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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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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Is the "ng" sound often pronounced simultaneously with the "n" sound?
Don't native speakers in some regions pronounce [ŋ] simultaneously with the [n] sound in order to connect it without releasing the "g"?
For instance, can the word "singer" instead of sɪŋ·ər, be ...
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Why does /ɪ/ often sound like /ə/?
For example: if you listen to the pronunciation of "seminar" in Oxford Learners Dictionary, it sounds like an /ə/ to me.
BrE /ˈsemɪnɑː(r)
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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: ...
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How to pronounce the "s" of pupils [duplicate]
How to pronounce the "s" at the end of pupils. What is the phonetic of this
word.
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Is there a difference between the pronunciation of the "n" in "now" and the "n" in "counsel"?
When I say the "n" in "now" - the tip of my tongue touches touches the roof of my mouth
When I say the " n" in "counsel", the tip of the tongue doesnt touch the roof of the mouth or between my teeth. ...
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Why does the "-ed" suffix give "wanted" a second syllable, when "based" or "looked" only have one?
Why is it that wanted has 2 syllables, but based has 1 syllable. The root of these words, want and base, are both monosyllablic. And both of these past tense forms end with the same -ed suffix:
...
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“I die” and “I’d die”
I have a question about the pronunciation between “I die” and “I’d die”. If I consider linking words and link the “d” in “I’d and the d in “die”, the pronunciation of I DIE and I’D DIE would be the ...
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When to expect a *kn*
Here is a personally inspired question, but I hope it finds broader relevance.
Without clear specific roots, what phonetically indicates that a word is spelled with a kn rather than an n?
Recently a ...
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Psychology of diphthongs
First of all, technically this probably should be at the English Language Learners site, because I'm an English learner, but my intuition says I'll probably get more useful answers here because of my ...
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Term for toddler-mispronounced words
Is there a single-word equivalent to "child speech"? A term that would convey that a toddler, still learning the language, has mispronounced a word?
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Do Americans who have the cot–caught merger pronounce 'all', 'tall', 'Paul', etc. with the same vowel quality as 'lot'?
Do American English speakers who pronounce cot and caught as [kʰɑt] pronounce all, tall, Paul, etc. with the same vowel quality?
If my subjective experience is anything to go by, I feel like I've ...
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Why does the schwa sounds like an 'e' in some words? [closed]
I've noticed that in some words the schwa sounds more like 'e' and not 'ə',
for exmaple: environment(.mənt), is with a schwa, but sounds like 'e'.
Also in a word like 'substance'-stance doesn't sound ...
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What symbol to use for pronunciation help [duplicate]
I am looking to enforce that my letter "a" should be pronounced as "ah". In my book I am writing I have the name Gorak (Gore-ahk). What would be the best way to explicitly show that it is Gore-Ahk ...
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Is /kləʊðz/ really the correct phonetic transcription of the word "clothes"?
I hope this question fits the group.
As a teacher of EFL I have come across this question several times:
Question: Does "/kləʊðz/" provide the right phonemic representation of the final sound in the ...
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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 tolerance on formants?
On Wikipedia, there is a list of phonetic vowels and their average 1st and 2nd formants.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formant#Formants_and_phonetics
Throughout the web are many more of such charts ...
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What is the phonetic transcription for my pronunciation of /l/?
Please listen to my pronunciation.
http://vocaroo.com/i/s0DWEjzb1GpG
When I say "seagull", when making the L sound, my tongue makes contact with the area behind my front teeth. It's an /l/.
But ...
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Why does the Cambridge Dictionary use /eɪ/ for the vowel sound in "Sea Bass"?
Why does the Cambridge Dictionary use /eɪ/ as the vowel sound in bass in "Sea Bass"?
Is this caused by the plosive sound of B?
I think my ear is not distorted. It should be:
Sea Bass = /ˈsiː ...
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Is initial d becoming unvoiced in (many varieties of) English?
I believe I heard once that initial d in English is historically becoming less voiced. But I cannot find references confirming that. Is it true? And if it is, then is it part of an identifiable ...
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"I like hear good news"
I'd like to know whether it's common in informal speech to delete the infinitive particle "to" in the construction 'to hear sth.'
This video shows an example at 6:36; I've analysed it at 0.5 speed, ...
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Can the /t/ and /v/ sounds be dropped in "what," "that" and "of"? [closed]
Is it ok to drop the 't' sound in these example:
wha that (what that)
tha the (that the)
& the 'v' (like in the the word 'of') sound
matter o fact (mater of fact)
of course, to a native ...
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Does this mixture between pronunciations have a name?
If a person pronounces a word with the sound /ɒ/, for example not, but says /kɑr/ instead of /kɑː/, does this mixture receive a name?
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Am I wrong when I think that I can hear the two different ways they pronounce "flap T"?
When I listen to the Beatles' "LET IT BE", I can distinctly hear that the first T is pronounced like Polish or Russian or Spanish "R", only more quickly and softer. But when I watch "The Negative ...
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How to spell out short vowel pronunciations
Let me put it concisely:
How would you write a word to pronounce like 'o' in 'hot'? (short vowel o)
How would you write a word to pronounce like 'a' in 'sat'? (short vowel a)
How would you write a ...
