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Pronunciation respelling for English

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Main page For the pronunciation respelling system used in Wikipedia, see Help:Pronunciation respelling key
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Contact us A pronunciation respelling for English is a notation used to convey the pronunciation of words in the English language, which does not have a phonemic orthography (i.e. the spelling does not reliably indicate pronunciation). This article contains special characters.
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There are two basic types of pronunciation respelling: see question marks, boxes, or other
symbols.
Contribute "Phonemic" systems, as commonly found in American dictionaries, consistently use one symbol per English phoneme. These systems are conceptually equivalent to the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) commonly used in bilingual dictionaries and scholarly writings but tend to use symbols based on English rather
Help than Romance-language spelling conventions (e.g. ē for IPA /i/) and avoid non-alphabetic symbols (e.g. sh for IPA /ʃ/). This article contains phonetic
transcriptions in the International
Learn to edit On the other hand, "non-phonemic"[1] or "newspaper"[2] systems, commonly used in newspapers and other non-technical writings, avoid diacritics and literally "respell" words making use of well-known English words and spelling conventions, even though the resulting system may not have a one-to-one mapping between Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an
Community portal introductory guide on IPA symbols,
symbols and sounds.
Recent changes see Help:IPA. For the distinction
Upload file As an example, one pronunciation of Arkansas, transcribed /ˈɑːrkənsɔː/ in the IPA, could be respelled är′kən-sô′[3] or AR-kən-saw in a phonemic system and ar-kuhn-saw in a non-phonemic system. between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA
§ Brackets and transcription
delimiters.
Tools Contents [hide]
What links here 1 Development and use
Related changes 2 Traditional respelling systems
Special pages 2.1 Title abbreviations
Permanent link
2.2 Notes
Page information
2.3 Pronunciation without respelling
Cite this page
3 International Phonetic Alphabet
Wikidata item
3.1 Comparison
Print/export 4 Dictionaries for English-language learners
Download as PDF 5 Children's dictionaries
Printable version 6 Other uses
7 See also
Languages
8 References
Türkçe 9 Sources
中⽂
10 External links
Edit links

Development and use [ edit ]

Pronunciation respelling systems for English have been developed primarily for use in dictionaries. They are used there because it is not possible to predict with certainty the sound of a written English word from its spelling or the spelling of a spoken English word from its sound. So readers looking up an unfamiliar word in a dictionary may find, on seeing the
pronunciation respelling, that the word is in fact already known to them orally. By the same token, those who hear an unfamiliar spoken word may see several possible matches in a dictionary and must rely on the pronunciation respellings to find the correct match.[4]

Traditional respelling systems for English use only the 26 ordinary letters of the Latin alphabet with diacritics, and are meant to be easy for native readers to understand. English dictionaries have used various such respelling systems to convey phonemic representations of the spoken word since Samuel Johnson published his Dictionary of the English Language in
1755, the earliest being devised by James Buchanan us be featured in his 1757 dictionary Linguæ Britannicæ Vera Pronunciatio,[5] although most words therein were not respelled but given diacritics;[6] since the language described by Buchanan was that of Scotland, William Kenrick responded in 1773 with A New Dictionary of the English Language, wherein the
pronunciation of Southern England was covered and numbers rather than diacritics used to represent vowel sounds;[7] the first to devise a respelling system of one-to-one correspondence was Thomas Sheridan, who employed it in his succesful 1780 General Dictionary of the English Language;[8][9] in 1791 John Walker produced A Critical Pronouncing Dictionary,
which achieved a great reputation and ran into some forty editions.[10][11] Today, such systems remain in use in American dictionaries for native English speakers,[12] but they have been replaced by the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) in linguistics references and many bilingual dictionaries published outside the United States.[13]

The pronunciation which dictionaries refer to is some chosen "normal" one, thereby excluding other regional accents or dialect pronunciation. In England this standard is normally the Received Pronunciation, based upon the educated speech of southern England. The standard for American English is known as General American (GA).

Sophisticated phonetic systems have been developed, such as James Murray's scheme for the original Oxford English Dictionary, and the IPA, which replaced it in later editions and has been adopted by many British and international dictionaries. The IPA system is not a respelling system, because it uses symbols not in the English alphabet, such as ð and θ. Most
current British dictionaries[14] use IPA for this purpose.

