Questions tagged [phonetics]
Phonetics (pronounced /fəˈnɛtɪks/, from the Greek: φωνή, phōnē, 'sound, voice') is a branch of linguistics that comprises the study of the sounds of human speech, or—in the case of sign languages—the equivalent aspects of sign.
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Why can "spider" and "cider" undergo Canadian raising in American English?
If I understand it correctly: Canadian raising is a phenomenon that, in many AmE speakers, alters the pronunciation of /aɪ/ before voiceless consonants. (The Canadians also have it in /aʊ/.) This ...
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*an unitary operator* or *a unitary operator*
This is related to the question that I asked in English language and usage community: about whether there is a dialectal difference among the native English speakers in pronouncing the u of words like ...
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Flapped r after th in English?
I have heard a few English speakers — native — say the word “three” with what sounds like a flapped r. This might include other words that begin with “thr”, but I can’t remember. It’s just been ...
TheAquilineNose
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*an unitary operator* or *a unitary operator* [duplicate]
The rule that I usually use in such cases is that *an* precedes a vowel sound, while *a* is used before a consonant sound. I understand sound as different from letter - conventionally u would be ...
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Gemination of plosives in final positions following a consonant
Whenever a plosive like p,t,k follows a consonant in the final position, it is always released or else it can't be heard at all. For example: lamp, act, thank, etc. Yet in the word lamppost, the first ...
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How phonetically distinct in terms of quality (tongue gesture) are /ɜː/ and /ə/ in Received Pronunciation?
The English Wikipedia article on Received Pronunciation uses two particular vowel charts adapted from two sources, an article by Peter Roach titled British English: Received Pronunciation published in ...
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In IPA transcription, what is the difference between “ɪ”, "i", “i:”?
What is the difference between “ɪ”, "i", “i:”?
Are these two same “ɪ”, "i" and won't be wrong if interchanged while transcripting?
For example: Is it correct to write either /ʃɪp/ ...
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How are /ɪ/ and /ʌ/ realised in the Nottingham (East Midlands) accent?
I've got a sample of a few words pronounced by a Nottingham accent representative: https://youtu.be/2fCSeDEZeVU
My ear is far from perfect and this is why I'd like to ask for your help in this ...
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Is this intrusive r? "Arya Stark" pronounced as "Aryer Stark"
In Game of Thrones, season 4, ep.8 around 37:50, The Hound says:
[...]and his travelling companion Arya Stark.
He pronounces it like "Aryer Stark". It seems to be a similar concept as an ...
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Cot caught merger - /ɔɪ/ or /ɑɪ/ in boy, choice...?
Here is the pronunciation guide from Oxford American English dictionary:
Some speakers only use the sound /ɔ/ when it is followed by /r/ (as in horse /hɔrs/) and use /ɑ/ in all other words that are ...
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Do any speakers have contrastive vowel qualities for the NURSE and lettER sets?
John Wells’ lexical sets are usually useful classifications for determining differences in the realizations of vowels across English accents. Two of the sets are the NURSE set, referring to a stressed ...
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L-epenthesis in “both” and other words
I’m a younger speaker from Chicago with some version of a General American accent. I’ve noticed that a small number of words seem to have a nonstandard pronunciation with an inserted lateral sound, ...
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Rounding of the START and PALM vowels
I’m a younger speaker from Chicago with a relatively standard General American accent. I have noticed that the vowels in the words “start” and “palm” sound like they have some lip rounding in my ...
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Pronunciation of “have to” as “haf to”
I’m a young speaker from Chicago. A colloquial phrase I hear and say often is “I have to _,” indicating an obligation to do something. However, I’ve noticed that “have” is pronounced in a nonstandard ...
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When does n sounds like m? [duplicate]
I hear that native (american, but maybe others do too) English speakers sometimes change the sound /n/ for a /m/ in between words like "Conversation" and "Grandpa". Is there a rule ...
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How to explain to a five year old why certain words are spelled this way [closed]
My five-year-old is learning phonics. I give him spelling test time to time. I asked him to spell "Hair" and he spelled it as "Her" & then I told him this is incorrect spelling....
