Help: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 , and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters. |
Throughout Wikipedia, the pronunciation of words is indicated by means of 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[edit]
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 the same, do and dew, or marry and merry. 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.
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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 or , the latter with or .
- The length mark ⟨ː⟩ 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).
Dialect variation[edit]
This key represents diaphonemes, abstractions of speech sounds that accommodate General American, Received Pronunciation (RP) and to a large extent also Australian, Canadian, Irish (including Ulster), New Zealand, Scottish, South African and Welsh pronunciations. Therefore, not all of the distinctions shown here are relevant to a particular dialect:
- ⟨i⟩ does not represent a phoneme but a variation between and in unstressed positions. Speakers of dialects with happy tensing (Australian English, General American, modern RP) should read it as an unstressed , whereas speakers of other dialects (e.g. some Northern England English) should treat it the same as . In Scotland, this vowel can be considered the same as the short allophone of , as in take. Before within the same word, another possible pronunciation is as in yet.
- Many speakers of American and Canadian English pronounce cot and caught the same.[j] You may simply ignore the difference between the symbols and , just as you ignore the distinction between the written vowels o and au when pronouncing them.
- Speakers of some rhotic dialects, for instance in Ireland and Scotland, may not distinguish between the vowels of near , cure and square on the one hand and freerunning , Q-rating and dayroom on the other. If you speak such a dialect, read as .
- In Northern Ireland, Scotland and many North American dialects the distinction between as in courier and the aforementioned and does not exist. If you speak such a dialect, ignore the difference between , and .
- In Northern Ireland and Scotland this merger occurs in all environments, which means that foot and goose also have the same vowel.[k][l] If you speak such a dialect, ignore the difference between and in all contexts.
- In North America, the of courier and the of cure may instead merge with as in north or as in nurse. No such merger is possible in the case of the sequence which we transcribe as as there is an implied morpheme boundary after the length mark.
- In North American dialects that do not distinguish between , and there is also no distinction between the of mirror and the aforementioned and . If you speak such a dialect, ignore the difference between , and .
- In many North American dialects there is also no distinction between the vowels in merry , Mary and marry . If you speak such a dialect, ignore the difference between , and . 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 as in dayroom .
- In rhotic North American English there is no distinction between the vowels in nurse and letter . If you speak such a dialect, read as . The of hurry often joins this neutralization; if you have it in your speech, read , and as .
- Some speakers from Northern England do not distinguish the vowel of square and nurse .[m] If you speak such a dialect, ignore the difference between the symbols and .
- In New Zealand English, the vowels of kit and focus have the same schwa-like quality.[n][o] If you are from New Zealand, ignore the difference between the symbols and .
- In contemporary New Zealand English and some other dialects, the vowels of near and square are not distinguished.[p] If you speak such a dialect, ignore the difference between the symbols and .
- In Northern England English and some varieties of Irish and Welsh English, the vowels of foot and strut are not distinguished.[q] If you speak such a dialect, ignore the difference between the symbols and .
- In Welsh English and some other dialects, the vowels of unorthodoxy and an orthodoxy are not distinguished.[r] If you speak such a dialect, ignore the difference between the symbols and .
- Depending on the dialect, vowels can be subject to various mergers before , so that e.g. fill and feel or pull and pool may not be distinguished. L-vocalization may trigger even more mergers, so that e.g. cord and called may be homophonous as in non-rhotic dialects of South East England. See English-language vowel changes before historic /l/ for more information.
- In many dialects, occurs only before a vowel; if you speak such a dialect, simply ignore in the pronunciation guides where you would not pronounce it, as in cart .
- In other dialects, (yes) cannot occur after , etc., within the same syllable; if you speak such a dialect, then ignore the in transcriptions such as new . For example, New York is transcribed . For most people from England and for some New Yorkers, the in is not pronounced; for most people from the United States, including some New Yorkers, the in 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.[s] Both of them are transcribed as in stressed syllables and as or in unstressed syllables.
- The difference between the vowels of fir, fur and fern, maintained in some Scottish and Irish English but lost elsewhere.[t] All of them are transcribed as .
- The vowels of north and force, distinguished in Scottish English, Irish English and by a minority of American speakers.[t] Both of them are transcribed as .
- The vowels of pause and paws, distinguished in Cockney and by some Estuary English speakers.[u] Both of them are transcribed as when the spelling does not contain ⟨r⟩ and or (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 .
- The difference between the vowels of pain and pane found in some English, Welsh, and Newfoundland dialects. Both of them are transcribed as .
- The difference between the vowels of holy and wholly found in Cockney and many Estuary English speakers.[v] Both of them are transcribed as .
- 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 .
- The vowels of spider and spied her, distinguished in many parts of Scotland,[w] plus many parts of North America. Both of them are transcribed as .
- 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 .
- 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 .
- Allophonic vowel length (including the Scottish vowel length rule), as in knife vs. knives . Phonemic vowel length, which exists in some dialects and involves pairs such as vs. and vs. is also not marked explicitly. and do not represent phonemes; see above.
- Flapping in words such as better, which we write , rather than .