Traditional respelling systems [ edit ]

The following chart matches the IPA symbols used to represent the sounds of the English language with the phonetic symbols used in several dictionaries, a majority of which transcribe American English.

These works 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 adhere and thus have several different symbols for the same sound (partly to allow for different phonemic mergers and splits).

The full titles of abbreviated column headings in the following table are viewable in interactive media (as opposed to hard copy), using the pointer. To see the full titles, hover over the abbreviations. On touchscreens, a long press and cancel may show them.

Consonants
IPA K&K APA NOAD AHD RHD WBO MECD DPL DPN TBD NBC MWCD COD[a] POD Cham SD AB Dictcom BBC Goog Mac Wikipedia Examples

tʃ tʃ č ᴄʜ ch ch͡ ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch, tch ch ch ch, tch church

ɡ[b] g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g, gh game

h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h hh h h h h h hat

hw hw hw (h)w hw hw hw hw hw hw hw (h)w w hw wh which

dʒ dʒ ǯ j j j j j j j j j j j j j j jh j j j j j judge

loch (Scottish and Irish)

x x x ᴋʜ KH ᴋ͡ ʜ kh H k (χ) kh hh ᴋʜ kh kh
Buch (German)

ng
ŋ ŋ ŋ ɴɢ ng ng͡ ng ng ŋ ng ng ng ŋ ng ng ng ng ng ng ng ng ng thing
(ng-g, nk)

s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s, ss sauce

ʃ ʃ š sʜ sh sh͡ sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh ship

θ θ θ ᴛʜ th th͡ th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th thin
th
ð ð ð ᴛʜ th th̸ th th th t ̷h TH th: th dh th dh TH dh th dh dh dh this

j j y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y yes

ʒ ʒ ž ᴢʜ zh zh͡ zh zh zh zh zh zh zh zh zh zh zh zh zh zh zh zh zh vision

The following letters have the same values in all systems listed: b, d, f, k, l, m, n, p, r[c], t, v, w, z.

Vowels
Goog
IPA K&K APA NOAD AHD RHD WBO MECD DPL DPN TBD NBC MWCD COD[a] POD Cham SD AB Dictcom BBC Mac Wikipedia Examples
AmE, BrE

æ æ æ a ă a a a a a a a a ă a a a ae a a (arr) a a a (arr) cat

eɪ e e(y) ā ā ā ay ay ā ay ā ay ā ā ay ā ay, ae ey ey ay ei ay ay day

ɛər ɛr εr e(ə)r âr âr air air – – âr air er ār air ār air eh r air air ehr, euh air air hair

ɑː ɑ a ä ä ä ah aa ä aw, o ä ah ä, ȧ ah aa ä ah aa ah aa aa ah father
ah
ɑːr ɑr ar är är är ahr aar är – är ahr är ar͡ aar är ar aa r ahr ar aar, aa ar arm

ɛ ɛ ε e ĕ e eh e e ɛ e e e ě e e e eh e e (err) e/eh e e (err) let

iː i i(y) ē ē ē ee ee ē ē ē ee ē ē ee ē ee iy ee ee ee ee ee see

ɪər ɪr ιr i(ə)r îr ēr ihr eer ir ier ir ēr eer ēr ihr iy r eer eer eer, eeuh ear eer here

ɪ ɪ ɪ i ĭ i ih i i i i i i ǐ i i i ih i i (irr) i i i (irr) pit

aɪ aɪ ay ī ī ī y ī ī y ī igh ī ī ī ī eye, ie, ye ay ahy y ai uy y, eye[d] by

ɒ ɑ a ä ŏ o o o ä o o ah ä ǒ o o o aa o o (orr) aa, o o o (orr) pot

oʊ o o(w) ō ō ō oh ō ō ō ō oh ō ō ō ō oh, oe ow oh oh ow oh oh no

ɔː ɔ ɔ ô ô ô aw aw ô aw, o ô aw ȯ aw aw ö aw ao aw aw aa, aw aw caught

ɔr ɔr awr aw or north
ɔːr ôr ôr ôr awr ȯr or ao r or or, aw
or o(w)r awr, ohr ohr force

