Help:Pronunciation respelling key
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The following pronunciation respelling key is used in some Wikipedia articles to respell the pronunciations of English words. It does not use special symbols or diacritics apart from the schwa (ə), which is used for the first sound of the word "about".
The standard set of symbols used to show the pronunciation of English words in Wikipedia is the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). The IPA has significant advantages over the respelling system described here, as it can be used to accurately represent pronunciations from any language in the world, and (being an international standard) is often more familiar to non-native speakers of English. On the other hand, the IPA (being designed to represent sounds from any language in the world) is not as intuitive for those chiefly familiar with English orthography, for whom this respelling system is likely to be easier for English words and names. Articles often provide pronunciations in both systems (see documentation at the template Respell for more examples and for instructions on using the template).
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Contents
1 Syllables and stress
2 Key
3 Optional sounds
4 When not to use
5 Notes
6 See also
Syllables and stress
Syllables are separated by hyphens ("-") in the display. The stress on a syllable is indicated by capital letters. For example, the word "pronunciation" (/prəˌnʌnsiˈeɪʃən/) is respelled prə-NUN-see-AY-shən. In this example, the primary and secondary stress are not distinguished, as the difference is automatic. In words where primary stress precedes secondary stress, however, the secondary stress should not be differentiated from unstressed syllables, because to respell "motorcycle" (/ˈmoʊtərˌsaɪkəl/), for example, as MOH-tər-SY-kəl instead of MOH-tər-sy-kəl would incorrectly suggest the pronunciation /ˌmoʊtərˈsaɪkəl/.
Key
Both the IPA and respelling for English on Wikipedia are designed to record all distinctive sounds found in major varieties of English. That is, we record differences found in some varieties but not in others, such as those between "father" and "farther", "wine" and "whine", and "cot" and "caught". This does not mean these differences are, or must be, always distinguished; if you speak a dialect that does not distinguish "father" and "farther", for example, simply ignore the difference between FAH-dhər and FAR-dhər.
For a more thorough discussion of the sounds and dialectal variation, see Help:IPA/English.
| Rspl. | Example(s) | IPA |
|---|---|---|
a[1] | bat | /æ/ |
ah | father | /ɑː/ |
air | bear, Mary | /ɛər/ |
ar | farther | /ɑːr/ |
arr | marry | /ær/ |
aw | bought | /ɔː/ |
ay | bait | /eɪ/ |
e[1] | bet | /ɛ/ |
eh[2] | prestige | |
ee | beat | /iː/ |
| happy, serious | /i/ | |
eer | beer, nearer | /ɪər/ |
err | merry | /ɛr/ |
ew[3] | cute, beauty, dew | /juː/ |
ewr[3] | cure, lure | /jʊər/ |
eye[4] | item | /aɪ/ |
i[1] | bit | /ɪ/ |
ih[5] | historic | |
ire | hire | /aɪər/ |
irr | mirror | /ɪr/ |
o[1] | bot | /ɒ/ |
oh | boat | /oʊ/ |
oir | coir | /ɔɪər/ |
oo | boot, you | /uː/ |
| influence, fruition | /u/ | |
oor | poor, tourist | /ʊər/ |
or | horse, hoarse, pour, oral | /ɔːr/ |
orr | moral | /ɒr/ |
ow[6] | bout, vow | /aʊ/ |
owr | flour | /aʊər/ |
oy | choice, boy | /ɔɪ/ |
u[1] | but | /ʌ/ |
uh[7] | frustration | |
ur | bird, furry | /ɜːr/ |
urr | hurry | /ʌr/ |
uu[1] | book | /ʊ/ |
uurr | courier | /ʊr/ |
y[4] | bite, bide | /aɪ/ |
ə | about, comma | /ə/ |
ər | letter | /ər/ |
| Rspl. | Example(s) | IPA |
|---|---|---|
b | buy | /b/ |
ch[8] | church, nature | /tʃ/ |
d | dye, ladder | /d/ |
dh | thy, this | /ð/ |
f | fight | /f/ |
g | go | /ɡ/ |
gh[9] | guess, guitar | |
h | high | /h/ |
j | jive | /dʒ/ |
k | kite, sky, lock | /k/ |
kh | loch, Chanukah | /x/ |
l | lie, sly | /l/ |
m | my | /m/ |
n | nigh | /n/ |
ng | ring, singer | /ŋ/ |
nk[10] | sink | /ŋk/ |
p | pie, spy | /p/ |
r | rye, try | /r/ |
s | sigh | /s/ |
ss[11] | ice, tense | |
sh | shy | /ʃ/ |
t | tie, sty, latter | /t/ |
tch[8] | church, natural | /tʃ/ |
th | thigh | /θ/ |
v | vie | /v/ |
w | wye | /w/ |
wh | why | /hw/ |
y | you | /j/ |
z | zoo | /z/ |
zh | pleasure | /ʒ/ |
Optional sounds
When a certain sound is pronounced by some speakers but not by others, the sound is put inside parentheses (round brackets). For example, "Mauritius" could be respelled mə-RISH-(ee-)əs, indicating it can be pronounced either mə-RISH-əs or mə-RISH-ee-əs.
