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International Phonetic Alphabet chart for English dialects

This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

The International Phonetic Alphabet chart for English dialects complies all the most common applications of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) to represent pronunciations of the English language.

These charts give a diaphoneme for each sound, followed by its realization in different dialects. The symbols for the diaphonemes are given in bold, followed by their most common phonetic values.

Abbreviations List

The following abbreviations are used in this article:

See Pronunciation respelling for English for phonetic transcriptions used in different dictionaries.

Consonants

  1. ^ This is a compromise IPA transcription, which covers most dialects of English.
  2. ^ /t/, is pronounced [ɾ] in some positions in AmE, AuE, and sometimes in EnE.
  3. ^ /t/ is pronounced [ʔ] in some positions in ScE, EnE, AmE and AuE.
  4. ^ /t/ is pronounced [t̞] non-initially in IrE.
  5. ^ /d/ is pronounced [ɾ] if preceded and followed by vowels in GA and Australian English.
  6. ^ The labiodental fricative /f/ is often pronounced as bilabial [ɸ] after the bilabials /p/, /b/, and /m/, as in up-front GA: [ʌpˈɸɹʌnt], Cub fan GA: [ˈkʰʌbɸæn], tomfoolery GA: [ˌtʰɑmˈɸuɫəɹi].
  7. ^ The labiodental fricative /v/ is often pronounced as bilabial [β] after the bilabials /p/, /b/, and /m/, as in upvote GA: [ˈʌpβəʊt], obviate GA: [ˈɑbβiˌeɪt], Humvee GA: [ˈhʌmβi].
  8. ^ /θ/ is pronounced as a dental stop [t̪] in Irish English, Newfoundland English, Indian English, and New York English, merges with /f/ in some varieties of English English, and merges with /t/ in some varieties of Caribbean English. The dental stop [t̪] also occurs in other dialects as an allophone of /θ/.
  9. ^ /ð/ is pronounced as a dental stop [d̪] in Irish English, Newfoundland English, Indian English, and New York English, merges with /v/ in some varieties of English English, and merges with /d/ in some varieties of Caribbean English. [d̪] also occurs in other dialects as an allophone of /ð/.
  10. ^ The glottal fricative /h/ is often pronounced as voiced [ɦ] between vowel sounds and after voiced consonants. Initial voiced [ɦ] occurs in some accents of the Southern Hemisphere.
  11. ^ /h/ is pronounced [ç] before the palatal approximant /j/, sometimes even replacing the cluster /hj/, and sometimes before high front vowels.
  12. ^ The bilabial nasal /m/ is often pronounced as labiodental [ɱ] before /f/ and /v/, as in symphony GA: [ˈsɪɱfəni], circumvent GA: [ˌsɝkəɱˈvɛnt], some value GA: [ˌsʌɱ‿ˈvæɫju̟].
  13. ^ In some dialects, such as Brummie, words like ringer [ˈɹɪŋə], sing [sɪŋ], which have a velar nasal [ŋ] in most dialects, are pronounced with an additional /ɡ/, like "finger": [ˈɹɪŋɡə].
  14. ^ Velarized [ɫ] traditionally does not occur in Irish English; clear or plain [l] does not occur in Australian, New Zealand, Scottish, or American English. RP, some other English accents, and South African English, however, have clear [l] in syllable onsets and dark [ɫ] in syllable rimes.
  15. ^ a b c Sonorants are voiceless after a fortis (voiceless) stop at the beginning of a stressed syllable.
  16. ^ L-vocalization in which l is pronounced as a kind of a back vowel ([ɤ] or [o], or non-syllabic [ɤ̯, o̯], forming a diphthong with the preceding vowel) occurs in New Zealand English and many regional accents, such as African-American Vernacular English, Cockney, New York English, Estuary English, Pittsburgh English, Standard Singapore English.
  17. ^ /r/ is pronounced as a tap [ɾ] in some varieties of Scottish, Irish, Indian, Welsh, Northern England and South African English.
  18. ^ The alveolar trill [r] only occurs in some varieties of Scottish, Welsh, Indian and South African English.
  19. ^ R-labialization, in which r is pronounced as [ʋ], is found in some accents in Southern England.
  20. ^ Some dialects, such as Scottish English, Irish English, and many American South and New England dialects, distinguish voiceless [ʍ] from voiced [w]; see wine–whine merger and voiceless labiovelar approximant.
  21. ^ Marginal in most accents, and otherwise merged with /k/, see Lock–loch merger.
  22. ^ This common English interjection is usually pronounced with [x] in unscripted spoken English, but it is most often read /ʌɡ/ or /ʌk/
  23. ^ /hj/ can be /ç/ in Conservative RP.
  24. ^ ɬ exists in Welsh English as an allophone of /l/ in Welsh loan words. Other dialects usually replace it with l.
  25. ^ a b This sound exists in South African English in Zulu loan words.

Vowels

In the vowels chart, a separate phonetic value is given for each major dialect, alongside the words used to name their corresponding lexical sets. The diaphonemes for the lexical sets given here are based on RP and General American; they are not sufficient to express all of the distinctions found in other dialects, such as Australian English.

