NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Pronunciation respelling for English

Many dictionaries and other language references give pronunciation guides for some or all words listed. Most British English dictionaries now use the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) for these, and represent Received Pronunciation (RP). However some British, and most American volumes, use respelling systems, which may be more intuitive for readers unfamiliar with IPA, and which may allow for a symbol to be interpreted differently by readers of different dialects. An example of a web browser (Internet Explorer), displaying the English Wikipedia main page. ... This article includes a list of works cited or a list of external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. ... British English (BrE, BE, en-GB) is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the United Kingdom from forms used elsewhere in the Anglophone world. ... Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the â€œInternational Phonetic Alphabetâ€. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ... Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... We dont have an article called Respelling Start this article Search for Respelling in. ...

1 Traditional respelling systems
- 1.1 Notes
- 1.2 Title abbreviations
2 International Phonetic Alphabet
3 See also
4 Notes
5 References
6 External links

Traditional respelling systems

The following chart matches the IPA symbols used to represent the sounds in the English language with the phonetic symbols used in several dictionaries and reference materials. The respelling systems on this page are mostly for American English, so the IPA symbols are those for the General American accent. This chart is not a comprehensive list of symbols found in pronunciation guides, and it is not a guide to the pronunciation systems found in these works; you will need to consult the individual works to learn the idiosyncratic conventions of each system. The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... For other uses, see American English (disambiguation). ... Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ...

The works referenced above adhere (for the most part) to the one-symbol-per-sound principle. Other works not included here, such as Webster's New Twentieth Century Dictionary of the English Language (unabridged, 2nd ed.), do not and thus have several different symbols for the same sound (partly to allow for different phonemic mergers and splits). Phonemic differentiation is the phenomenon of a phoneme in a language splitting into two phonemes over time, a process known as a phonemic split. ...

If viewing this in your browser as opposed to as a hard copy, you may hover over the abbreviations (reference) with your mouse to get the full titles. Hard Copy was a tabloid news infotainment magazine show similar to Inside Edition and A Current Affair. ... Many dictionaries and other language references give pronunciation guides for some or all words listed. ...

