Questions tagged [ipa]
International Phonetic Alphabet(IPA)
117 questions
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How to pronounce "urethra"?
I'm confused how to pronounce "urethra". I looked up in the dictionary, it's | jʊˈriːθrə |. Shouldn't it be pronounced "yu-ri-ther"? Many YouTube videos pronounced it "yu-ri-thra".
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IPA syllable breaks
When using IPA, I am aware that <.> (full stop) represents a syllable break.
However, I have also read that a <-> (hyphen) can also be used? Is this correct? If so, is it simply a matter of ...
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Different pronunciations of "-ead"/"-ed"/"-aid" words
I find that American/British English dialects tend to pronounce words like "bed", "red", "dead", "bred", "said", etc. with the exact same vowel sound: the IPA ɛ vowel (- and so this question may seem ...
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Why is "thank you" pronounced as /θaŋ kjuː/ ("thang-Q")?
I would like to know how native speakers say “thank you”. Do they pronounce it /θaŋk juː/ or /θaŋ kjuː/?
I am Asian and I was taught in school to say /θaŋ kjuː/ but teachers didn't explain the ...
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Why are "fun" and "hulk" phonetically transcribed with the same vowel but pronounced differently?
I see many words in English have the same phonetics but I don't know why they sound different.
It means if we read the phonetics and pronounce, it will be wrong.
Here are the examples.
fun : /fʌn/
...
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Can someone help me with the transcription of the word ´mother´? (IPA)
I am really not sure whether the word ´mother´ should be transcribed like this: ´mʌðə´ or like this ´mɒðə´. In my opinion, the second one sounds better. The word mother is similarly pronounced as for ...
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What's the lowered "single quote" lookalike marking in phonetic symbols
I understand that the normal "single quote" marking indicates stress, but what about the lowered one?
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Where can i find the IPA sounds with example words and their pronunciation?
I want to learn the IPA but all the websites i found are incomplete. For example: it has the sounds chart but doesn't have example words (with pronunciation), and sometimes it doesn't even have the ...
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Can the schwa sound predict spelling?
More specifically, I was wondering whether the schwa sound can predict which vowel to use in spelling?
For instance, does the schwa sound predict "a" spelling more than "e" spelling?
I noticed that ...
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Different /ə/ pronunciation at the end of a word; for example, in "phenomena"
Sorry for my English but I'm a self-taught beginner.
That's why I had been looking at the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) with high hopes until I saw phenomenon’s plural form.
In the singular, ...
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Should I pronounce the singular "Irishman" and the plural "Irishmen" identically?
Can someone tell me how to pronounce the following:
Irishman/Irishmen
I have read carefully, according to the online Oxford Living Dictionaries, the pronunciation of words like Irishman/Irishmen: ...
user166746
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A syllable-initial consonant is semi-vowelized before a semivowel?
In English, a syllable-initial consonant is semi-vowelized before a semivowel?
For example, what's the IPA pronunciation of the word music?
/mjuzɪk/
or
/mʲuzɪk/
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Difference between /ʌ/ and /ə/ in English IPA
If someone who is a linguistics expert could explain this to me in a way I can understand, I'd really appreciate it. I get that /ʌ/ is used on stressed vowels and /ə/ on reduced vowels, but they sound ...
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Are [ɪ] and [i] are allophones of the same phoneme in English? [closed]
I am leaning towards no, but would like confirmation and perhaps an example to illustrate.
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What is the IPA of the throat clearing ch sound?
Is there a standard IPA equivalent of the gargle-ish sound you make when you clear phlegm out of your throat, like when you pronounce 'Achmed', where the 'ch' is the 'phlegm' sound?
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How to calculate number of syllables in a word using only the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) spelling?
I want to write an algorithm to calculate the number of syllables in a word. This process is an automated one that will be run on an entire dictionary so manually counting the number of breaths, chin ...
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Influence of inflections on Phonics Rules and Syllables Types
I'm doing a small research on English phonics rules and I'm trying to clarify the influence of inflections in word forms.
It's best to explain my problem with some examples.