ɔɪ ɔɪ ɔy oi oi oi oy oy oi oy oi oi ȯi oi oy oi oi oy oi oy oy oy oy noise

ʊ ᴜ ᴜ oo͝ oo͝ oo͝ u oo͝ oo u u̇ oo u̇ oo͝ oo͝ ŭ[e] u uh oo uu u oo uu took

ʊər ᴜr ᴜr ͝
oor ͝
oor ͝
oor ur oor u̇r oor u̇r oor oor oor uh r oor oor oor, uor oouh oor tour

uː u u(w) oo͞ oo͞ oo͞ oo oo oo͞ ū ü oo: ü oo͞ oo͞ oo[e] oo uw oo oo oo ooh oo soon

aʊ aᴜ aw ou ou ou ow ow ou ow ou ow au̇ ow ow ow ou aw ou ow aw ow ow out

ʌ ʌ ʌ ə ŭ u uh u u u uh ə ǔ u u uh ah uh uh uh u u cut

ɜːr ɜr ər ər ûr ûr ur ur ʉr er ėr er ər er͡ ər ûr ur er ur ur ur, uh er ur word

ə ə ə ə ə ə uh ə ə e ə uh ə a, e, i, o, u ə ə uh ah uh uh uh ə about
uh
ər ɚ ər ər ər ər uhr ər ər er ər er ər er ər ər ur er er uhr r, uh ər butter

juː ju yu yoo͞ yoo͞ yoo͞ yoo yoo yoo͞ yū yü yoo: yü ū yoo͞ ū yoo y uw yoo yoo yoo yooh ew view

Stress
IPA K&K APA NOAD AHD RHD WBO MECD DPL DPN TBD NBC MWCD[f] COD[a] POD Cham SD AB Dictcom BBC Goog Mac Wikipedia Examples

ˈa ˋa á ˈa a′ a′ A ˈa a· a' a 1 a A a (')a primary stress

á A
ˌa ˊa à ˌa a a 2 a .a secondary stress
a′ a′ ˌa (a·) a a a
a a a a a a 0 a[g] a a tertiary stress

Title abbreviations [ edit ]

IPA – Compromise dialect-neutral English pronunciation using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), as used in Wikipedia.
K&K – General American pronunciation using symbols largely corresponding to those of the IPA in A Pronouncing Dictionary of American English (also referred to as Kenyon and Knott) (1944 [1953]), John S. Kenyon, Thomas A. Knott. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster.
APA – Americanist phonetic notation, used primarily in linguistics literature in the U.S.
NOAD – New Oxford American Dictionary (2001, 2005, 2010). New York: Oxford University Press. (Diacritical transcription).
AHD – American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000). Boston: Houghton-Mifflin. Also used by the Columbia Encyclopedia.
RHD – Random House Dictionary of the English Language (1966).
WBO – World Book Online (1998).
MECD – Microsoft Encarta College Dictionary.
DPL – Dictionary of Pronunciation, Abraham Lass and Betty Lass.
DPN – Dictionary of Pronunciation, Samuel Noory.
TBD – Thorndike Barnhart Dictionary.
NBC – NBC Handbook of Pronunciation.
MWCD – Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary.
COD – The Concise Oxford Dictionary (1964 [1974]), 5th edition, E. McIntosh, ed. Oxford: OUP. (This notation was used up to the 7th edition; newer editions use the IPA.)
POD – The Pocket Oxford Dictionary (2006), 2nd edition, E. Jewell, Oxford: OUP.
Cham – The Chambers Dictionary (2003).
SD – Scholastic Dictionary.
AB – ARPABET, a commonly used computerized encoding of English pronunciation. It is used by the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary.
Dictcom – Dictionary.com uses a custom phonetic alphabet, but no longer offers IPA or a key. A pronunciation key preserved by the Wayback Machine can be found here: [1]
BBC – BBC Phonetic Respelling.[2]
Goog – Google's pronunciation dictionary.
Mac - Macquarie Dictionary's "say" respelling system.
Wikipedia – Wikipedia Pronunciation Respelling Key, used in some Wikipedia articles to spell out the pronunciations of English words.

