨iCategory:Pages with plain IPA⟩ represents variation between /iː/Category:Pages with plain IPA and /ɪ/Category:Pages with plain IPA in unstressed prevocalic or morpheme-final positions. It is realized with a quality closer to /iː/Category:Pages with plain IPA in accents with happy tensing, such as Australian English, General American, and modern RP, and to /ɪ/Category:Pages with plain IPA in others. ⟨uCategory:Pages with plain IPA⟩ likewise represents variation between /uː/Category:Pages with plain IPA and /ʊ/Category:Pages with plain IPA in unstressed prevocalic positions.
- ↑ The sequence ⟨iəCategory:Pages with plain IPA⟩ may be pronounced as two syllables, [i.ə]Category:Pages with plain IPA or [ɪ.ə]Category:Pages with plain IPA, or as one, [jə]Category:Pages with plain IPA or [ɪə̯]Category:Pages with plain IPA. When pronounced as one syllable in a non-rhotic accent, it may be indistinguishable from, and identified as, the NEAR vowel (/ɪər/Category:Pages with plain IPA).[e] This transcription system uses ⟨iəCategory:Pages with plain IPA⟩, not ⟨i.əCategory:Pages with plain IPA⟩, ⟨ɪəCategory:Pages with plain IPA⟩, etc., to cover all these possibilities.
- ↑ The sequence ⟨uəCategory:Pages with plain IPA⟩ may be pronounced as two syllables, [u.ə]Category:Pages with plain IPA or [ʊ.ə]Category:Pages with plain IPA, or as one, [wə]Category:Pages with plain IPA or [ʊə̯]Category:Pages with plain IPA. When pronounced as one syllable in a non-rhotic accent, it may be indistinguishable from, and identified as, the CURE vowel (/ʊər/Category:Pages with plain IPA).[e] This transcription system uses ⟨uəCategory:Pages with plain IPA⟩, not ⟨u.əCategory:Pages with plain IPA⟩, ⟨ʊəCategory:Pages with plain IPA⟩, etc., to cover all these possibilities.
- ↑ In most dialects, /x/Category:Pages with plain IPA can also be replaced by /k/Category:Pages with plain IPA in most words, including loch. It is also replaced with /h/Category:Pages with plain IPA in some words, particularly of Yiddish origin, such as Chanukah.
- 1 2 /ɒ̃, æ̃/Category:Pages with plain IPA are only found in French loanwords and often replaced by another vowel and a nasal consonant: bon vivant /ˌbɒn viːˈvɒnt/Category:Pages with plain IPA, ensemble /ɒnˈsɒmbəl/Category:Pages with plain IPA, etc.[j]
- ↑ /ɜː/Category:Pages with plain IPA is only found in loanwords and represents a situation where such an r-less vowel is used only in British or Southern Hemisphere accents, and therefore a transcription that includes it must always be prefaced with a label indicating the variety of English. If r-ful NURSE is used in GA too, even if spelled without ⟨r⟩, as in Goethe and hors d'oeuvre, use /ɜːr/Category:Pages with plain IPA. /ɜː/Category:Pages with plain IPA is also not the same as ⟨œ⟩ seen in some American dictionaries. ⟨œ⟩ in those dictionaries is merely a notational convention and does not correspond to any vowel in any accent of English, so a transcription containing ⟨œ⟩ cannot be converted to one that uses this key.
- ↑ The IPA stress marks, ⟨ˈCategory:Pages with plain IPA⟩ and ⟨ˌCategory:Pages with plain IPA⟩, come before the syllable that has the stress, in contrast to stress marking in pronunciation keys of some dictionaries published in the United States.
- ↑ Scholars disagree on how to analyze degrees of stress in English. A particular unstressed syllable with phonetic prominence or a full (unreduced) vowel is analyzed by some scholars as having secondary stress. For simplicity, we follow British rather than American English conventions, only marking secondary stress when it occurs before, not after, the primary stress.
