Help:IPA/English

Template:This Template:IPA key On Wikipedia, the pronunciation of words is shown using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). The tables below provide a key to the IPA symbols used for English pronunciations in a diaphonemic scheme. Please note that some of these symbols are used in ways specific to Wikipedia, and may differ from their usage in dictionaries.

If IPA symbols do not display correctly in your browser, see the troubleshooting links below.

Editors should use IPA templates such as Template:Tl when adding IPA to Wikipedia articles, see Manual of Style/Pronunciation § Entering IPA characters for guidance. These templates ensure accessibility and tooltip functionality, see the documentation page for usage instructions.

Key

If you are looking for an IPA symbol that does not appear in the pronunciation key below, see Help:IPA, which provides a more comprehensive list. For a table showing how the sounds on this page correspond to English spellings, see Template:Section link. For assistance in converting spellings to pronunciations, refer to Template:Section link.

In some cases, words given as examples for different symbols may sound the same to you. For instance, you might pronounce cot and caught, do and dew, or marry and merry the same. This typically results from dialect variation (see our articles English phonology and International Phonetic Alphabet chart for English dialects). If so, you will likely pronounce those symbols the same in other words as well. Whether this applies to all words or only in certain contexts depends on the specific sound merger. The footnotes provide further explanation of these cases.

Consonants IPA Examples buy, cab dye, cad, ladder dew jive, badge thy, breathe, father find, leaf guy, bag high, ahead whine yes, hallelujah kind, sky, crack lie, ply, gal lute my, smile, cam nigh, snide, can new sang, sink, singer pie, spy, cap rye, try, very sigh, mass consume shy, cash, emotion Template:No wrap tune China, catch thigh, path enthuse vie, leave wine, swine zoo, has Zeus, resume pleasure, beige

Vowels Strong vowels ...followed by R IPA Examples IPA Examples Template:Sc2, bra, father Template:Sc2 Template:Sc2, bother, cot, blockade moral Template:Sc2, bag, sang, tattoo marry Template:Sc2, pie hire Template:Sc2, how flour Template:Sc2, beg, length, prestige merry Template:Sc2, vague Template:Sc2, Mary Template:Sc2, big, sing, historic mirror, Sirius Template:Sc2, league, pedigree, idea Template:Sc2, serious Template:Sc2 Template:Sc2, hoarse Template:Sc2, caught, audacious Template:Sc2, horse Template:Sc2 coir Template:Sc2 courier Template:Sc2, cruel tour, Template:Sc2 () Template:Sc2, sung, untidy, trustee Template:Sc2, blurry, urbane, foreword hurry Weak vowels IPA Examples IPA Examples commTemplate:Sc2, abbot, bazaar lettTemplate:Sc2, forward, history rabbit, bizarre, Latin motto, retroactive, follower happTemplate:Sc2, mediocre California fruition influence Syllabic consonants IPA Examples IPA Examples bottle, doubling (, , or ) button, fastener (, , or ) rhythm, blossoming (, , or ) Marginal segments IPA Examples IPA Examples loch, Chanukah uh-oh bon vivant fin de siècle Möbius (some dialects only)   Stress Syllabification IPA Examples IPA Examples intonation hire, higher taxpayer

Notes

• Words in Template:Sc2 are the standard lexical sets. Not all of the sets are used here. In particular, we excluded words in the lexical sets Template:Sc2 and Template:Sc2, which may be given two transcriptions, the former either with or , the latter with or .
• The length mark Template:Angbr 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 Template:Section link). likewise do not mean shorter versions of but represent a situation in which some speakers have and others (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.

Fewer distinctions

These are cases where the diaphonemes express a distinction that is not present in some accents. Most of these are historical mergers, but some are notational conventions (e.g. ), some represent accents which do not exhibit splits into the sets defined here (e.g. those without a distinction), and some represent significant deviations from the broad transcription symbols used here (e.g. square & dayroom in some rhotic accents).

• Template:Angbr IPA (happTemplate:Sc2): this symbol 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.
• Speakers of some rhotic dialects, for instance in Ireland and Scotland, may not distinguish between the relevant vowels in near & freerunning , cure & Q-rating , and square & dayroom . If you speak such a dialect, read as .
• Cot–caught merger: Many speakers of American, Canadian, Scottish and Irish English pronounce cot and caught the same.Template:Efn 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.
• Father–bother merger: Most speakers of North American English (with the exception of Eastern New England) do not distinguish between the vowels in father and bother , pronouncing the two words as rhymes. If you speak such a dialect, ignore the difference between the symbols and .
• 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 .
  • Foot–goose merger: in Northern Ireland and Scotland this merger occurs in all environments, which means that foot and goose also have the same vowel.Template:EfnTemplate:Efn If you speak such a dialect, ignore the difference between and in all contexts.
  • Cure–north merger & cure–nurse merger: 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.
  • Mirror–nearer merger: 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 .
  • Merry–marry–Mary merger: In many North American dialects there is also no distinction between the vowels in merry , marry , and Mary . 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 .
  • Nurse–letter merger: 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 .
• [[Square–nurse merger|Template:Sc2]] merger: some speakers from Northern England do not distinguish the vowel of square and nurse .Template:Efn If you speak such a dialect, ignore the difference between the symbols and .
• [[Kit–comma merger|Template:Sc2 merger]]: In New Zealand English, the vowels of kit and focus have the same schwa-like quality.Template:EfnTemplate:Efn If you are from New Zealand, ignore the difference between the symbols and .
• [[Near–square merger|Template:Sc2 merger]]: in contemporary New Zealand English and some other dialects, the vowels of near and square are not distinguished.Template:Efn If you speak such a dialect, ignore the difference between the symbols and .
• Lack of [[Foot–strut split|Template:Sc2 split]]: In Northern England English and some varieties of Irish and Welsh English, the vowels of foot and strut are not distinguished.Template:Efn If you speak such a dialect, ignore the difference between the symbols and .
• Sam–psalm merger: In some varieties of Scottish English and in Northern Irish English, the vowels of trap and palm are not distinguished.Template:Efn If you speak such a dialect, ignore the difference between the symbols and .
• [[Strut–comma merger|Template:Sc2commTemplate:Sc2 merger]]: in Welsh English and some other dialects, the vowels of unorthodoxy and an orthodoxy are not distinguished.Template:Efn If you speak such a dialect, ignore the difference between the symbols and .
• Changes before historic /l/: 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.
• Rhoticity: 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 .
• Yod-dropping: 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.

More distinctions

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.Template:Efn 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.Template:Efn 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.Template:Efn Both of them are transcribed as .
• The vowels of pause and paws, distinguished in Cockney and by some Estuary English speakers.Template:Efn Both of them are transcribed as when the spelling does not contain Template:Angbr and or (depending on the word) when it does.
• The vowels of manning and Manning, distinguished in some parts of the United States (see 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 toe and tow 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.Template:Efn 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,Template:Efn 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 () 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, ) 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 Template:Angbr 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 Template:Angbr 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 -Template:Zwjford, 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

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 Template:Section link.
• Help:IPA/Conventions for English
• Help:Pronunciation respelling key
• Pronunciation respelling for English
• Template:Clc

Bibliography

• Template:Cite EPD
• Template:Accents of English

External links

• 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