Notes [ edit ]

a. ^ a b c 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.
b. ^ In IPA, an "opentail G" (ɡ / ) was historically preferred to a "looptail G" (g / ), although now either variant is acceptable.
c. ^ The more precise IPA symbol ⟨ɹ⟩ is sometimes used for English /r/.
d. ^ Spelled eye as a syllable of its own; with a consonant, it is spelled y: iodine EYE-ə-dyne; item EYE-təm; pipe PYPE.
e. ^ a b Older editions of The Chambers Dictionary used oo͞ for ŭ and oo͞ for oo.
f. ^ Older editions of the MWCD and other Webster's dictionaries used the system later followed by the American Heritage Dictionary, with primary stress indicated by a′ and secondary by a′ (sometimes rendered as a" and a').[15][16]
g. ^ For tertiary stress, not only are the letters italicized, but they are in a different font, also. Secondary/tertiary stress is only marked when judged to be unpredictable, but is not distinguished from primary stress when it is marked.

Pronunciation without respelling [ edit ]

Some dictionaries indicate hyphenation and syllabic stress in the headword. A few have even used diacritics to show pronunciation "without respelling" in the headwords.

The Concise Oxford Dictionary, 1st through 4th edition, used a mix of two systems.[17] Some editions of Webster's Unabridged Dictionary have offered a method for teachers to indicate pronunciation without respelling as a supplement to the respelling scheme used in the dictionary. Pronunciation without respelling is also sometimes used in texts with many unusual
words, such as Bibles,[18][19][20] when it is desirable to show the received pronunciation. These will often be more exhaustive than dictionary respelling keys because all possible digraphs or readings need to have a unique spelling.

Concise Oxford Dictionary's Henry Adeney Redpath's table of signs in the King James Bible[19][20][21]
system without respelling Symbol Original gloss Approximate IPA equivalent*
COD variant IPA syllable boundary (always added;
- /./
ph /f/ original hyphens become –)

kn (initial) /n/ -́ syllable boundary after stress* /ˈ/ or /ˌ/ before syll.

wr (initial) /r/ ä ah, arm, father /ɑː/

/dʒ/ (before e, i, y) ă abet, hat, dilemma /æ, ə‡/

g, dg /ɡ/ otherwise ā tame /eɪ/
(hard and soft g)
â fare /ɛə†/
/s/ (before e, i, y)
ạ call /ɔː/
c /k/ otherwise
(hard and soft c) ĕ met, her, second /ɛ, ɜ†, ə‡/

ai, ay /eɪ/ ē mete /iː/

air /ɛər/ ë a in tame /eɪ/

ae, ea, ee, ie /iː/ ī fine /aɪ/

ė, ie (final), ey /ɪ/ ĭ him, fir, plentiful /ɪ, ɜ†, i‡, ə‡/

ear, eer, ier /ɪər/ î machine /iː/

aw /ɔː/ ị peculiar /j/

oy /ɔɪ/ ō alone /oʊ/

ou /aʊ/ ŏ on, protect /ɒ, ə‡/

ir,͡ ur͡ /ɜr/ ô nor /ɔː/

eu, ew /juː/ o̱ son /ʌ, ə‡/

ū tune /juː/

û rude /uː/

ŭ us /ʌ, ə‡/

u̇ turner /ɜ†/

ȳ lyre /aɪ/

y̆ typical, fully /ɪ, i‡/

aa͞ a of am /æ/

aa͡ a of fare /ɛə/

ǣ, ae͞ mediæval /iː/

ai ͡ aisle /aɪ/

ai ͟ hail /eɪ/

ao͞ o of alone /oʊ/

au͡ maul /ɔː/

ee͡ heed /iː/

ei ͡ i of fine /aɪ/

eu͡ neuter /juː/

ew͡ lewd /juː/

oi ͡ oil /ɔɪ/

c̣ celestial /s/

ch͟ character /k/

ci ͞ delicious /ʃ/

ġ giant /dʒ/

ṡ his /z/

si ͞ adhesion /ʒ/

Th͞ Thomas /t/

ti ͞ attraction /ʃ/

* IPA symbols interpreted by Wikipedia.