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Possibility of a near-cure or peer-pure vowel merger in American English
I am a young speaker from Chicago with, I think, a relatively nonspecific General American accent. I’ve noticed something interesting with the vowels in the NEAR and CURE sets. These vowels can be ...
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Do British and American English speakers pronounce /ɪ/ differently?
I'm not a native speaker of English, but I'm pretty fluent in Received Pronunciation.
I've recently noticed that the way Americans make the sound /ɪ/ is different from the way I, and RP speakers in ...
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Phonetic similarity metrics
I am looking for similarity metrics based on IPA symbols in English.
In other words, given two phonemes A and B (given in IPA format), I want to know how similar they are based on some metric, M. For ...
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Pronunciation of ss as s and lack of sh?
I've been hearing some British and Irish actors and presenters pronounce ss like s instead of sh, so tissue sounds like tisyu rather than tishu for example. I also heard someone pronounce appreSEEate ...
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Phonetic rules (hitchhiker)
Watching an American TV series, all cast are American and play American roles, the protagonist talks about a hitchhiker and pronounces the two i's with the same phonetics as in SITTING ɪ + ɪ while ...
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How many syllables do these rules say that ‘every’ has?
Edit note: As you’ll see from the linked-to post, I’m not expecting my code here to be anything like 100% accurate. I’m after a fast and dirty heuristic that will be correct most of the time.
I’m ...
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When is it OK to pronounced a voiced th like a /d/ instead of a /ð/?
As I learned in Do native speakers really always pronounce the voiced th as a /ð/? native speakers sometimes pronounce the voiced th as a /d/ instead of a /ð/ like in the words "the", &...
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Do native speakers really always pronounce the voiced th as a /ð/? [closed]
In Can we pronounce the 'th' sound as a d? one answer explained that native speakers often don't pronounce the voiced th excactly like how it ideally should sound.
What I have noticed over ...
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Phonetic symbols for Port are different: Webster Internet vs Webster paper
Phonetic symbols are different for the same word Port.
Merriam-Webster's Dictionary on the Internet:
port noun (1)
\ ˈpȯrt \
Definition of port (Entry 1 of 10)
1: a place where ships may ride ...
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Pronunciation: /ɪ/ becomes /ə/ in "William" or "Wilkinson"?
I sometimes hear words like "Willam" or "Wilkinson" pronounced like /'wəl-jəm/ or /'wəɫ̩-kən-sən/, rather than /'wɪɫ̩-jəm/ or /'wɪɫ̩-kən-sən/. In other words, the /wɪɫ̩/ cluster is ...
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Why are "er”, "ar” and "or" often listed as R-colored vowels but "air”, "ear" and "oor/ure" are not? Are they vowels or vowel+consonant?
NOTE: I speak a rhotic variety of English.
I am struggling with how to explain r-coloured vowels/vocalic R to teachers during a presentation on the phonemes of English. Many grapheme-phoneme lists ...
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What is/are the process(es) leading to the mispronunciation of the word "extra"?
I find that it is not uncommon for the word extra to be pronounced without the letter 'x' being enunciated such that it sounds like /ˈɛkʃᵗrə/ instead of /ˈɛkstrə/. That is the /s/ sound is substituted ...
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English words ending with -enk/-eng
Why aren’t words ending with -enk/-eng more common in Modern English?
user439754
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What are the two /r/ sounds explained in this video?
This guy says here there are two ways of "making the /r/ sound". His explanation lacks academic rigor and necessary phonetic details. He claims the first way is: "It's like a /l/, with ...
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Why is scissors /ˈsɪz.əz/ and not /ˈsɪz.ɜ:ʳz/?
I am an English teacher, but have not studied phonetics much.
The sound əz is the same sound we find in "houses" "causes" "ages" "beaches". The dictionaries say ...
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Does [ʌ] represent near-open central vowel in IPA system? [closed]
[ɐ] near-open central vowel
[ʌ] open-mid back unrounded vowel
Can I use [ʌ] to represent near-open central vowel sound in IPA system?
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"man" vs. "men" pronunciation in American English
Here are 10 audio clips taken (more or less randomly) from a book narrated by a professional American narrator. In 5 of them, he is saying man, and in the other 5, men.
Is it possible for a native ...
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Pronunciation of "I" vowel name in fast speech
I'm not a native english speaker.
