Not logged in Talk Contributions Create account Log in

Help page Talk Read View source View history Search Wikipedia

Help:Pronunciation respelling key

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Main page Shortcuts

This is an information page.
Contents H:RESPELL
Current events It is not one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, but rather intends to describe some aspect(s) of Wikipedia's norms, customs, technicalities, or practices. It may reflect varying levels of consensus and vetting. H:PRK
Random article
About Wikipedia 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 in the word "about". This page contains phonetic
transcriptions in the International
Contact us
Contents [hide] Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an
Donate introductory guide on IPA symbols,
Key ( Syllables and stress) · When to use and when not to use · See also · Notes see Help:IPA. For the distinction
Contribute between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA
§ Brackets and transcription
Help
Learn to edit Key delimiters.

Community portal 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
Recent changes
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.
Upload file
For a more thorough discussion of the sounds and dialectal variation, see Help:IPA/English.
Tools
What links here Vowels Consonants
Related changes
Rspl. Example(s) IPA Rspl. Example(s) IPA
Special pages
Permanent link a[1] bat /æ/ b buy /b/
Page information
ah father /ɑː/ ch[7] church, nature /tʃ/
Wikidata item
air bear, Mary /ɛər/ d dye, ladder /d/
Print/export
ar farther /ɑːr/ dh thy, this /ð/
Download as PDF
Printable version arr marry /ær/ f fight /f/

Languages aw bought /ɔː/ g go

/ɡ/
অসমীয়া ay bait /eɪ/ gh[8] guess, guitar
भोजपुरी
e[1] bet h high /h/
Bahasa Indonesia /ɛ/
Jawa eh[2] prestige j jive /dʒ/
ଓଡ଼ିଆ
beat /iː/ k kite, sky, lock /k/
!"#$ ee
中⽂ happy, serious /i/ kh loch, Chanukah /x/

3 more eer beer, nearer /ɪər/ l lie, sly /l/

err merry /ɛr/ m my /m/

Edit links
ew[3] cute, beauty, dew /juː/ n nigh /n/

eye[4] item, yikes /aɪ/ ng ring, singer /ŋ/

i[1] bit nk[9] sink /ŋk/

/ɪ/
ih[5] historic p pie, spy /p/

ire hire /aɪər/ r rye, try /r/

irr mirror /ɪr/ s sigh

/s/
o[1] bot /ɒ/ ss[10] ice, tense

oh boat /oʊ/ sh shy /ʃ/

oir coir /ɔɪər/ t tie, sty, latter /t/

boot, you /uː/ tch[7] church, natural /tʃ/

oo
influence, fruition /u/ th thigh /θ/

oor poor, tourist /ʊər/ v vine /v/

or horse, hoarse, pour, forum /ɔːr/ w wine /w/

orr moral /ɒr/ wh whine /hw/

our flour /aʊər/ y you /j/

ow bout, vow /aʊ/ z zoo /z/

oy choice, boy /ɔɪ/ zh pleasure /ʒ/

u[1] but
/ʌ/
uh[6] frustration

ur bird, furry /ɜːr/

ure[3] cure, lure /jʊər/

urr hurry /ʌr/

uu[1] book /ʊ/

uurr courier /ʊr/

y[4] bite, bide /aɪ/

ə about, comma /ə/

ər letter /ər/

Syllables and stress

Syllables are separated by a hyphen ("-"). 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 because the difference is automatic. In words where primary stress precedes secondary stress, however,
the secondary stress should not be differentiated from unstressed syllables; for example, "motorcycle" (/ˈmoʊtərˌsaɪkəl/) should be respelled as MOH-tər-sy-kəl because MOH-tər-SY-kəl would incorrectly suggest the pronunciation /ˌmoʊtərˈsaɪkəl/.

When to use and when not to use

As designated in Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation, the standard set of symbols used to show the pronunciation of English words on Wikipedia is the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). The IPA has significant advantages over this respelling system, 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 European/Commonwealth and 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. So, while
the IPA is the required form of representing pronunciation, respelling remains optional. It should not be used for representing non-English words or an approximation thereof. See documentation for {{Respell}} for examples and instructions on using the template.

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. "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.