† This reading or symbol is only obtained or used before "r".
‡ This reading is only obtained in unstressed syllables.

International Phonetic Alphabet [ edit ]

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, used by English teachers as
well, 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).

IPA is very flexible and allows for a wide variety of transcriptions between broad phonemic transcriptions which describe the significant units of meaning in language and phonetic transcriptions which may indicate every nuance of sound in detail.

The IPA transcription conventions 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).

Short and long vowels in various IPA

schemes for RP
word quant. qual. Gimson

rid rid rɪd rɪd

reed riːd rid riːd

cod kɔd kɒd kɒd

cord kɔːd kɔd kɔːd

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.

While IPA has not been adopted by popular dictionaries in the United States,[citation needed] 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.

Adaptations of the Gimson system for American English

/ɒ/ Pronounced [ɑː] in General American.

/e/ In American English falls between [e] and [æ] (sometimes transcribed /ɛ/)

/əu/ This traditional transcription is probably more accurately replaced by /ou/ in American English.

/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 [iː], depending on the dialect

/ɔː/ Many Americans pronounce /ɔː/ the same as /ɒ/ ([ɑː])

/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. In addition, the phonetician John C Wells said that he could not understand why Upton had altered the presentation of price to prʌɪs.[22]

Upton outlined his reasons for the transcription in a chapter of A Handbook of Varieties of English. He said that the PRICE-vowel represented how the starting point could be anything from centralised front to centralised back.[23] The change in the NURSE vowel was intended as a simplification as well as a reflection that nɜːs was not the only possible realisation in
RP.[24] The other alterations were intended to reflect changes that have occurred over time.

Upton's reform
word Gimson Upton

bet bet bɛt

bat bæt bat

nurse nɜːs nəːs

square skweə skwɛː

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.

Comparison [ edit ]

Comparison of the IPA variants for English

RP GA
Lexical sets Jones Gimson Upton Kenyon&Knott Roach et al.
(1909, 1917)[25][26] (1962, 1967)[27][28] (1995)[29] (1944)[30] (1997)[31]

FLEECE iː iː iː i iː

KIT i ɪ ɪ ɪ ɪ

DRESS e e ɛ ɛ e

TRAP æ æ a æ æ

START ɑː ɑː ɑː ɑr~ɑː[i] ɑːr

PALM ɑː ɑː ɑː ɑ ɑː

LOT ɔ ɒ ɒ ɑ~ɒ[i] ɑː

THOUGHT ɔː ɔː ɔː ɔ ɔː

NORTH ɔː ɔː ɔː ɔr~ɔə[i] ɔːr

FOOT u ʊ ʊ ᴜ ʊ

GOOSE uː uː uː u uː

STRUT ʌ ʌ ʌ ʌ ʌ

NURSE əː ɜː əː ɝ~ɜ[i] ɝː

LETTER ə ə ə ɚ~ə[i] ɚ

COMMA ə ə ə ə ə

FACE ei eɪ eɪ e eɪ

GOAT ou əʊ əʊ o oʊ

PRICE ai aɪ ʌɪ aɪ aɪ

MOUTH au~ɑu[ii] aʊ aʊ aᴜ aʊ

CHOICE ɔi ɔɪ ɔɪ ɔɪ ɔɪ

NEAR iə ɪə ɪə ɪr~ɪə[i] ɪr

SQUARE ɛə eə ɛː ɛr~ɛə[i] er

CURE uə ʊə ʊə ᴜr~ᴜə[i] ʊr

i. ^ a b c d e f g h Kenyon & Knott provided alternative variants for Eastern and Southern pronunciation: /ɑː ɒ ɔə ɜ ə ɪə ɛə ᴜə/ for general /ɑr ɑ ɔr ɝ ɚ ɪr ɛr ᴜr/, respectively.[30]
Notes
ii. ^ In his earlier works, Jones used /ɑu/ for this diphthong.[25]

Dictionaries for English-language learners [ edit ]

For many English language learners, particularly learners without easy Internet access, dictionary pronunciation respelling are the only source of pronunciation information for most new words. Which respelling systems are best for such learners has been a matter of debate.