- Glottalization in words such as jetlag and, in some accents, daughter, which we write and , rather than and . In this system, 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 and , rather than and .
- The difference between allophones of in balance ([ə]) vs. the ones in about and Russia (and, in non-rhotic dialects, better), both of which may be closer to 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 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 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 , a Scot as , whereas someone from New Zealand will interpret that transcription as . 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 after overlaps with the New Zealand realization of between vowels. In other words, the symbol ⟨ɛ⟩ 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 ⟨r⟩ for the second sound in grapes.
Other words may have different vowels depending on the speaker.
The pronunciation of the vowel in most dialects of Scotland, Northern Ireland, Northern England and Wales has always been closer to [a]. Received Pronunciation has moved away from the traditional near-open front realization [æ] towards almost fully open front realization [a], and both the Oxford English Dictionary and the 2014 edition of Gimson's Pronunciation of English transcribe the vowel in lad, bad, cat, trap with .[x]
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 are transcribed . This is best practice for editors. However, readers should be aware that not all editors may have followed this consistently, so for example if is encountered for such a place name, it should not be interpreted as a claim that the would be absent even in a rhotic dialect.
Other transcriptions[edit]
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[edit]
- 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)
- To add IPA pronunciations to Wikipedia articles, see the {{IPA}} template
- 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
Notes[edit]
- ^ 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 and before . You would still distinguish man and men.
- ^ a b In varieties with flapping, and sometimes also 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 subject to this process as ⟨d⟩ or ⟨t̬⟩, but they are not distinguished in this transcription system. In those varieties, the sequence 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.
- ^ a b c d e f g In dialects with yod dropping, in , , or is not pronounced after coronal consonants (, , , , , , and ) in the same syllable, so that dew is pronounced the same as do . In dialects with yod coalescence, and mostly merge with and , so that the first syllable in Tuesday is pronounced the same as choose. In some dialects and are also affected and frequently merge with and . Where in , , or following a coronal is still pronounced in yod-dropping accents, place a syllable break before it: menu .
- ^ The phoneme is not distinguished from 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 ⟨j⟩ may be counterintuitive to English speakers, but the spelling is found even in some common English words like hallelujah and fjord.
- ^ 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, is pronounced as an approximant . Although the IPA symbol ⟨r⟩ represents the alveolar trill, ⟨r⟩ is widely used instead of ⟨ɹ⟩ in broad transcriptions of English.
- ^ A number of English words, such as genre and garage, may be pronounced with either or .
- ^ In most dialects, can also be replaced by in most words, including loch. It is also replaced with in some words, particularly of Yiddish origin, such as Chanukah.
- ^ a b are only found in French loanwords and often replaced by another vowel and a nasal consonant: bon vivant , ensemble , etc.[a]
- ^ 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. It is to be used only when a reliable source shows that General American has a different vowel in the same position. If r-ful NURSE is used even in GA, even if spelled without ⟨r⟩, as in Goethe and hors d'oeuvre, use . 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.
- ^ In non-rhotic accents like RP, is not pronounced unless followed by a vowel.
- ^ In dialects with the father–bother merger such as General American, is not distinguished from .
- ^ In most of the United States, is merged with , except for a handful of words such as borrow, tomorrow and sorry, which instead have . In some parts of the Southern and Northeastern US, it is always merged with . In Canada, it is always merged with .
- ^ In North America, is often pronounced like a diphthong before nasal consonants and, in some particular regional dialects, other environments. See /æ/ raising.
- ^ a b c Many North American accents have the Mary–marry–merry merger and therefore don't distinguish between the corresponding sounds , , and . Some speakers merge only two of the sounds (most typically 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]
- ^ a b In much of North America, or 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.
- ^ a b c 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 , to differentiate from the latter. Before vowels, the distinction between and is not always clear; choose the former if the second element may be omitted (as in diary).
- ^ is transcribed with ⟨e⟩ in many dictionaries. However, is also sometimes transcribed with ⟨e⟩, especially in North American literature, so ⟨ɛ⟩ is chosen here.
- ^ a b c , , or may be separated from only when a stress follows it. The IPAc-en template supports , , , , , and as distinct diaphonemes for such occasions.
- ^ a b c d ⟨ɪ⟩ and ⟨oʊ⟩ represent strong vowels in some words and weak vowels in others. It will not always be clear which they are.[c][d]
- ^ a b Words like idea, real, and theatre may be pronounced with and cruel with in non-rhotic accents such as Received Pronunciation, and some dictionaries transcribe them with ,[e] but since they are not pronounced with in rhotic accents, they are transcribed with , not with , in this transcription system.
- ^ is often transcribed with ⟨əʊ⟩, particularly in British literature, based on its modern realization in Received Pronunciation. It is also transcribed with ⟨o⟩, particularly in North American literature.
- ^ a b Some conservative dialects make a distinction between the vowels in horse and hoarse, but the number of speakers who make this distinction any longer is very small and many dictionaries do not differentiate between them (horse–hoarse merger).
- ^ is not distinguished from 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 .