Consonants¹
IPA	K&K	NOAD	A	NOAD	AHD	RHD	WBO	MECD	DPL	DPN	NBC	MWCD	MWO	COD⁷	Cham	AB	examples
tʃ	tʃ	tʃ	č	CH	ch	c͡h	ch	ch	ch	ch	ch	ch	ch	ch	ch	ch	church
h	h	h	h	h	h	h	h	h	h	h	h	h	h	h	h	hh	hat
hw²	hw	(h)w	hw	(h)w	hw	hw	hw	hw				hw	hw		(h)w	–	which
dʒ	dʒ	dʒ	ǯ	j	j	j	j	j	j	j	j	j	j	j	j	jh	judge
x	x	x	x	KH	KH	K͡H	kh	-	-	-	-	k	[k]	(χ)	hh	-	loch (Scottish), Buch (German)
ɬ	ɬ	–	ł	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	hl	-	llan (Welsh)
ŋ	ŋ	ŋ	ŋ	NG	ng	n͡g	ng	ng	ŋ	ng	ng	ŋ	[ng]	ng	ng	ng	thing
ɹ³	r	r	r	r	r	r	r	r	r	r	r	r	r	r	r	r	roar
ʃ	ʃ	ʃ	š	SH	sh	s͡h	sh	sh	sh	sh	sh	sh	sh	sh	sh	sh	ship, dish, ration
θ	θ	θ	θ	θ	th	t͡h	th	th	th	th	th	th	th	th	th	th	thin, thigh, beneath
ð	ð	ð	ð	ð	th	th̸	th	th	th	t̷h	th:	th	[th]	dh	dh	dh	this, thy
j	j	j	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	yes
ʒ	ʒ	ʒ	ž	ZH	zh	z͡h	zh	zh	zh	zh	zh	zh	zh	zh	zh	zh	vision, pleasure
Vowels
IPA	K&K	NOAD	A	NOAD	AHD	RHD	WBO	MECD	DPL	DPN	NBC	MWCD	MWO	COD⁷	Cham	AB	examples
æ	æ	ø	æ	a	ă	a	a	a	a	a	a	a	a	ă	a	ae	pat, lad, cat, ran
e(ɪ)	e	eɪ	e(y)	ā	ā	ā	ay	ay	ā	ay	ay	ā	A	ā	ā	ey	pay, day
ɛɹ	ɛr	ɛ(ə)r	εr	e(ə)r	âr	âr	air	air			air	ar	ar	ār	ār	eh r	care, hair, there
ɑ	ɑ	ɑ	a	ä	ä	ä	ah	aa	ä	aw, o	ah	ä, ȧ	ä, [a']	ah	ä	aa	father, palm
ɑɹ	ɑr	ɑr	ar	är	är	är	ahr	aar	är		ahr	är	är	a͡r	är	aa r	arm
ɛ	ɛ	ɛ	ε	e	ĕ	e	eh	e	e	ɛ	e	e	e	ě	e	eh	let, head
i	i	i	i(y)	ē	ē	ē	ee	ee	ē	ē	ee	ē	E	ē	ē	iy	bee, see
ɪ⁴	ɪ	ɪ	ι	i	ĭ	i	ih	i	i	i	i	i	i	ǐ	i	ih	pit, city
aɪ	aɪ	aɪ	ay	ī	ī	ī	y	ī	ī	y	igh	ī	I	ī	ī	ay	pie, by, my
ɪɹ	ɪr	ɪ(ə)r	ιr	i(ə)r	îr	ēr	ihr	eer				ir	ir	ēr	īr	ih r	pier, near, here
ɒ	ɑ	ɑ	a	ä	ŏ	o	o	o	ä	o	ah	ä	ä	ǒ	o	aa	pot, not, wasp
o(ʊ)	o	oʊ	o(w)	ō	ō	ō	oh	ō	ō	ō	oh	ō	O	ō	ō	ow	toe, no
ɔ	ɔ	ɔ	ɔ	ô	ô	ô	aw	aw	ô	aw, o	aw	ȯ	o	aw	ö	ao	caught, paw, war
ɔɪ	ɔɪ	ɔɪ	ɔy	oi	oi	oi	oy	oy	oi	oy	oi	ȯi	oi	oi	oi	oy	noise, boy
ʊ⁴	ᴜ	ʊ	ᴜ	o͝o	o͝o	o͝o	u	o͝o	oo	u	oo	u̇	u	ǒǒ	ŭ⁵	uh	took, put
ʊɹ	ᴜr	ʊ(ə)r	ᴜr	o͝or	o͝or	o͝or	ur	oor				u̇r	ur	oor	oor	uh r	tour
u	u	u	u(w)	o͞o	o͞o	o͞o	oo	oo	o͞o	ū	oo:	ü	ü	ōō	oo⁵	uw	boot, soon, through
aʊ	aᴜ	aʊ	aw	ou	ou	ou	ow	ow	ou	ow	ow	au̇	au	ow	ow	aw	out, now
ʌ	ʌ	ə	ʌ	ə	ŭ	u	uh	u	u	ʋ	UH	ə	&	ǔ	u	ah	cut, run, enough
ɝ	ɝ	ər	ər	ər	ûr	ûr	ur	ur	ʉr	er	ER	ər	&r	e͡r	ûr	er	urge, term, firm, word, heard, bird
ə	ə	ə	ə	ə	ə	ə	uh	ə	ə	e	uh	ə	&, ^&	a, e, i, o, u	ə	ah	about, item, edible, gallop, circus
ɚ	ɚ	ər	ər	ər	^ər	ər	uhr	ər	ər	er	er	ər	&r	er	ər	er	butter, winner
ju	ju	ju	yu	yo͞o	yo͞o	yo͞o	yoo	yoo	yo͞o	yū	yoo:	yü	yü	ū	ū	y uw	pupil
ø, œ	œ	–	ɔ̈	–	œ	Œ										–	feu, oeuf (French), schön, zwölf (German)
y	y	y	ü	Y	ü	Y										–	tu (French), über (German)
ɔ̃	õ	ɔ̃	ɔ̨	ôN	ôN	ôN										–	bon (French)⁶
IPA	K&K	NOAD	A	NOAD	AHD	RHD	WBO	MECD	DPL	DPN	NBC	MWCD	MWO	COD⁷	Cham	AB	examples