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Elvis Presley's pronunciation of 'dancing' in his "jailhouse rock" /'dæn(t)ɪn/
I'd like to know the IPA narrow transcription of his pronunciation of 'dancing' in "jailhouse rock", as well as what phonological process makes it possible. It seems like intrusive /t/ deletes the ...
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When was the velarized allophone of /l/ (IPA [ɫ]) formed in English?
English, Portuguese, Dutch, and Russian all have velarized [ɫ] at the syllable coda. When did this start happening in English?
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Pronunciation and transcription of the vowel in "fear", "dear", "near" etc
I wonder, words like fear, dear, near and so on have long e in pronunciation, and it should be transcribed as /i:/, but I've found it transcribed as short /ɪ/. Why is that?
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What is the most common sound for each of the vowel letters (a, e, i, o, u) of American English?
For each of the vowel letters of American English, what is the most commonly used sound of each of them. That is, what is the most commonly used sound that represents the letter "a", the most ...
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Why is /sɪ/ pronounced differently in "six" /sɪks/ and "sit" /sɪt/?
six /sɪks/ and sit /sɪt/
Why do they have the same phonetic symbol /sɪ/, if /sɪ/ is pronounced differently in those two words?
The main focus in my question isn't the difference in pronunciation ...
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Is the mispronunciation of foreign words especially likely in English?
Are there other languages out there, more phonetic than English, in which the sound of foreign words can be specified adequately?
For example, is it the case that when Arabs move to America their ...
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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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difference between the OALD pronunciation of /i/ in happy /ˈhæpi/ and /ɪ/ in sit /sɪt/?
I wanted to learn more about phonetics and I stumbled across this website:
http://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/about/english/pronunciation_english
However, I couldn't get what the ...
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Silent /d/ or /t/
When a word ending with the /d/ or /t/ sound is pronounced and the next word starts with a consonant, the sounds /d/ or /t/ are silent. For example: I used to play tennis.
My question is related to ...
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/ɪ/ sound when not stressed
I've seen that some words in English are pronounced with the /ɪ/ sound when the vowel is not stressed.
Some examples include: pocket /ˈpɒkɪt/, comet /ˈkɒmɪt/. But hundred /ˈhʌndrəd/. Is there any ...
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pronunciation of the sequence '-edness'
I'd like to know whether the pronunciation of nominalizations from a participle + -ness, such as fixedness (putting aside adjectives with full pronunciation such as 'wickedness') is similar to that of ...
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Can the modal verb "can" be pronounced as /ŋ(k)/?
Can the modal verb "can" be pronounced as /ŋ(k)/ ?
It may be the context of a following /k/, as in "we can come and see", but I have also notice it being reversed /ŋ(k)/.
Therefore, I'd like to ...
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How is the word "saw" pronounced in the US, specifically, New York?
English is my second language, therefore I have trouble grasping certain words phonetically.
When I speak with my co-workers, sometimes and almost always, they pronounce the word saw as sawr, like, ...
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Why are some long vowels transcribed with single, short IPA vowels? [closed]
When transcribing English vowels phonetically, long vowel sounds are usually written with two IPA vowels when the vowel is at the end of word or syllable:
paper /pei-/
But sometimes long vowels ...
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Why is the letter "c" pronounced like /s/ when it comes before “e”, “i”, or “y”, but as /k/ elsewhere?
Could you please tell me why from an historical point of view that when the letter c comes directly before the letters e, i or y in English that we use the /s/ sound, but in other cases we use the /k/ ...
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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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"All of" pronunciation [duplicate]
I'm from a place where there is no "L" in the language, and it's always been tricky to say.
Well, I did some research and, at least for American-English, there are two types: A "light L" and a "dark ...
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Is there a way to phonetically write English so that when read it is with a "British accent"? [closed]
I am going to be performing a monologue which will mostly be in a southern accent, but there is one brief part, where I quote a British person, and would like to give it a general British accent. Is ...
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The pronunciation of "try to" vs. "tried to"
I know that try to is pronounced /tɹaɪɾə/, but how is tried to pronounced?
It wouldn't make sense for it to have the same pronunciation, because then we wouldn't be able to differentiate between ...
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Why is the English Alphabet pronounced non-phonetically? [closed]
Ok, so with the phonetic alphabet, there is a 1 to 1 correspondence with how we actually say a letters in a word and how it's actually read outloud. That is, according to the phonetic alphabet, the ...
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English pronunciation symbols – why so many systems? [closed]
I wanted to improve my English pronunciation. But I just realize that I cannot understand the symbols in my English dictionaries (including some online dictionaries). There are so many, just look at ...
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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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The perception of /ɑ/ and /a/ [closed]
The Cambridge Dictionary transcription for the word barn is /bɑːrn/
If someone says this word as /baːrn/ (open front vowel), will this sound foreign to you? Will you notice at all? What will your ...
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Are "whores" and "horse" homophones?
I’m Spanish but sometimes see TV shows in English.
My question is whether the words horse and whores sound exactly the same, because in many English language TV shows it seems like they are, which ...
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"You're as [ADJECTIVE] as you are [ADJECTIVE]" construction: why does it sound awkward when you replace "you are" with "you're"?
I'm just wondering what it is about this construction that makes it sound "incorrect" even though technically it is grammatically correct. Is it an awkwardness arising from a lack of cadence, or ...
user180089