- ^ is not distinguished from 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 is much more commonly preserved than in modern RP and Southern England English. In Australia and New Zealand, does not exist as a separate phoneme and is replaced either by the sequence ( before vowels within the same word, save for some compounds) or the monophthong .
- ^ Some, particularly North American, dictionaries notate with the same symbol as , which is found only in unstressed syllables, and distinguish it from by marking the syllable as stressed. Also note that although ⟨ʌ⟩, the IPA symbol for the open-mid back vowel, is used, the typical modern pronunciation is rather close to the near-open central vowel in some dialects, including Received Pronunciation.
- ^ is not used in the dialects of the northern half of England, some bordering parts of Wales, and some broad eastern Ireland accents. These words would take the vowel: there is no foot–strut split.
- ^ In Received Pronunciation, is pronounced as a lengthened schwa, . In General American, it is phonetically identical to . Some dictionaries therefore use ⟨əː, ər⟩ instead of the conventional notations ⟨ɜː, ɜr⟩. When ⟨ər⟩ is used for , it is distinguished from by marking the syllable as stressed.
- ^ is not distinguished from in dialects with the hurry–furry merger such as General American.
- ^ a b In a number of contexts, in , , , or is often omitted, resulting in a syllable with no vowel. Some dictionaries show in those contexts in parentheses, superscript, or italics to indicate this possibility, or simply omit . When followed by a weak vowel, the syllable may be lost altogether, with the consonant moving to the next syllable, so that doubling may alternatively be pronounced as , and Edinburgh as .[i] When not followed by a vowel, merges with in non-rhotic accents.
- ^ ⟨ɪ⟩ 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 is not distinguished from schwa , 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 merge with , so that the second vowel in Latin may be lost and cabinet may be disyllabic (see the previous note).
- ^ a b and in unstressed, prevocalic positions are transcribed as by Merriam-Webster, but no other dictionary uniformly follows this practice.[h] Hence the difference between in Merriam-Webster and or in another source is most likely one in notation, not in pronunciation, so in such cases may be better replaced with or accordingly, to minimize confusion: → , → .
- ^ a b ⟨i⟩ represents variation between and in unstressed prevocalic or morpheme-final positions. It is realized with a quality closer to in accents with happy tensing, such as Australian English, General American, and modern RP, and to in others. ⟨u⟩ likewise represents variation between and in unstressed prevocalic positions.
- ^ The sequence ⟨iə⟩ may be pronounced as two syllables, or , or as one, or . When pronounced as one syllable in a non-rhotic accent, it may be indistinguishable from, and identified as, the NEAR vowel ().[e] This transcription system uses ⟨iə⟩, not ⟨i.ə⟩, ⟨ɪə⟩, etc., to cover all these possibilities.
- ^ The sequence ⟨uə⟩ may be pronounced as two syllables, or , or as one, or . When pronounced as one syllable in a non-rhotic accent, it may be indistinguishable from, and identified as, the CURE vowel ().[e] This transcription system uses ⟨uə⟩, not ⟨u.ə⟩, ⟨ʊə⟩, etc., to cover all these possibilities.
- ^ The IPA stress mark ⟨ˈ⟩ comes before the syllable that has the stress, in contrast to stress marking in pronunciation keys of some dictionaries published in the United States.
- ^ Syllable divisions are not usually marked, but the IPA dot ⟨.⟩ may be used when it is wished to make explicit where a division between syllables is (or may be) made.
References[edit]
- ^ Jones (2011).
- ^ Bert Vaux, Scott Golder: Script error: No such module "Vorlage:Internetquelle". In: Script error: No such module "Vorlage:Internetquelle". Harvard University Linguistics Department, 2003.
- ^ Flemming & Johnson (2007), pp. 91–2.
- ^ John Wells: Script error: No such module "Vorlage:Internetquelle". In: Script error: No such module "Vorlage:Internetquelle". 25. März 2011.
- ^ a b c Wells (1982), p. 240.
- ^ Flemming & Johnson (2007), pp. 94–5.
- ^ Wells (1982), p. 601.
- ^ Jack Windsor Lewis: Script error: No such module "Vorlage:Internetquelle". In: Script error: No such module "Vorlage:Internetquelle". 10. April 2009.
- ^ Wells (2008), pp. 173, 799.
- ^ 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. 380–1.
- ^ Wells (1982), pp. 612–3.
- ^ a b Stuart-Smith (2004), p. 56.
- ^ Wells (1982), pp. 304, 310–1.
- ^ Wells (1982), pp. 304, 312–3.
- ^ Stuart-Smith (2004), p. 57.
- ^ Cruttenden (2014), pp. 119–20.
Bibliography[edit]
- 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.
- Cruttenden, Alan (2014). Gimson's Pronunciation of English (8th ed.). Routledge. ISBN 978-1-4441-8309-2.
- 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.
- Wells, John C. (1982). Accents of English. Volume 1: An Introduction (pp. i–xx, 1–278), Volume 2: The British Isles (pp. i–xx, 279–466), Volume 3: Beyond the British Isles (pp. i–xx, 467–674). Cambridge University Press. 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[edit]
- Getting JAWS 6.1 to recognize "exotic" Unicode symbols – 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
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