In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a sound in spoken language that is characterized by a closure or stricture of the vocal tract sufficient to cause audible turbulence. ... Many dictionaries and other language references give pronunciation guides for some or all words listed. ... Many dictionaries and other language references give pronunciation guides for some or all words listed. ... Many dictionaries and other language references give pronunciation guides for some or all words listed. ... Many dictionaries and other language references give pronunciation guides for some or all words listed. ... Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... Many dictionaries and other language references give pronunciation guides for some or all words listed. ... Many dictionaries and other language references give pronunciation guides for some or all words listed. ... Many dictionaries and other language references give pronunciation guides for some or all words listed. ... Many dictionaries and other language references give pronunciation guides for some or all words listed. ... Many dictionaries and other language references give pronunciation guides for some or all words listed. ... Many dictionaries and other language references give pronunciation guides for some or all words listed. ... Many dictionaries and other language references give pronunciation guides for some or all words listed. ...

Notes

The following symbols have their IPA values in all the systems listed: b, d, f, g, k, l, m, n, p, s, t, v, w, z.
The IPA symbol [ʍ] is sometimes encountered in place of [hw].
The IPA symbol [ɹ] is usually written as [r] in English works.
The older IPA symbols (ι, ɷ) are sometimes encountered for [ɪ] and [ʊ], respectively.
Older editions of The Chambers Dictionary used o͞o for ŭ and o͞o for oo.
Nasalized vowel, as in the French phrase un bon vin blanc (IPA: [œ̃ bɔ̃ vɛ̃ blɑ̃]).
Older editions of the Concise Oxford Dictionary used a mix of two systems: the "phonetic scheme" shown in the table above and a system "without respelling". The latter added diacritics to conventional spellings and accepted the following orthographic conventions:

COD variant	IPA
ph	[f]
kn (initial)	[n]
wr (initial)	[ɹ]
g, dg	[dʒ] (before e, i, y) [g] otherwise
c	[s] (before e, i, y) [k] otherwsie
ai, ay	[eɪ]
air	[ɛɹ]
ae, ea, ee, ie	[i]
ė, ie (final), ey	[ɪ]
ear, eer, ier	[ɪɹ]
aw	[ɔ]
oy	[ɔɪ]
ou	[aʊ]
i͡r, u͡r	[ɝ]
eu, ew	[ju]

Title abbreviations

IPA – International Phonetic Alphabet (for General American)
K&K - Kenyon, John S., Thomas A. Knott (1944/1953). A Pronouncing Dictionary of American English. Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster. ISBN 978-0-87779-047-1.
A – general Americanist phonetic notation (used primarily in linguistics literature in the USA)
AHD – American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000). Boston: Houghton-Mifflin.[1]
MWCD – Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary
NOAD – New Oxford American Dictionary (2005, Apple Computer)
RHD – Random House Dictionary of the English Language (1966)
WBO – World Book Online (1998)
MECD – Microsoft Encarta College Dictionary
DPL – Dictionary of Pronunciation (authors: Abraham Lass & Betty Lass)
DPN – Dictionary of Pronunciation (author: Samuel Noory)
NBC – NBC Handbook of Pronunciation
MWO – Merriam-Webster Online (http://www.m-w.com/)
COD – E. McIntosh, ed. (1964 [1974]),The Concise Oxford Dictionary, 5th Edition. Oxford. (this notation was used up to the 7th edition—newer editions use IPA)
Cham - The Chambers Dictionary (2003)
AB - Arpabet, a commonly-used computerized encoding for English phonetics, as used by the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary

Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... John Samuel Kenyon (1874-1959) was an American linguist. ... Kenyon and Knott is the informal name for A Pronouncing Dictionary of American English, first published in 1944 by John Samuel Kenyon and Thomas A. Knott. ... Americanist phonetic notation (also Americanist Phonetic Alphabet, American Phonetic Alphabet, sometimes abbreviated APA) is a system of phonetic notation originally developed by European and Euro-American anthropologists and language scientists (former Neo-grammarians) for the phonetic and phonemic transcription of Native American and European languages. ... The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (AHD) is a dictionary of American English published by Boston publisher Houghton-Mifflin, the first edition of which appeared in 1969. ... 1888 advertisement for Websters Dictionary Websters Dictionary is the common title given to English language dictionaries in the United States, derived from American lexicographer Noah Webster. ... The New Oxford American Dictionary (NOAD) is a single-volume dictionary of North American English by the American editors at the Oxford University Press. ... The Random House Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged was the original name of a large American dictionary, first published in 1966, and recently renamed the Random House Websters Unabridged Dictionary. ... World Book Encyclopedia is, according to its publisher in the United States, the number-one selling print encyclopedia in the world [1]. The first edition (1917) contained 8 volumes. ... Concise Oxford English Dictionary (until 2002 officially entitled The Concise Oxford Dictionary, and widely known by the abbreviation COD) is probably the best-known of the smaller Oxford dictionaries. ... The ninth edition of the Chambers Dictionary of the English language was published in 2003 by Chambers Harrap. ... Arpabet is a phonetic alphabet developed by ARPA as a part of their Speech Understanding Project (1971-1976), as a way to represent phonemes with ASCII characters. ... The CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (also known as cmudict) is a public domain pronouncing dictionary created by Carnegie Mellon University. ...

International Phonetic Alphabet

The International Phonetic Alphabet is a standardized method of phonetic transcription developed by a group of English and French language teachers in 1888. In the beginning, only specialized pronunciation dictionaries for linguists used it, for example, the English Pronouncing Dictionary edited by Daniel Jones (EPD, 1917). The IPA was used by English teachers as well, and started to appear in popular dictionaries for learners of English as a foreign language, such as the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary (1948), and Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (1978). Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the â€œInternational Phonetic Alphabetâ€. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ... Phonetic transcription (or phonetic notation) is the visual system of symbolization of the sounds occurring in spoken human language. ... The Advanced Learners Dictionary of Current English from 1963. ...

IPA is very flexible, allowing for a wide variety of transcriptions between broad phonemic transcriptions which describe the significant units of meaning in language, and phonetic transcriptions which indicate every nuance sound in detail. In spoken language, a phoneme is a basic, theoretical unit of sound that can distinguish words (i. ... Phonetic (pho-NET-ic) is a nationwide voicemail-to-text messaging service available for most digital mobile phones in which a subscriber is provided a custom voice mailbox for the purpose of receiving all incoming voice messages as actual transcribed text for reading via short messaging (also known as SMS...

The IPA pronunciation scheme used in the first twelve editions of the EPD was relatively simple, using a quantitative system indicating vowel length using a colon, and requiring the reader to infer other vowel qualities. Many phoneticians preferred a qualitative system, which used different symbols to indicate vowel timbre and colour. A.C. Gimson introduced a quantitative-qualitative IPA notation system when he took over editorship of the EPD (13th edition, 1967), and by the 1990s, the Gimson system had become a de facto standard for phonetic notation of British Received Pronunciation (RP). Alfred Charles Gimson (7 June 1917 - 22 April 1985) was an English phonetician. ... Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ...

Comparison of short and long vowels in various IPA schemes for RP
word	quant.	qual.	Gimson
rid	rid	rɪd	rɪd
reed	ri:d	rid	ri:d
cod	kɔd	kɒd	kɒd
cord	kɔ:d	kɔd	kɔ:d

The first native (not learner's) English dictionary using IPA may have been the Collins English Dictionary (1979), and others followed suit. The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition (OED2, 1989) used IPA, transcribed letter-for-letter from entries in the first edition, which had been noted in a scheme by the original editor, James Murray. The Oxford English Dictionary print set The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is a dictionary published by the Oxford University Press (OUP), and is the most successful dictionary of the English language, (not to be confused with the one-volume Oxford Dictionary of English, formerly New Oxford Dictionary of English, of... Sir James Augustus Henry Murray (1837-1915) was a Scottish lexicographer and philologist. ...

