8/6/2021 Help:Pronunciation respelling key - Wikipedia

Help:Pronunciation respelling key

This is an information page.

It is not one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, but rather intends to

describe some aspect(s) of Wikipedia's norms, customs, technicalities, or
practices. It may reflect varying levels of consensus and vetting.

The following pronunciation respelling key is used in some Wikipedia articles to respell the
pronunciations of English words. It does not use special symbols or diacritics apart from the schwa (ə),
which is used for the first sound in the word "about".

Contents
Key
( Syllables and stress)
· When to use and when not to use · See also · Notes

Key
Both the IPA and respelling for English on Wikipedia are designed to record all distinctive sounds found
in major varieties of English. That is, we record differences found in some varieties but not in others,
such as those between "father" and "farther", "wine" and "whine", and "cot" and "caught". This does not
mean these differences are, or must be, always distinguished; if you speak a dialect that does not
distinguish "father" and "farther", for example, simply ignore the difference between FAH-dhər and FAR-
dhər.

For a more thorough discussion of the sounds and dialectal variation, see Help:IPA/English.

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Vowels Consonants
Rspl. Example(s) IPA Rspl. Example(s) IPA

a[1] bat /æ/ b buy /b/

ah father /ɑː/ ch[7] church, nature /tʃ/

air bear, Mary /ɛər/ d dye, ladder /d/

ar farther /ɑːr/ dh thy, this /ð/
arr marry /ær/ f fight /f/
aw bought /ɔː/ g go
/ɡ/
ay bait /eɪ/ gh[8] guess, guitar

e[1] bet h high /h/

/ɛ/
eh[2] prestige j jive /dʒ/

beat /iː/ k kite, sky, lock /k/

ee
happy, serious /i/ kh loch, Chanukah /x/

eer beer, nearer /ɪər/ l lie, sly /l/

err merry /ɛr/ m my /m/

ew[3] cute, beauty, dew /juː/ n nigh /n/

ewr[3] cure, lure /jʊər/ ng ring, singer /ŋ/

eye[4] item, yikes /aɪ/ nk[9] sink /ŋk/

p pie, spy /p/

i[1] bit
/ɪ/ r rye, try /r/
ih[5] historic
s sigh
ire hire /aɪər/ /s/
ss[10] ice, tense
irr mirror /ɪr/
sh shy /ʃ/
o[1] bot /ɒ/
t tie, sty, latter /t/
oh boat /oʊ/
tch[7] church, natural /tʃ/
oir coir /ɔɪər/
th thigh /θ/
boot, you /uː/
oo v vine /v/
influence, fruition /u/
w wine /w/
oor poor, tourist /ʊər/
wh whine /hw/
or horse, hoarse, pour, forum /ɔːr/
y you /j/
orr moral /ɒr/
z zoo /z/
ow bout, vow /aʊ/
zh pleasure /ʒ/
owr flour /aʊər/
oy choice, boy /ɔɪ/

u[1] but
/ʌ/
uh[6] frustration

ur bird, furry /ɜːr/

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Rspl. Example(s) IPA

urr hurry /ʌr/

uu[1] book /ʊ/

uurr courier /ʊr/

y[4] bite, bide /aɪ/

ə about, comma /ə/

ər letter /ər/

Syllables and stress

Syllables are separated by a hyphen ("-"). The stress on a syllable is indicated by capital letters. For
example, the word "pronunciation" (/prəˌnʌnsiˈeɪʃən/) is respelled prə-NUN-see-AY-shən. In this
example, the primary and secondary stress are not distinguished because the difference is automatic. In
words where primary stress precedes secondary stress, however, the secondary stress should not be
differentiated from unstressed syllables; for example, "motorcycle" (/ˈmoʊtərˌsaɪkəl/) should be
respelled as MOH-tər-sy-kəl because MOH-tər-SY-kəl would incorrectly suggest the pronunciation
/ˌmoʊtərˈsaɪkəl/.

When to use and when not to use

As designated in Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation, the standard set of symbols used to show the
pronunciation of English words on Wikipedia is the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). The IPA has
significant advantages over this respelling system, as it can be used to accurately represent
pronunciations from any language in the world, and (being an international standard) is often more
familiar to European/Commonwealth and non-native speakers of English. On the other hand, the IPA
(being designed to represent sounds from any language in the world) is not as intuitive for those chiefly
familiar with English orthography, for whom this respelling system is likely to be easier for English
words and names. So, while the IPA is the required form of representing pronunciation, respelling
remains optional. It should not be used for representing non-English words or an approximation
thereof. See documentation for {{Respell}} for examples and instructions on using the template.

Sometimes another means of indicating a pronunciation is more desirable than this respelling system,
such as when a name is intended to be a homonym of an existing English word or phrase, or in case of an
initialism or a name composed of numbers or symbols. When citing a homonym, it should not be
enclosed in the {{respell}} template. In such cases, an IPA notation is usually nevertheless needed, but
not necessarily so; see Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation §  Other transcription systems for
further discussion.

Respelling should also be avoided when a respelled syllable would be the same as an existing word that is
pronounced differently. "Maui" /ˈmaʊi/ respelled as MOW-ee, "metonymy" /mɛˈtɒnɪmi/ as meh-TON-im-
ee, and "cobalt" /ˈkoʊbɒlt/ as KOH-bolt are susceptible to being misinterpreted as /ˈmoʊi/, /mɛˈtʌnɪmi/,
and /ˈkoʊboʊlt/, because of the words "mow", "ton", and "bolt", so only IPA should be provided for such
words, if any.

