Questions tagged [vowels]
Vowels sounds in English.
260 questions
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Should one prefer "a" or "an" when the pronunciation of the following word is ambiguous?
Take the example, "A(n) SQL database".
For those who don't know, SQL is an acronym short for "Structured Query Language". It may be pronounced as either the letters "S", &...
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3
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Is "parker" ([ˈpʰɑ̈˞kɚ]) a common pronunciation of "parkour" in American English?
I've recently had a small argument with a coworker about the pronunciation of parkour. Neither of us is a native speaker. She seems to believe "parker" (in narrow IPA, [ˈpʰɑ̈˞kɚ]) is the &...
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Should 'a' or 'an' be used when referring to a mathematical usage of a parameter *n*? [duplicate]
I would like to state, in a different way, a sentence with the meaning:
Consider a matrix whose dimensions are n×n ....
For a quick context, the letter n simply represents a mathematical value (a ...
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Why does "pontoon" sound so uncommon or foreign? [closed]
Yes, I know "cartoon" sounds like normal English.
But why does "pontoon", which rhymes with it, sound somewhat odd?: Somehow the accent on which syllable combined with choice of ...
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2
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American English 'mouse': /maʊs/ or /mæʊs/?
In general American English, is the word 'mouse' pronounced /maʊs/ or /mæʊs/ with an 'æ'? I think it's the latter. Most online dictionaries, even Wiktionary give the former notation. Which is the ...
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Syndrome: older pronunciation?
Recently, I was reading The Kenneth Williams Diaries, and in one entry he records correcting some pronouncing syndrome (rhyming with aerodrome) to rhyming with epitome.
I cannot find this ...
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How to correctly create a transition from a phrase to an unintelligible scream?
I'm trying to create a transition effect in a situation when a character suddenly finds himself falling, and his last word, which ends in '-y', is transitioning into an unintelligible scream.
However, ...
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Acoustic description of the realization [ɛə] of the North American raised /æ/
The Wikipedia article on /æ/ raising uses the transcription [ɛə] for a realization of the North American raised /æ/, as in the words ram and ran. I'm having trouble interpreting this transcription, ...
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1
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Pronouncing an /n/ ending with an extra schwa
I often hear American English speakers pronounce words ending in an /n/ sound with an extra schwa sound after it.
One example:
At the end of a sentence, the word's final N with a preceding vowel often ...
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3
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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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Do "map" and "cat" rhyme?
Do the words map and cat rhyme?
I'm of the opinion that they do because—even though they end with different sounds—the vowel sound is the same.
Please help settle a debate between my children and me.
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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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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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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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Pronunciation of “tour”
Is the following pronunciation of the word “tour” attested in any common dialect of British English?
[tɔ˞]
This is approximately how I, a native British English speaker, pronounce it. However, it’s ...
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Variants of the /æ/ sound?
This YouTube channel asserts that the /æ/ sound has four variants depending on the consonant that follows it; /æ/ in apple and /æ/ in mango should sound a bit different, for instance.
https://www....
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Is there a rule that describes vowel pronunciation changes in conjugated words? [duplicate]
I've noticed that sometimes when a word (generally a noun or adjective) gains or loses syllables, the pronunciation of the vowels will change. For example,
horizon vs horizontal
sociopath vs ...
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Did English have any alphabet or writing before it adopted Latin?
I wonder if the English language had any writing or script before the adoption of Latin.
This question came about in a conversation I had with a friend about the writing of vowels in English. ...
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Do some people pronounce "women" same as "woman"? [duplicate]
This is something i've noticed lately. Example 1, example 2 (1:10). (...i do not necessarily endorse these videos).
I can clearly hear them say "all woman"/ "why do pregnant woman"....
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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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True realization of /i/ in American English: Is it really [ɪi]?
I have read in different places that the latter glide-like realization is the only one that exists in American English. Is this a regional thing? If yes, would you say it occurs in western US English?
