Zelda Wiki:Pronunciation Guide

Key

These are the keys for broad English IPA and English pronunciation respelling. Both transcriptions are reasonably broad in scope, not being too dependent on any one accent of English.

• To display a formatted English pronunciation respelling when defining pronunciation, use Template:Respell.

IPA Respelling symbol(s) Examples Consonants /b/ b but, web /d/ d do, odd, Dharma /ð/ dh this, breathe, father /dʒ/ j joy, gin, bridge, educate, adjust /f/ f fool, leaf, laugh, phone, sapphire /ɡ/ g get, egg, ghost, guess /h/ h ham, ahead, who /hw/ wh whale, Juan (also analyzed as /ʍ/) /j/ y yes, onion, fjord /k/ k cat, kill, skin, thick, queen, acquaint, school /l/ l left, bell /m/ m man, ham, bomb /n/ n no, on, gnarl, knife, pneumonic /ŋ/ ng ringer, sing, sink /ŋɡ/ ng-g finger /p/ p spin, tip, hiccough /ɹ/ r run, very, rhyme, wrench /s/ s or ss see, pass, city, scent, castle, psych /ʃ/ sh she, leash, machine, mission, ocean, conscience, emotion, sure /t/ t two, sting, bet /tʃ/ ch chair, teach, hatch, bastion, nature, kitsch /θ/ th thing, teeth, Matthew /v/ v voice, have, of, Stephen /w/ w we, penguin /x/ kh chutzpah, loch (alternative pronunciations with /h/ or /k/, depending on the word) /z/ z zoo, rose, xylophone, dessert /ʒ/ zh vision, azure, pleasure, beige, Zhivago Stress /ˈ/ Represented by CAPITALIZING the syllable. accent (/ˈæk.sənt/) (primary stress) /ˌ/ Represented by CAPITALIZING AND SHRINKING the syllable. intonation (/ˌɪn.tɵˈneɪ.ʃən/) (secondary stress, if any) Syllable break /./ Represented by a dash between syllables. See {{respell}}. (may be omitted immediately before /ˈ/ or /ˌ/)

IPA Respelling symbol(s) Examples Short Vowels /ɪ/ i or ih bid, pretty, sieve, busy, build, crypt /ɛ/ e or eh bed, said, thread, friend /æ/ a bad, plaid (words like bath can have this or /ɑː/) /ɒ/ o cot, swat (words like cloth can have this or /ɔː/) /ʌ/ u or uh bud, honey, flood, southern /ʊ/ uu good, put, wolf Long Vowels /iː/ ee eve, bead, feed, receive, people, unique, thief /ɑː/ ah or aa father, braatwurst, palm (words like bath can have this or /æ/) /ɔː/ aw sauce, straw, caught, talk, broad, thought (words like cloth can have this or /ɒ/) /uː/ oo food, move, shoe, soup, through Diphthongs /(j)uː/ ew beauty, feud, new, view, lute, cue, impugn, Hugh, suit (also analyzed as /ɪu/; pronunciation with or without /j/ depends on word and accent) /ɪə/ eeə theatre, idea, real (alternative pronunciations with /iː.ə/ or /iː/, depending on the word) /eɪ/ ay fate, Mae, laid, straight, gaol, bay, suede, great, vein, feign, weight, hey /ɛə/ ayə graham, mayonnaise, yeah (also analyzed as /eə/; alternative pronunciations with /eɪ.ə/ or /æ/, depending on the word) /aɪ/ eye ride, lie, sky, dye, thigh, heist, height, sign, buy, samurai, Mayan /aʊ/ ow pout, how, bough, Taoist, sauerkraut /ɔɪ/ oy hoist, boy /oʊ/ oh or oe poke, soap, hoe, soul, throw, though, folk, yeoman, mauve, beau Triphthong /aɪə/ eyeə diamond, scientific (alternative pronunciations with /aɪ.ə/ or /aɪ/, depending on the word) Short Vowels with Coda R /ɪɹ/ irr mirror, lyrics /ɛɹ/ err merry, bury /æɹ/ arr marry, character /ɒɹ/ orr moral, warrant, Lawrence /ʌɹ/ urr hurry, thorough, flourish /ʊɹ/ uurr courier R-colored vowels /ɪəɹ/ eer dear, beer, serious, pier /ɛəɹ/ air chair, Mary, prayer, bear, their, where (also analyzed as /eəɹ/) /ɑːɹ/ ar or ahr bar, starry, hearth, sergeant /ɔːɹ/ or or awr horse, wart, dinosaur, drawer /ɔəɹ/ oar or ohr hoarse, chore, four, force, door, sword (also analyzed as /oəɹ/) /ɜːɹ/ ur term, third, furry, myrtle, earth, worm, scourge (alternative pronunciations with separate /ɛɹ/, /ɪɹ/ and /ʌɹ/ depending on word and accent) /ʊəɹ/ oor boor, tour /(j)ʊəɹ/ eur neural, pure (also analyzed as /ɪʊəɹ/; pronunciation with or without /j/ depends on word and accent) /aɪəɹ/ ire mire, pyre, fiery /aʊəɹ/ owr scour, sour /ɔɪəɹ/ oir coir Reduced vowels /ə/ ə Rosa’s, above, even, talon, famous, circus /ɨ/ i or ih savage, captain, roses, business, foreign, rabbit, lettuce (also analyzed as /ᵻ/, /ɪ̈/ or /ɨ̞/) /i/ ee happy, valley, Charlie, coffee, deli, posse, Murray /ɵ/ o geographic, melody /ʉ/ uu tomorrow (also analyzed as /ᵿ/, /ʊ̈/ or /ʉ̞/) /əɹ/ ər runner, centre, grammar, author, colour, Arthur, martyr