The letter 'a' in the ...
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Are əʊ and oʊ the same?
Are əʊ and oʊ the same?
For example are the following pairs pronounced the same:
/ɡrəʊ/ vs /ɡroʊ/ (grow)
/nəʊ/ vs /noʊ/ (no )
Is there any difference in pronunciation?
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Why is the 'o' in 'antimony' pronounced differently than that in 'antinomy'?
So, 'antimony' comes from the latin 'antimonium', wherein the 'o' is pronounced as an /ō/. So, the 'o' in 'antimony' is pronounced as an /ō/.
'Antinomy' comes from the latin 'antinomia', wherein the ...
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Is there any word with two consecutive monophthongs whose symbols could be combined to a diphthong? [closed]
For example, ɔ and ɪ in one word one after another. Note that I talking about a situation where the symbols could be combined as written l, not the sounds. IPA does not have explicit different written ...
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Pronunciation: ah, oh, etc
English vowels have several pronunciations so when people try to explain how to pronounce foreign words (without IPA, which is what they should be using ;-)) they add lots of silent Hs and hyphens, e....
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Confused About Standard IPA
I'm looking for standard IPA but every book, even dictionaries implement it differently.
for example [ɑ] and [ɑ:] or this symbol [ɛ] vs [e].
Some books omit the [i] sound which is the last sound of ...
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Are o͞o and ü interchangeable?
In Google's dictionary, the word "human" is displayed with the o͞o pronunciation symbol, whereas most other dictionaries I checked use the [standard IPA?] ü.
Are these really interchangeable or is ...
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What's the meaning of /e/, /i:/, /a:/, /z/ and /p/?
Write the words in the right column. Read them.
pink, elephant, teacher, friend, jeans, class, programmer, green,
animals, bed, are, zoos, desk, postman, cream, men, these, monkeys,
dance, pet, read, ...
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What phonetic alphabet is used here?
Can someone tell me what phonetic alphabet is used here? Also, how is this word pronounced?
Update: This is a scientific term from a 1976 National Bureau of Standards manual. The original word is ...
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What does () mean in IPA? [closed]
The word expanse in the Merriam Webster dictionary has this IPA transcription.
ik-ˈspan(t)s
Does the () mean that the t is optional, or that it's very lightly pronounced? It would seem more ...
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Is the /eə/ sound related to the /ə/ sound in British English?
Lately I'm into improving my English (UK) pronunciation. I'm using the IPA chart for such purpose.
I was wondering if there's any relationship between the ə sound and the several diphthongs that ...
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In phonetic writing, what does italics mean?
The word government is supposed to be pronounced guhv-ern-muh nt
See here http://www.dictionary.com/browse/government?s=t
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How do you pronounce these Greek letters in English dictionary definitions?
Dictionary definitions for the English language usually have the word spelled out in Greek letters to indicate how the word is pronounced phonetically.
Examples highlighted:
What are these Greek ...
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Some questions about IPA vowels
I'm studying the English vowels of the IPA. However, I got a few questions which can't be diffused after discussions with my friends.
1. What's the difference between "ə" and "ʌ"?
I don't want an ...
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Why do some dictionaries use (lax ɪ) /ɪŋk/ for "~ink" words when the actual pronunciation is (tense i) /iŋk/?
##SOURCES
Words correctly coded tense /i/ sound for "i"
a) routine /ruːˈtiːn/ https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/routine
b) machine /məˈʃiːn/ https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/machine
Words ...
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'Sag' and 'slant': Is the vowel /æ/ the same in both words?
/sæg/
/slænt/
Transcriptions from Cambridge American English Dictionary
Both the words' IPA transcriptions have an /æ/ symbol. Do those two /æ/s sound the same?
Are they both short or long?
Is /æ/ ...
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Pronunciation of -ar in Madagascar
In the movie by the same name, the characters pronounce Madagascar, /mædəɡæskɑɹ/. However, dictionaries only list the pronunciation /mædəɡæskəɹ/. Just as peculiarly, many pronounce templar as /tɛmplɑɹ/...