...
user424161
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Why does "appropriate" (and also "duplicate", "deliberate" etc) have a different vowel in their adjective/noun and verb forms?
TL;DR
There are adjectives/nouns--verb pairs in which the adjectives/nouns have weak vowel in the last syllable and the verb has strong for example:
duplicate (adj): /ˈdjuːplɪkət/
duplicate (v.): /...
user387044
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2
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Me vs My in East Midlands dialect [duplicate]
In the dialect I grew up with (1960's Leicestershire/East Midlands), I'd say "me", when I meant "my". For example:
"That's me car."
vs
"That's my car."
What ...
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2
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How do you pronounce, "pleurisy"?
According to Wiktionary, pleurisy is pronounced one of two ways:
a) /ˈplʊəɹɪsi/
b) /ˈpljʊəɹɪsi/
I don't hear the /j/ sound when I say the word (in General American) - I hear it like this:
https://www....
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Does the word "pirate" use the /aɪɚ/ phoneme, or the /aɪɹ/ phoneme?
I'm making a list of all of the graphemes can be used to make the phoneme /aɪɚ/ in General American.
-ire as in fire, wire, desire, sapphire, etc.
-yre as in lyre, pyre, tyre, etc.
I have questions ...
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When is the "Short A" sound actually spelled with an AE?
I was reading a book on English spelling (Dictionary of the British English Spelling System, by Greg Brooks) and it mentioned that the Short A sound (æ) can be spelled using the following graphemes:
...
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Why did John Wells need three lexical sets--NORTH, FORCE and THOUGHT--for the same vowel /ɔː/?
The standard Lexical sets for English were introduced by professor John Wells which are widespread. Each lexical set represents a vowel present in a number of words, for example: the THOUGHT vowel /ɔː/...
user387044
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Why are "said" and "paid"/"laid" pronounced differently?
The words say, pay, lay are phonemically /seɪ/, /peɪ/ and /leɪ/ respectively (with the diphthong /eɪ/). Their past and past participles are respectively: /sɛd/ (or /sed/), /peɪd/ and /leɪd/. The past/...
user387044
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American accents where /æ/ becomes [eɪ] before /ŋ/. Does /æ/ become [eɪ] before /m/ and /n/ too?
I know that in Californian accent, /æ/ is sometimes realized as [eɪ] only before /ŋ/. So words like hang, bang, rang, sang, gang, which normally end with /æŋ/, end with [eɪŋ]. The reason why it ...
user387044
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Why is "archaic" pronounced uniquely? Is the sequence -ɪɪ- only found in this word?
Before looking this word up, I have always rhymed it with cake i.e. /ɑːˈkeɪk/. But when I looked it up, it was actually /ɑː(r)ˈkeɪɪk/ with the sequence of a similar vowel repeated consecutively: -ɪɪ-
...
user387044
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Is /ɜː/ realized as schwa [ə] in British English?
I have noticed that the vowel /ɜː/ (as in the RP pronunciation of "BIRD") sounds the same as the schwa [ə] (as in the pronunciation of "BUTTER" in RP). I assume the BIRD vowel is ...
user387044
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Is there any difference between a syllabic R /ɹ̩/ and r-colored vowel /ɚ/?
So I have seen that both of them can form a syllable on their own but I don't know the difference between them.
/ɹ̩/
it is a syllabic R and can form a syllable on its own as in [ˈdɔːɾɹ̩] ("...
user387044
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1
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Is the diphthong /aʊ/ generally realized as [ɑʊ] in British English?
I noticed that the diphthong /aʊ/ is pronounced by most British English speakers as [ɑʊ] (I may be inaccurate here).
You can see the vowel /a/ on the vowel diagram below:
I understand this diagram ...
user387044
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1
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Is "awe" pronounced as /ɔː/ or /ɑː/ in American English?