In countries where the local languages are written in non-Latin, phonemic orthographies, various other respelling systems have been used. In India, for example, many English bilingual dictionaries provide pronunciation respellings in the local orthography. This is the case for several Indian languages, including Hindi, Urdu, Malayalam, and Tamil. To reduce the
potential distortions of bilingual phonemic transcription, some dictionaries add English letters to the local-script respellings to represent sounds not specified in the local script. For example, in English-Tamil dictionaries, the sounds /b/ and /z/ need to be specified, as in this respelling of busy: "b!z"".[32]

Because these respellings primarily use symbols already known to anyone with minimal literacy in the local language, they are more practical to use in such contexts than the IPA or the Latin respelling systems with diacritics. Another advantage of local-script respellings for English learners is that they retain the "flavour" of local English speech, allowing learners to
make connections between their spoken and written English experiences. However, these systems also have limitations. One limitation is that they do not illuminate the English writing system. Like the IPA, they represent phonemes differently from the ways in which the phonemes are normally spelled. So these notations do not guide readers to infer the regularities of
English spelling. Also, the practicality of these systems for learning English locally may be offset by difficulties in communication with people used to different norms such as General American or Received Pronunciation.

Children's dictionaries [ edit ]

Most beginner dictionaries are picture dictionaries, or word books. For preliterate native speakers of a language, the pictures in these dictionaries both define the entry words and are the "keys" to their pronunciation. Respellings for English begin to appear in dictionaries for novice readers. Generally, US-based dictionaries contain pronunciation information for all
headwords, while UK-based dictionaries provide pronunciation information only for unusual (e.g., ache) or ambiguously spelled (e.g., bow) words.[33] [clarification needed]

As the normal age of literacy acquisition varies among languages, so do the age-range designations of children's books. Generally, age ranges for young children's books in English lag behind those of languages with phonemic orthographies by about a year. This corresponds to the slow pace of literacy acquisition among English speakers as compared to speakers of
languages with phonemic orthographies, such as Italian.[34] Italian children are expected to learn to read within the first year of elementary school, whereas English-speaking children are expected to read by the end of third grade. Pronunciation respellings begin to appear in dictionaries for children in third grade and up.

There seems to be very little research on which respelling systems are most useful for children, apart from two small studies done in the 1980s and 1990s. Both studies were limited to traditional respelling systems without diacritics (setting aside both the IPA and the Webster-based systems used in American dictionaries). Both studies found that in such systems, word
respellings may be cumbersome and ambiguous, as in this respelling of psychology: "suy-kol-uh-jee".

The authors of the two studies proposed alternative systems, though there were no follow-up studies. Yule's "cut system" leaves out extra letters, adds specific spellings for sounds with variable spellings, and adds accents to show long vowels, as in this respelling of occasion: o-cà-zhon.[35] Fraser advocated a "non-phonemic" approach using a small set of common
spelling patterns in which words would be respelled chunk by chunk, rather than phoneme by phoneme, as in this respelling of persiflage (IPA: /ˈpərsɪˌflɑʒ/): per-sif-large.[36] According to both authors, the reduced vowel (schwa) does not need to be shown in a respelling so long as syllabification and syllable stress are shown.

The following overlapping issues concerning pronunciation respelling in children's dictionaries were directly raised by Yule and Fraser: the level of difficulty, the type of notation, the degree of divergence from regular spelling, and pronunciation norms. Yule also raised the question of the types of impact respelling systems could have on children's literacy acquisition.
These issues could be usefully addressed in studies that include American respelling systems as well as the IPA.

An issue that has arisen since the Yule and Fraser studies concerns the utility of pronunciation respellings given the availability of audio pronunciations in online dictionaries. Currently, the advantage of written respellings is that they may be read phoneme by phoneme, in parallel to the way novice readers are taught to "stretch out" words to hear all the sounds they
contain, while the audio pronunciations are given only as whole words spoken in real time. When audio pronunciations are made flexible, it will become possible to study and compare the utility of different combinations of pronunciation features in the online children's dictionaries.