When not to use
Sometimes another means of indicating a pronunciation is more desirable than this respelling system, such as when a name is intended to be a homonym of an existing English word or phrase, or in case of an initialism or a name composed of numbers or symbols. When citing a homonym, it should not be enclosed in the respell template. In such cases, an IPA notation is usually nevertheless needed, but not necessarily so; see Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation § Other transcription systems for further discussion.
Respelling should also be avoided when a respelled syllable would be the same as an existing word that is pronounced differently, to avoid heterophonic confusion. "Maui" /ˈmaʊi/ respelled as MOW-ee, "metonymy" /mɛˈtɒnɪmi/ as meh-TON-im-ee, and "cobalt" /ˈkoʊbɒlt/ as KOH-bolt are susceptible to being misinterpreted as /ˈmoʊi/, /mɛˈtʌnɪmi/, and /ˈkoʊboʊlt/, because of the words "mow", "ton", and "bolt", so only IPA should be provided for such words, if any.
Notes
^ abcdef /æ, ɛ, ɪ, ɒ, ʌ, ʊ/ (a, e(h), i(h), o, u(h), uu) are checked vowels, meaning never occurring at the end of a word or before a vowel. When a checked vowel is followed by a consonant and a stressed vowel, which is rare nonetheless, it is acceptable in some cases to attribute the following consonant to the same syllable as the checked vowel, as in bal-AY, even though in IPA it is usually attributed to the following syllable, as in /bæˈleɪ/. However, when the following consonant is a voiceless plosive (/p, t, k/) pronounced with aspiration (a slight delay in the following vowel), it must be attributed to the same syllable as the following vowel, as in ta-TOO, because tat-OO may result in a different pronunciation than intended (compare "whatever" whot-EV-ər). Similarly, when a vowel is followed by /s/, one or more consonants, and a stressed vowel, the syllabification must be retained, as in fruh-STRAY-shən, because frus-TRAY-shən may result in a different pronunciation than intended.
^ /ɛ/ in syllable-final positions may be respelled eh instead of e when otherwise it may be misinterpreted as another sound such as /i(ː)/ or /eɪ/.
^ ab ew and ewr are for when /juː/ or /jʊər/ takes place right after a consonant within the same syllable. When /juː/ or /jʊər/ begins a syllable (e.g. "youth", "Europe"), use yoo(r).
^ ab /aɪ/ is respelled eye when it begins a syllable and otherwise y. When y is followed by a consonant within the same syllable, place an e after the consonant as necessary: "price" PRYSE, "tight" TYTE.
^ /ɪ/ in syllable-final positions may be respelled ih instead of i when otherwise it may be misinterpreted as another sound such as /aɪ/.
^ Respelling /aʊ/ could prove problematic as there are a variety of monosyllabic words spelled with "ow" and pronounced with /oʊ/: blow, blown, bow, bowl, flow, flown, glow, grow, grown, growth, growths, low, mow, mown, own, row, show, slow, snow, sow, sown, stow, strow, throw, tow, and trow. There is no universal solution to this problem and so respelling a word including /aʊ/ may be best avoided altogether.
^ /ʌ/ in syllable-final positions is respelled uh instead of u to better distinguish it from /u(ː), ʊ/.
^ ab /tʃ/ in syllable-final positions is respelled tch instead of ch to better distinguish it from /k, x/.
^ /ɡ/ may be respelled gh instead of g when otherwise it may be misinterpreted as /dʒ/.
^ /ŋk/ is respelled nk rather than ngk, since the assimilation is mandatory, except beyond a syllable boundary: "tinker" TING-kər.
^ /s/ may be respelled ss instead of s when otherwise it may be misinterpreted as /z/: "ice" EYESS, "tense" TENSS (compare eyes, tens).
See also
- Respell: the template and instructions for adding pronunciation respelling
- Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation
- Pronunciation respelling for English
- Help:IPA/English
- Help:IPA/Conventions for English