Using IPA for Standard American English

IPA, as it applies to Standard American English, consists of only a fraction of the symbols available in IPA.

Some Helpful Rules

Here are a few tips to get you started. Always remember the following while using IPA.

• First and foremost is not to rely on existing notions of how a word is spelled. Take a moment to review the following examples and note how the spelling in English is drastically different from the spellings in IPA.
  • Pictureˈpɪk.tʃəɹ
  • Leisureˈli.ʒəɹ
  • Portionˈpɔɹ.ʃən
  • Caughtkɔt
  • Contextˈkɑn.tɛkst
  • Fightfaɪt

• Each syllable needs at least one vowel.

• Approximants modify vowels around them.

• The symbols əSchwa and ʌCaret are both Central-Mid vowels. The difference is that the ʌ is used in the stressed syllable.
  • Butterˈbʌt.ər

Glossary

• Articulators: Speech organs involved in making a sound, such as the lips, teeth, and tongue.
• Voiced: A sound in which the vocal cords vibrate. Examples are /v/, and /ð/ as in These. Note that the use of articulators in these examples are exactly the same as in the voiceless examples below, but the vocal cords vibrate.
• Voiceless: A sound in which the vocal cords do not vibrate. Examples are /f/, and /θ/ as in teeth. Note that the use of articulators in these examples are exactly the same as in the voiced examples above, but the vocal cords do not vibrate.
• Manner of Articulation: How articulators are involved in making a sound make contact. In Standard American English, there are only seven.
• Places of Articulation: Where an obstruction occurs in the vocal tract between an active articulator (typically part of the tongue) and a stationary articulator (typically part of the roof of the mouth). In Standard American English, there are only eight.

Classifications

Consonants:

The phonemes /r/ and /ɹ/ are interchangeable; /ʍ/ is present only in varieties that have not undergone the wine-whine merger.

• Manner of Articulation:
  • Stops: A consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the vocal tract. The sound is produced at, and cannot be made after, the initial expulsion of air.
  • Fricatives: Sounds produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. Examples of these are /f/ (produced by joining the teeth and lip) and /θ/ (produced by joining the teeth and tongue).
  • Affricates: Consonants that begin as stops but release as a fricative.
  • Nasals: A sound produced in the nose, where the oral cavity acts as a resonance chamber for the sound but the air does not escape through the mouth.
  • Approximants: Speech sounds in which the articulators approach each other but not narrowly enough to create turbulent airflow.
  • Glides (Semivowels): A sound that is phonetically equivalent to a vowel sound but functions as the syllable boundary.

• Places of Articulation:
  • Bilabial: A consonant articulated with both lips.
  • Labio dental: A consonant articulated with the lower lip and the upper teeth.
  • Inter dental: A consonant produced by placing the blade of the tongue against the upper incisors.
  • Alveolar: A consonant articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge.
  • Alveo-palatal: A consonant articulated with the blade of the tongue behind the alveolar ridge, and the body of the tongue raised toward the palate.
  • Palatal: A consonant articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the middle part of the roof of the mouth.
  • Velar: A consonant articulated with the back part of the tongue against the back part of the roof of the mouth.
  • Glottal: A consonant articulated with the glottis.

Vowels:

Note that /a/ and /o/ as they appear in this image correlate to /ɑ/ and /ɒ/, respectively.

• Classifications:
  • High, Mid, and Low: The vertical position of the tongue relative to either the roof of the mouth.
  • Front, Central, and Back: The position of the tongue during the articulation of a vowel relative to the back of the mouth.
  • Rounded and Unrounded: Whether or not the lips are rounded.