Other uses [ edit ]

Anglophone press agencies, such as the Voice of America, periodically release lists of respelled given names of internationally relevant people, in order to help news TV and radio announcers and spokespersons to pronounce them as closely as possible to their original languages.

See also [ edit ]

English spelling reform

International Phonetic Alphabet
International Phonetic Alphabet chart for English dialects
SAMPA
ARPABET
English pronunciation of Greek letters
Help:IPA/English
Help:Pronunciation respelling key
Help:IPA/Conventions for English

References [ edit ]

1. ^ Fraser 1997, p. 182 8. ^ Sheridan, Thomas (1780). A general dictionary of the English
2. ^ Landau 2001, p. 121 language. : One main object of which, is, to establish a plain and
3. ^ "Arkansas" . The American Heritage Dictionary of the English permanent standard pronunciation. : To which is prefixed a rhetorical
Language (5th ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. grammar . University of California Libraries. London : Printed for J.
4. ^ Merriam-Webster Online n.d. Dodsley ... C. Dilly ... and J. Wilkie ...
5. ^ "dictionary | Definition, History, Types, & Facts | Britannica" . 9. ^ Sheridan, Thomas (1789). A complete dictionary of the English
www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2021-12-31. language, : both with regard to sound and meaning. One main object
6. ^ Buchanan, James (1757). Linguæ Britannicæ Vera Pronunciatio : of which is, to establish a plain and permanent standard of
Or, a New English Dictionary. Containing I. An Explanation of All pronunciation. To which is prefixed a prosodial grammar . National
English Words Used by the Best Writers;...II. The Language from Library of Scotland. London: : Printed for Charles Dilly, in the Poultry.
which Each Word is Derived. III. The Part of Speech to which it 10. ^ Walker, John (1791). A critical pronouncing dictionary and expositor
Belongs. IV. A Supplement of Upwards of 4000 Proper Names.In of the English language ... To which are prefixed, principles of English
which Every Words Has Not Only the Common Accent to Denote the pronunciation ... Likewise rules to be observed by the natives of
Emphasis of the Voice, But, ... by James Buchanan . A. Millar. Scotland, Ireland, and London, for avoiding their respective
7. ^ KENRICK (LL.D.), William (1773). A new Dictionary of the English peculiarities; and directions to foreigners for acquiring a knowledge of
Language. ... To which is prefixed a Rhetorical Grammar . the use of this dictionary. The whole interspersed with observations,
philological, critical, and grammatical . New York Public Library.
London, G.G.J. and J. Robinson.
11. ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Walker, John" . Encyclopædia
Britannica. 28 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 272.
12. ^ Landau 2001, p. 118
13. ^ Landau 2001, pp. 119–21
14. ^ Such as The Oxford BBC Guide to Pronunciation Mind your
language Archived 2008-07-09 at the Wayback Machine, by Dot
Wordsworth, in The Spectator, November 7, 2007.
15. ^ Webster, Noah (1898). Webster's Collegiate Dictionary: A Dictionary
of the English Language : Giving the Derivations, Pronunciations,
Definitions and Synonyms of a Large Vocabulary of the Words
Occurring in Literature, Art, Science, and the Common Speech . G.
& C. Merriam.
16. ^ Porter, Noah (1913). Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary .
C. & G. Merriam Co.
17. ^ Fowler, H. W.; Fowler, F. G., eds. (1911). The Concise Oxford
Dictionary of Current English (1st ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Press.
18. ^ The self-pronouncing New Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 27. ^ Gimson, A. C. (1962). An introduction to the pronunciation of
Christ . Philadelphia: A. J. Holman & Co. 1895. English (1 ed.).
19. ^ a b The Oxford self-pronouncing Bible; the Holy Bible containing the 28. ^ Crystal, David (1995). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English
Old and New Testaments . New York & London: Oxford University language . p. 237 .
Press. 1897. 29. ^ Concise Oxford English Dictionary (10 ed.). Oxford University
20. ^ a b The Oxford self-pronouncing Testament; the New Testament... Press. 1995. ISBN 9780199601110.
New York & London: Oxford University Press. 1900. 30. ^ a b Kenyon, John S.; Knott, Thomas A. (1944). A Pronouncing
21. ^ The Holy Bible: Authorized King James Version . Collins' Clear- Dictionary of American English. Springfield, MA: G.& C. Merriam Co.
Type Press. 1959. 31. ^ Jones, Daniel (1997). Roach, Peter; Hartman, James; Setter, Jane
22. ^ "IPA transcription systems for English" . (eds.). English Pronouncing Dictionary. Cambridge University press.
23. ^ Upton 2004, p. 225 32. ^ Students' Deluxe Dictionary n.d.
24. ^ Upton 2004, p. 224 33. ^ Oxford Junior Illustrated Dictionary
25. ^ a b Jones, Daniel (1909). The Pronunciation of English . 34. ^ Seymour 2003
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. XIV-XV. 35. ^ Yule 1991
26. ^ Jones, Daniel (1917). An English Pronouncing Dictionary . J. M. 36. ^ Fraser 1996
Dent & Sons Ltd. p. XXV. ISBN 9780415233392.