I was wondering what is the right way to pronunce the "I" (/aɪ/) vowel name in fast speech.
Perhaps i'm confused, but sometimes i hear /a/. Like in the ...
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Syllabification of "riding"
According to the Middle Consonant Rule, shouldn't we syllabicate the word riding as Ri-ding (raɪ-dɪŋ)? Why are we syllabicating it as Rid-ing (raɪd.ɪŋ)? What's the rule for this?
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Why "thine heart" but "thy whole heart"?
I have somehow picked up the use of the two different forms "thy/thine" from the KJV Bible, and I thought I knew the rule. Use thy before consonants and thine before vowels or before words ...
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Is "prolongation of nasalization" ocurring in English?
I am wondering if the same phenomenon occurs in English, as described here in Spanish: https://spanish.stackexchange.com/q/37916/11155.
Q: Why did the Latin coemeterium change into cementerio* in ...
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Is there a word/term for how pleasant a word is to pronounce? [duplicate]
I am familiar with euphony and phonaesthetics, but these both seem to focus more on how pleasant a sound is to hear/perceive. I think there is a subtle difference between this and how pleasant it ...
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How Was "Feast" Pronounced in Early Modern English?
In Romeo and Juliet, Capulet delivers a speech to Paris about his consent for him to court Juliet. With the exception of the first three lines, his speech would follow a coupled rhyme scheme...
16 ...
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Are /t, p, k/ aspirated when they are at the start of a syllable after another syllable that ends in /s/?
In English (native speakers' speech), voiceless plosives such as /t/, /p/ and /k/ are produced with a strong burst of air when they are in the start of a syllable before a vowel. That is called "...
user387044
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Why the "oo" in "noon" is pronounced sounding like "you" while the word "moon" isn't? [closed]
I was taught to pronounce the oo in either afternoon or noon as /u:/ ~~the oo in nook~~ until I found some native speakers pronounce the noon sounding like new-n (videos). But the AmE IPA in the ...
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"Superhands" vs "Super Hans" pronunciation
I've been watching Peep Show and I just discovered on the internet that the guy I thought was named "Superhands" is actually called "Super Hans".
Is it normal to confuse these two ...
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Does [z] + [j] equal [ ʒ ]?
Could it be that sometimes the voiced alveolar sibilant [z] at the end of a syllable merges with a following palatal approximant [j] to produce a voiced postalveolar sibilant [ʒ]?
Bob Dylan clearly ...
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phonetics of certain words with "i"
I have from time to time noticed the different pronunciations of some words like civilization and organization where the "i" phonetically sounds like "aay". It is more clear in ...
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Why is the zh (ʒ) sound so infrequent in English?
I've always heard that the "zh" (ʒ) sound (e.g. in "vision", "usually") was an uncommon sound in the English language. A quick Google search returns multiple results (...
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Why doesn't the T of "lunatic" flap in American English?
I have never heard the T of "lunatic" become flap in American English. You can also listen to the data from Youglish. Compare "janitor" /ˈdʒænəɾɚ/ (Cambridge Dictionary gives /...
user387044
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English dialect/accent that switches out the letter "p" with a voiceless bilabial trill (ʙ̥)
Just to clarify the title: not sure if this dialect always switches the "p" out with the "ʙ̥". For example, if the p is in the beginning of word, maybe this doesn't happen.
Also, I'...
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The "Elephant and Apple" - Phonetical Spelling of NY(C) with normal letters [closed]
Some toponyms change over time:
Be it by pronunciation (Los Angeles, New Orleans) or by changing the wording/spelling to either make more sense to the speaker (the London district "Elephant and ...
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What does a bracketed sound mean in the IPA transcription of a word?
I noticed that some words have a bracketed sound in their transcriptions in some dictionaries, for example, see the following from Lexico:
locate - /lə(ʊ)ˈkeɪt/
open - /ˈəʊp(ə)n/ (I assume here the ...
user387044
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Why do Southerners pronounce "naked" differently?
I was watching a TV show and this guy from Tennessee pronounces naked as /'nekɪd/, without the diphthong /eɪ/ in the first syllable, and instead pronounced as a single /e/ vowel.
Dictionary ...
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