Help:English Respelling Pronuciation
This help page provides a guide to pronunciation respelling for English using both the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) and traditional dictionary respelling systems, such as those used in the OED. It focuses on common American English pronunciations.
Overview
Many English words are not pronounced the way they are spelled. To assist with pronunciation, dictionaries may use systems such as the IPA or respelling methods with diacritics. This guide compares the two systems.
Pronunciation Chart
This table lists common American English phonemes, their IPA representations, OED-style respellings, and example words.
| Sound | IPA | OED-style Respelling | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Long E | /iː/ | ee | see |
| Short I | /ɪ/ | i | sit |
| Long A | /eɪ/ | ay | say |
| Short E | /ɛ/ | e | bed |
| Schwa (unstressed) | /ə/ | uh | about |
| Short A | /æ/ | a | cat |
| Broad A | /ɑː/ | aw | father |
| Short O | /ɒ/ | o | hot (UK) |
| Long O | /oʊ/ | oh | go |
| Short U | /ʌ/ | u | cup |
| Long U | /juː/ | yoo | cute |
| Long OO | /uː/ | oo | blue |
| Short OO | /ʊ/ | uu | book |
| AW / AU | /ɔː/ | aw | saw |
| OI / OY | /ɔɪ/ | oy | boy |
| OW / OU | /aʊ/ | ou | out |
| Voiceless TH | /θ/ | th | thin |
| Voiced TH | /ð/ | dh | this |
| SH | /ʃ/ | sh | ship |
| ZH | /ʒ/ | zh | measure |
| CH | /tʃ/ | ch | church |
| J | /dʒ/ | j | judge |
| NG | /ŋ/ | ng | sing |
Additional Notes
- The IPA is a standardized system used internationally to represent the sounds of spoken language with high precision.
- The OED-style respelling is designed to be more accessible to general English reader.
- The schwa (/ə/) is the most frequent vowel sound in English, especially in unstressed syllables.
See Also
- Help:IPA
- Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation
- International Phonetic Alphabet
- Oxford English Dictionary
References
- Pronunciation respelling for English, Wikipedia