- ↑ Syllable divisions are not usually marked, but the IPA dot ⟨.Category:Pages with plain IPA⟩ may be used when it is wished to make explicit where a division between syllables is (or may be) made.
References
- ↑ "British English Pronunciations". Oxford English Dictionary. Retrieved 4 September 2023.
- ↑ Vaux, Bert; Golder, Scott (2003). "How do you pronounce Mary/merry/marry?". Harvard Dialect Survey. Harvard University Linguistics Department.
- ↑ Flemming & Johnson (2007), pp. 91–2.
- ↑ Wells, John (25 March 2011). "strong and weak". John Wells's phonetic blog.
- 1 2 3 Wells (1982), p. 240.
- ↑ Flemming & Johnson (2007), pp. 94–5.
- ↑ Wells (1982), p. 601.
- ↑ Windsor Lewis, Jack (10 April 2009). "The Elephant in the Room". PhonetiBlog. Archived from the original on 6 March 2025.
- ↑ Wells (2008), pp. 173, 799.
- ↑ Jones (2011).
- ↑ Wells (1982), pp. 473–6, 493, 499.
- ↑ Stuart-Smith (2004), p. 58.
- ↑ Corrigan (2010), pp. 33–5.
- ↑ Wells (1982), pp. 361, 372.
- ↑ Wells (1982), pp. 605–7.
- ↑ Bauer et al. (2007), pp. 98–9.
- ↑ Bauer et al. (2007), p. 98.
- ↑ Wells (1982), pp. 351–3, 363–4.
- ↑ Wells (1982), pp. 400, 439.
- ↑ Wells (1982), pp. 380–1.
- ↑ Wells (1982), pp. 612–3.
- 1 2 Stuart-Smith (2004), p. 56.
- ↑ Wells (1982), pp. 304, 310–1.
- ↑ Wells (1982), pp. 304, 312–3.
- ↑ Stuart-Smith (2004), p. 57.
Bibliography
- Bauer, Laurie; Warren, Paul; Bardsley, Dianne; Kennedy, Marianna; Major, George (2007). "New Zealand English". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 37 (1): 97–102. doi:10.1017/S0025100306002830. S2CID 145584883.
- Corrigan, Karen P. (2010). Irish English, volume 1 – Northern Ireland. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-0-7486-3429-3.
- Flemming, Edward; Johnson, Stephanie (2007). "Rosa's roses: reduced vowels in American English" (PDF). Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 37 (1): 83–96. doi:10.1017/S0025100306002817. S2CID 145535175.
- Jones, Daniel (2011). Roach, Peter; Setter, Jane; Esling, John (eds.). Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary (18th ed.). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-15255-6.
- Stuart-Smith, Jane (2004). "Scottish English: phonology". In Schneider, Edgar W.; Burridge, Kate; Kortmann, Bernd; Mesthrie, Rajend; Upton, Clive (eds.). A Handbook of Varieties of English. Vol. 1: Phonology. Mouton de Gruyter. pp. 47–67. doi:10.1515/9783110175325.1.47. ISBN 3-11-017532-0.Category:CS1: long volume value
- Wells, John C. (1982). Accents of English. Vol. 1: An Introduction (pp. i–xx, 1–278), Vol. 2: The British Isles (pp. i–xx, 279–466), Vol. 3: Beyond the British Isles (pp. i–xx, 467–674). Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511611759, doi:10.1017/CBO9780511611766. ISBN 0-52129719-2, 0-52128540-2, 0-52128541-0.
- Wells, John C. (2008). Longman Pronunciation Dictionary (3rd ed.). Longman. ISBN 978-1-4058-8118-0.
External links
- Getting JAWS 6.1 to recognize "exotic" Unicode symbols[dead link] – for help on getting the screen reader JAWS to read IPA symbols
- IPA Reader – web-based IPA synthesizer using Amazon Polly
- Phoneme Synthesis – web-based IPA synthesizer using eSpeak