Particularly, 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, low, mow, mown, own, row, show, slow, snow, sow, sown, stow, strow, throw, tow, and trow. There is no universal solution to this problem ("ou" also varies as in
loud, soup, soul, and touch), so respelling a word including /aʊ/ may be best avoided altogether; however, sometimes the benefit of respelling may outweigh the disadvantage, especially for longer words, so exercise discretion.

See also
Help:IPA/Conventions for English
Help:IPA/English
{{Respell}}: the template and instructions for adding pronunciation respelling
Pronunciation respelling for English
Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation

Notes
1. ^ a b c d e f /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 customary to
attribute it 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, whut-, wherein /t/ is not aspirated and may be
glottalized or flapped). 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.
2. ^ /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/.
3. ^ a b ew and ure 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", "value"), use yoo(r)—unless it is
subject to yod-dropping or yod-coalescence: "Lithuania" LITH-ew-AY-
nee-ə.
4. ^ a b /aɪ/ is respelled eye when it begins a syllable or is preceded by /j/
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.
5. ^ /ɪ/ in syllable-final positions may be respelled ih instead of i when
otherwise it may be misinterpreted as another sound such as /aɪ/.
6. ^ /ʌ/ in syllable-final positions is respelled uh instead of u to better
distinguish it from /u(ː), ʊ/.
7. ^ a b /tʃ/ after a vowel in the same syllable is respelled tch instead of
ch to better distinguish it from /k, x/.
8. ^ /ɡ/ may be respelled gh instead of g when otherwise it may be
misinterpreted as /dʒ/.
9. ^ /ŋk/ is respelled nk rather than ngk, since the assimilation is
mandatory, except beyond a syllable boundary: "tinker" TING-kər.
10. ^ /s/ may be respelled ss instead of s when otherwise it may be
misinterpreted as /z/: "ice" EYESS, "tense" TENSS (compare eyes,
tens).

V ·T ·E International Phonetic Alphabet keys [hide]

Adyghe · Afrikaans · Albanian · Amharic · Arabic (Modern Standard · Egyptian · Hejazi · Lebanese · Tunisian) · Armenian · Assamese · Asturian · Australian languages · Azerbaijani · Basque · Belarusian · Bengali · Berber · Breton · Bulgarian · Burmese · Catalan / Valencian (Standard · Insular) · Chinese (Mandarin · Cantonese · Taiwanese Hokkien · Wu) · Corsican · Czech · Danish · Dari · Dutch · English (Old English) ·
Emilian-Romagnol · Esperanto · Estonian · Extremaduran · Fijian · Finnish · Franco-Provençal · French · Galician · Georgian · German (Standard · Alemannic · Colognian) · Greek · Gujarati · Haitian Creole · Hawaiian · Hebrew · Hindi · Hmong · Hungarian · Icelandic · Igbo · Indonesian · Inuktitut · Inupiaq · Irish · Isan · Italian (dialects) · Japanese · Kazakh · Khmer · Korean · Kurdish · Kyrgyz · Lao · Latin · Latvian · Ligurian ·
Lithuanian · Lombard · Luxembourgish · Macedonian · Maithili · Malagasy · Malay · Malayalam · Maltese · Manx · Māori · Marathi · Marshallese · Mauritian Creole · Mayan · Mongolian · Mirandese · Nahuatl · Navajo · Neapolitan · Nepali · Northern Thai · Norwegian · Occitan · Odia · Persian · Piedmontese · Polish · Portuguese · Punjabi · Quechua · Romanian · Romansh · Russian · Sanskrit · Sardinian · Scottish Gaelic ·
Serbo-Croatian · Shan · Sicilian · Slovak · Slovene · Spanish · Swahili · Swazi · Swedish · Tagalog · Tai Lue · Tajik · Tamil · Tatar · Telugu · Thai · Tibetan · Tigrinya · Turkish · Turkmen · Ukrainian · Urdu · Uzbek · Venetian · Vietnamese · Walloon · Welsh · West Frisian · Xhosa · Yiddish · Yoruba · Zulu

Comparisons IPA conventions for English · English dialects · Wikipedia pronunciation respelling · Other English pronunciation respellings

Introductory guides Symbols · For English speakers · Manual of Style: Pronunciation

Categories: Wikipedia information pages Wikipedia pronunciation

This page was last edited on 4 December 2021, at 13:47 (UTC).

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.

Privacy policy About Wikipedia Disclaimers Contact Wikipedia Mobile view Developers Statistics Cookie statement