While IPA has not been adopted by popular dictionaries in the United States, there is a demand for learner's dictionaries which provide both British and American English pronunciation. Some dictionaries, such as the Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary and the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English provide a separate transcription for each.

British and American English dialects have a similar set of phonemes, but some are pronounced differently; in technical parlance, they consist of different phones. Although developed for RP, the Gimson system being phonemic, it is not far from much of General American pronunciation as well. A number of recent dictionaries, such as the Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary, add a few non-phonemic symbols /^r i u ^əl ^ən/ to represent both RP and General American pronunciation in a single IPA transcription. In human language, a phoneme is the theoretical representation of a sound. ... Look up phone in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ...

Adaptations of the Gimson system for American English
/ɒ/	Pronounced [ɑ:] in General American.
/e/	In American English falls between [e] and [æ] (sometimes transcribed /ɛ/)
/əu/	This traditional transcription is probably more accurately replaced today by /ou/ in both British and American English^[1]
/r/	Regular r is always pronounced
/^r/	Superscript r is only pronounced in rhotic dialects, such as General American, or when followed by a vowel (for example adding a suffix to change dear into dearest)
/i/	Medium i can be pronounced [ɪ] or [i:], depending on the dialect
/ɔ:/	Many Americans pronounce /ɔ:/ the same as /ɒ/ ([ɑ:])
/^əl/	Syllabic l, sometimes transcribed /l/ or /əl/
/^ən/	Syllabic n, sometimes transcribed /n/ or /ən/

Clive Upton updated the Gimson scheme, changing the symbols used for five vowels. He served as pronunciation consultant for the influential Concise Oxford English Dictionary, which adopted this scheme in its ninth edition (1995). Upton's reform is controversial: it reflects changing pronunciation, but critics say it represents a narrower regional accent, and abandons parallelism with American and Australian English. A syllabic consonant is a consonant which constitutes either a syllable of its own, or is the nucleus of a syllable. ... Clive Upton From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Concise Oxford English Dictionary (until 2002 officially entitled The Concise Oxford Dictionary, and widely known by the abbrevation COD) is probably the best-known of the smaller Oxford dictionaries. ...

Upton's reform
word	Gimson	Upton
bet	bet	bɛt
bat	bæt	bat
nurse	nɜ:s	nə:s
square	skweə	skwɛ:
price	praɪs	prʌɪs

The in-progress 3rd edition of the Oxford English Dictionary uses Upton's scheme for representing British pronunciations. For American pronunciations it uses an IPA-based scheme devised by Prof. William Kretzschmar of the University of Georgia. The Oxford English Dictionary print set The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is a dictionary published by the Oxford University Press (OUP), and is the most successful dictionary of the English language, (not to be confused with the one-volume Oxford Dictionary of English, formerly New Oxford Dictionary of English, of... The University of Georgia (UGA) is the largest institution of higher learning in the U.S. state of Georgia. ...

Notes

^ "The sounds of English and the International Phonetic Alphabet", at Antimoon.com. See note 5, referring to the vowel in go and home.

References

Wells, John (2001). "IPA transcription systems for English", at University College London Department of Phonetics and Linguistics site. Retrieved 2006-08-16.
Antimoon.com. "Introduction to phonetic transcription", at Antimoon.com. Retrieved 2006-08-16.
Oxford English Dictionary. "Pronunciation", from the Preface to the Third Edition. Retrieved 2006-09-10.
Oxford English Dictionary. "Key for Second Edition Entries", from the OED website. Retrieved 2006-09-10.
Oxford English Dictionary. "Key to New Edition Entries", from the OED website. Retrieved 2006-09-10.

Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link displays full 2006 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 228th day of the year (229th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link displays full 2006 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 228th day of the year (229th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link displays full 2006 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 253rd day of the year (254th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link displays full 2006 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 253rd day of the year (254th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link displays full 2006 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 253rd day of the year (254th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

Categories: Phonetic alphabets | English phonology | American English

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Contents

Traditional respelling systems var ACE_AR = {Site: '756743', Size: '300250'};

Notes

Title abbreviations

International Phonetic Alphabet

See also

Notes

References

External links

Traditional respelling systems