I have an American friend who pronounced the word "awe" with the same vowel as British people pronounce Thought: /ɔː/. But when I look up this word in dictionaries, they pronounce it as /ɑː/....
user387044
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Pronunciation of “master” and “plaster” in Northern England
A pattern I've noticed in Northern England is that people of my age (born in the '90s) pronounce words like “master” and “plaster” with a short A (/a/), whereas anyone of my parents' generation (born ...
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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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Why does the diphthong /aʊ/ not occur before /k/, /m/, /p/, /b/, /g/ etc?
I have noticed that the diphthong /aʊ/ occurs before certain consonants. We have:
/aʊd/ in loud
/aʊt/ in out
/aʊs/ in house
/aʊn/ in town
/aʊtʃ/ in pouch
/aʊl/ in owl
BUT, we don't have /aʊp/, /aʊb/,...
user387044
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Why does "broad" not rhyme with "boat"?
The word "broad" is pronounced /brɔːd/ (some US accents: /brɑːd/) instead of */brəʊd/. The spelling -OA- somehow suggests that these words are closely related and/or were pronounced the same ...
user387044
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Words Starting With the Vowel "I" [closed]
The word of the day in Merriam-Webster's daily post was "Itinerant."
Words that start with the letter "I" most often have a short, or informally, a soft vowel sound, if two ...
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Why did the vowel in "Christ" become long in moving from Old English to Middle English?
I have read the following question and all the answers, and they do not answer my question, so it is not a duplicate:
Why are the vowels in Christ and Christmas different? (and other strange diphthong ...
user387044
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Why are the vowels in "harmony", "harmonic" and "harmonious" pronounced differently?
The "O" in all these words represents a different vowel:
Harmony → /ˈhɑː.mə.ni/
Harmonic → /hɑːˈmɒn.ɪk/
Harmonious → /hɑːˈməʊ.ni.əs/
(UK pronunciations from Cambridge Dictionary)
I know ...
user387044
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How to signal that a last letter vowel is long or short
As a Game Master I make up a lot of names for locations, objects, etc.
I've always assumed you signalled it by placing a ´ over the last letter (like the City of Rohvanná), but recently I was told it ...
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1
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How is /ɑ:/ realized in British English: [ɑː] or more relaxed than [ɑː]?
I know that /ɑː/ is open back unrounded vowel and is found a lot in British English. It is the vowel in bath, father, bar, car etc in British English. In American English, this vowel is found in bar, ...
user387044
3
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1
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Do Americans with PIN-PEN merger confuse "imminent" and "eminent"? [closed]
The PIN-PEN merger is a merger of the vowels /ɪ/ (KIT vowel) and /ɛ/ (DRESS vowel) before nasals [m n ŋ]. The resultant vowel is more raised and is closer to [ɪ]. Pin pen, him hem, kin ken are ...
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Pronunciation of /æ/, when it comes before /m/ or /n/
I believe when /æ/ comes before m or n , it’s pronounced [ɛə] instead of [æ], (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki//%C3%A6/_raising)
but is it always the case？For example, how about the main stress is not ...
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1
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What is the difference between [ɐ] and [ʌ]?
In a similar question which asks the difference between /ə/ and /ʌ/, I learned that /ʌ/ occurs in stressed syllables. Now there is another similar vowel sound: /ɐ/ which also occurs in stressed ...
user387044
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1
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What sound is /a/?
Is it similar to /ʌ/ or is it more like /ɔ/ or is it something different? I've seen it combined with /ʌ/ several times in different phonetic scripts. Are the 2 similar or where they just lumped ...
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What is the difference between /ʌɪ/ and /aɪ/ in English?
Is there any difference between the two diphthongs in English IPA transcriptions?
If I search a word in the Cambridge dictionary, it gives /aɪ/ for both UK English and US English.
For example, the ...
user387044
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1
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2k
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What’s the rule for the sound of the letter A in the middle of three-letter words?
How do you actually pronounce A when it's in the middle of a 3 letter word like mac or rap?
I hear many Americans say those words with a clear AAA sound, like the AA sound of the start of the word ...
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