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Theoretical Phonemes [closed]
I have been looking at IPA recently and I was wondering if there are any sounds that can theoretically be created by humans but do not exist or have not existed in any known languages. Or maybe a ...
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How to pronounce a superscript ə?
And why there's a superscript ə? just found this on the dictionary.cambridge.org ...
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The pronunciation of "peripheral"
Some time ago, I heard the pronunciation of the word peripheral on a TV show (Brain Games, to be exact). Very surprised to hear /pəɹɪfəɹəl/, I asked two close relatives whether that was how the word ...
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Is the pronunciation of "secret" /ˈsiːkrət/ or /ˈsiːkrɪt/?
Under the entries for secret in Cambridge, Oxford Learner's, and MW Learner's dictionaries, the recordings of the word are clearly saying /ˈsiːkrɪt/ but the IPAs transcriptions are /ˈsiːkrət/.
The ...
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schwa sound in IPA?
I have a small problem in schwa sound:
When I used Oxford online dictionary and searched "fossil", Its pronunciation is /ˈfɒsl/, but the Cambridge Dictionaries Online gave me:
/ˈfɒs. ə l/
As you can ...
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Can vs that ( /kæn/ vs /ðæt/ )
I’ve finally decided to take a look at my English pronunciation and it is being an awesome new world. I am focused on Received Pronunciation (British Standard) and one question comes to mind for which ...
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Is there any online tool to read (pronounce) IPA and APA written words?
I am looking for a tool to read a word written as phonetic transcription (IPA or APA).
I need it to provide users with a tool to verify if they've chosen the correct IPA transcription (users will need ...
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Pronunciation of ‘few’ as [ˈfjyu̯]
I was surprised to see that Wiktionary states few be pronounced as /ˈfjuː/ or /ˈfju/. I have always pronounced it as [ˈfjyu̯]. Furthermore, I've copied the pronunciation from what I've heard and when ...
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What is the correct transcription of 'wikinames'?
I thought that this is [ˌwiki'neimz], but do I really need to indicate primary stress, since names contains only one syllable?
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International Phonetic Alphabet: why are the symbols used for the letter "i" in "champion" and "billion" different?
If you have a look at the phonetic transcriptions (in IPA, International Phonetic Alphabet) of "champion" and "billion" you get a different symbol for the letter "i" (Cambridge Dictionaries Online, ...
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Words Listed by Vowel Sound
I'm working on a libretto for a vocal composition which makes use of vowel formants. It's important that all of the singers can produce exactly the same vowel sound, so I'm using IPA symbols.
I'm ...
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Are both "How did you" and "Howdja" used?
How did you get here? [ 'haʊ dɪdʒʊ 'gɛt hɪər? ]
I took the bus.
How did you get here? [ 'haʊdʒə 'gɛt hɪər? ]
I took the train.
My question: are both "haʊ dɪdʒʊ" and "haʊdʒə" used in American English?...
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What's this notation for marking up pronunciation?
What's this notation for marking up pronunciation?
analgesic: ann-ull-JEE-zick
What's a good introductory article or book to learn it?
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Why a "chef" is a shef but a chair is not a shair" [closed]
I am unable to understand, why the sounds in english are not commonly spread.
I looked into the IPA on google and could not understand, why the sounds change.
e.g. chef vs chair.
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Syllable — Phonetic Online List/Dictionary with word examples
Is there a homepage or online tool that gives you a list of, let's say, the 2000 most common syllables sorted by their international phonetic alphabet spelling?
(e.g. /sɜː(r)/ = the first syllable ...
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Nasalization in IPA
I am learning IPA to learn the English pronunciation.
When "n" is inserted after a vowel and it is not followed by another vowel, how to know if /n/ is pronounced or it is only a mark to nasalize the ...
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Difference between IPA ɚ, ɹ, and ɝ
Wanting to be more Californian and trying to correct my accent, I'm looking at the sound for mother, in the North America column. What is the difference between IPA symbols for ɚ, ɹ, and ɝ. (ɝ is not ...
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