  1. ^ This is a compromise IPA transcription, which covers most dialects of English.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i In most of the United States (with high dialectal variation), and to a lesser degree in Canada, special /æ/ tensing systems occur.
  3. ^ a b c d e See bad–lad split for this distinction.
  4. ^ ɒ~ɔ occurs in American accents without the cot–caught merger (about half of today's speakers); the rest have ɑ.
  5. ^ In American accents without the cot–caught merger, CLOTH words (usually words with a vowel written ⟨o⟩ preceding the fricatives /f/, /θ/ and /s/ and the velar nasal /ŋ/, e.g. off, cloth, boss, long), are pronounced with the vowel of THOUGHT, rather than the vowel of LOT as is the case in most other dialects of English, see Lot–cloth split. In American accents with the cot–caught merger (about half of today's speakers), LOT, CLOTH and THOUGHT all have the same vowel.
  6. ^ a b c d It is not clear whether this a true phonemic split, since the distribution of the two sounds is predictable; see Kit–bit split.
  7. ^ Often transcribed /e/ for RP, for example in Collins English Dictionary.
  8. ^ The STRUT vowel in BrE is highly variable in the triangle defined by ə, ʌ and ɑ, see 'STRUT for Dummies'
  9. ^ In Welsh English, you, yew and ewe are /juː/, /jɪu/ and /ɪu/ respectively; in most other varieties of English they are homophones.
  10. ^ a b c d e f Some dialects of North American English have a vowel shift called Canadian raising, in which the first element of the diphthongs /aɪ, aʊ/ is raised in certain cases, yielding [ʌɪ̯, ʌʊ̯] or [əɪ̯, əʊ̯]. Canadian English has raising of both diphthongs, but most dialects in the United States only have raising of /aɪ/. In monosyllables, raising occurs before voiceless consonants, so right [ɹʌɪ̯t] and out [ʌʊ̯t] have raised vowels, but eyes [aɪz] and loud [laʊd] do not.
  11. ^ Merging NEAR and SQUARE is especially common amongst young New Zealanders.
  12. ^ a b c d e f g See Fern–fir–fur merger for this distinction in some varieties.
  13. ^ Sometimes transcribed for GA as [əɹ], especially in transcriptions that represent both rhotic and non-rhotic pronunciations, as [ə(ɹ)].

See also

References

  1. ^ Dictionary Unit for South African English (2023). "‖hlala kahle". Dictionary of South African English. Retrieved 2024-04-20.
  2. ^ Dictionary Unit for South African English (2023). "ibandla". Dictionary of South African English. Retrieved 2024-04-20.
  3. ^ Harrington, Cox & Evans (1997)
  4. ^ Cox & Palethorpe (2007)
  5. ^ Boberg (2004)
  6. ^ Todd, Loreto (1982). Cameroon. John Benjamins Publishing. ISBN 9789027286703.
  7. ^ Sailaja (2009:19–26)
  8. ^ Wells (1982:422)
  9. ^ a b Mannell, Cox & Harrington (2009)
  10. ^ Bauer et al. (2007:97–102)
  11. ^ Scobbie, Gordeeva & Matthews (2006:7)
  12. ^ Bekker (2008)
  13. ^ Lass (2002:111–119)
  14. ^ Coupland & Thomas (1990:93–136)
  15. ^ Kenyon & Knott (1953)
  16. ^ Kenyon (1950)
  17. ^ Wells (1982:364)
  18. ^ Fox, Susan (2015). The New Cockney: New Ethnicities and Adolescent Speech in the Traditional East End of London.
  19. ^ Roach (2004:241–243)
  20. ^ "Case Studies – Received Pronunciation Phonology – RP Vowel Sounds". British Library. Archived from the original on 2018-12-25. Retrieved 2013-05-26.
  21. ^ "The British English vowel system". 8 March 2012.
  22. ^ Suzanna Bet Hashim and Brown, Adam (2000) 'The [e] and [æ] vowels in Singapore English'. In Adam Brown, David Deterding and Low Ee Ling (eds.) The English Language in Singapore: Research on Pronunciation, Singapore: Singapore Association for Applied Linguistics ISBN 981-04-2598-8, pp. 84–92.
  23. ^ Deterding, David (2007). Singapore English. United Kingdom: Edinburgh University Press. pp. 24–26. ISBN 978-0-7486-3096-7.
  24. ^ a b Deterding, David (2000) 'Measurements of the /eɪ/ and /oʊ/ vowels of young English speakers in Singapore'. In Adam Brown, David Deterding and Low Ee Ling (eds.), The English Language in Singapore: Research on Pronunciation, Singapore: Singapore Association for Applied Linguistics, pp. 93–99.
  25. ^ Mary W.J. Tay (1982). "'The phonology of educated Singapore English'". English World-Wide. 3 (2): 135–45. doi:10.1075/eww.3.2.02tay.

Further reading