Sources [ edit ]

Gaskins, Irene; et al. (1997). "Procedures for Word Learning: Making Discoveries About Words". The Reading Teacher. 50 (4): 312–327.
Emsley, Bert (February 1940). "Progress in Pronouncing Dictionaries". American Speech. 15 (1): 55–59. doi:10.2307/452729 . JSTOR 452729 .
Fraser, Helen (1996). "Guy-dance with Pro-nun-see-ay-shon". English Today. 12 (3): 29–37. doi:10.1017/S0266078400009135 .
Fraser, Helen (1997). "Dictionary Pronunciation Guides for English". International Journal of Lexicography. 10 (3): 181–208. doi:10.1093/ijl/10.3.181 .
Students' Deluxe Dictionary (New ed.). Coimbatore: Deluxe Publishers. n.d.
Landau, Sidney I. (2001). Dictionaries: The Art and Craft of Lexicography (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-78040-7.
Oxford Junior Illustrated Dictionary. Oxford University Press. 2011.
Seymour, P.H.K.; et al. (2003). "Foundation Literacy Acquisition in European Orthographies" . British Journal of Psychology. 94 (2): 143–147. doi:10.1348/000712603321661859 . PMID 12803812 . S2CID 9716179 .
Wells, John (2001). "IPA transcription systems for English ", at University College London Department of Phonetics and Linguistics site. Retrieved 2006-08-16.
Yule, Valerie (1991). "Pilot Experiments in Cutting Surplus Letters" . Archived from the original on 2011-10-18. Retrieved 2011-08-09.
Windsor Lewis, Jack (December 2003). "IPA vowel symbols for British English in dictionaries" . Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 33 (2): 143–152. doi:10.1017/S0025100303001257 . S2CID 144393808 . Retrieved 2007-11-29.
Upton, Clive (2004). "Received Pronunciation". In Schneider, Edgar W (ed.). A Handbook of Varieties of English. 1. Phonology. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. pp. 217–230. ISBN 978-3-11-017532-5.
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 2014-11-21.
Oxford English Dictionary. "Key to New Edition Entries ", from the OED website. Retrieved 2014-11-21.
Merriam-Webster Online, n.d. "Pronunciation Overview ", Retrieved 2011-07-23.

External links [ edit ]

Merriam-Webster Online, Pronunciation Overview , Pronunciation Guide , Guide to Pronunciation

Pronunciation Guides in Children's Dictionaries
Key to the Pronunciation , Oxford English Dictionary
The use of Phonetic and other Symbols in Dictionaries: A brief survey
Pronunciation key , the Free Dictionary
PhoTransEdit – English Phonetic Transcription Editor : PhoTransEdit is a free tool created to make typing phonetic transcriptions easier. It includes automatic phonemic transcription (in RP and General American) of English texts and an IPA phonetic keyboard to edit them. The transcription can be pasted into other editors (e.g. Microsoft Word) or exported to use
it in HTML pages.
IPA Phonetic Transcription of English text : Online converter of English text into its phonetic transcription using International Phonetic Alphabet (British and American dialects).

Categories: Phonetic alphabets English phonology American English Phonetic guides English orthography

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