Particularly, respelling /aʊ/ could prove problematic as there are a variety of monosyllabic words spelled
with "ow" and pronounced with /oʊ/: blow, blown, bow, bowl, flow, flown, glow, grow, grown, growth,
low, mow, mown, own, row, show, slow, snow, sow, sown, stow, strow, throw, tow, and trow. There is
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no universal solution to this problem ("ou" also varies as in loud, soup, soul, and touch), so respelling a
word including /aʊ/ may be best avoided altogether; however, sometimes the benefit of respelling may
outweigh the disadvantage, especially for longer words, so exercise discretion.

See also
Help:IPA/Conventions for English
Help:IPA/English
{{Respell}}: the template and instructions for adding pronunciation respelling
Pronunciation respelling for English
Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation

Notes
1. /æ, ɛ, ɪ, ɒ, ʌ, ʊ/ (a, e(h), i(h), o, u(h), uu) are checked vowels, meaning never occurring at the end of
a word or before a vowel. When a checked vowel is followed by a consonant and a stressed vowel,
which is rare nonetheless, it is acceptable in some cases to attribute the following consonant to the
same syllable as the checked vowel, as in bal-AY, even though in IPA it is customary to attribute it to
the following syllable, as in /bæˈleɪ/. However, when the following consonant is a voiceless plosive
(/p, t, k/) pronounced with aspiration (a slight delay in the following vowel), it must be attributed to the
same syllable as the following vowel, as in ta-TOO, because tat-OO may result in a different
pronunciation than intended (compare "whatever" whot-EV-ər, whut-, wherein /t/ is not aspirated and
may be glottalized or flapped). Similarly, when a vowel is followed by /s/, one or more consonants,
and a stressed vowel, the syllabification must be retained, as in fruh-STRAY-shən, because frus-
TRAY-shən may result in a different pronunciation than intended.
2. /ɛ/ in syllable-final positions may be respelled eh instead of e when otherwise it may be
misinterpreted as another sound such as /i(ː)/ or /eɪ/.
3. ew and ewr are for when /juː/ or /jʊər/ takes place right after a consonant within the same syllable.
When /juː/ or /jʊər/ begins a syllable (e.g. "youth", "Europe", "value"), use yoo(r)—unless it is subject
to yod-dropping or yod-coalescence: "Lithuania" LITH-ew-AY-nee-ə.
4. /aɪ/ is respelled eye when it begins a syllable or is preceded by /j/ and otherwise y. When y is
followed by a consonant within the same syllable, place an e after the consonant as necessary:
"price" PRYSE, "tight" TYTE.
5. /ɪ/ in syllable-final positions may be respelled ih instead of i when otherwise it may be misinterpreted
as another sound such as /aɪ/.
6. /ʌ/ in syllable-final positions is respelled uh instead of u to better distinguish it from /u(ː), ʊ/.
7. /tʃ/ after a vowel in the same syllable is respelled tch instead of ch to better distinguish it from /k, x/.
8. /ɡ/ may be respelled gh instead of g when otherwise it may be misinterpreted as /dʒ/.
9. /ŋk/ is respelled nk rather than ngk, since the assimilation is mandatory, except beyond a syllable
boundary: "tinker" TING-kər.
10. /s/ may be respelled ss instead of s when otherwise it may be misinterpreted as /z/: "ice" EYESS,
"tense" TENSS (compare eyes, tens).

International Phonetic Alphabet keys

Adyghe · Afrikaans · Albanian · Amharic · Arabic
(Modern Standard · Egyptian · Hejazi · Lebanese · Tunisian) ·
Armenian · Assamese · Asturian · Australian languages · Azerbaijani · Basque · Belarusian · Bengali · Berber ·
Breton · Bulgarian · Burmese · Catalan · Chinese
(Mandarin · Cantonese · Taiwanese Hokkien · Wu) · Corsican ·
Czech · Danish · Dari · Dutch · English
(Old English) · Emilian-Romagnol · Esperanto · Estonian · Extremaduran ·

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Fijian · Finnish · Franco-Provençal · French · Galician · Georgian · German

(Standard · Alemannic · Colognian) ·
Greek · Gujarati · Haitian Creole · Hawaiian · Hebrew · Hindi · Hmong · Hungarian · Icelandic · Indonesian · Inuktitut
· Inupiaq · Irish · Isan · Italian
(dialects) · Japanese · Kazakh · Khmer · Korean · Kurdish · Kyrgyz · Lao · Latin ·
Latvian · Ligurian · Lithuanian · Lombard · Luxembourgish · Macedonian · Maithili · Malagasy · Malay · Malayalam ·
Maltese · Manx · Māori · Marathi · Marshallese · Mauritian Creole · Mayan · Mongolian · Mirandese · Nahuatl ·
Navajo · Neapolitan · Nepali · Northern Thai · Norwegian · Occitan · Odia · Persian · Piedmontese · Polish ·
Portuguese · Punjabi · Quechua · Romanian · Romansh · Russian · Sanskrit · Sardinian · Scottish Gaelic ·
Serbo-Croatian · Shan · Sicilian · Slovak · Slovene · Spanish · Swahili · Swazi · Swedish · Tagalog · Tai Lue · Tajik ·
Tamil · Tatar · Telugu · Thai · Tibetan · Tigrinya · Turkish · Turkmen · Ukrainian · Urdu · Uzbek · Venetian ·
Vietnamese · Walloon · Welsh · West Frisian · Xhosa · Yiddish · Zulu
IPA conventions for English · English dialects · Wikipedia pronunciation respelling ·
Comparisons
Other English pronunciation respellings
Introductory guides Symbols · For English speakers · Manual of Style: Pronunciation

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