International Phonetic Alphabet For English

Vowels

English 'plain' vowels

• bead – close front unrounded vowel
• bid – near-close near-front unrounded vowel
• bayed – diphthong: AmE & BrE close-mid front unrounded vowel + near-close near-front unrounded vowel, AuE near-open front unrounded vowel + near-close near-front unrounded vowel
• AmE & BrE , AuE
• bed – AmE & BrE open-mid front unrounded vowel, AuE close-mid front unrounded vowel
• AmE & BrE , AuE
• bad – near-open front unrounded vowel
• father – AmE & BrE open back unrounded vowel, AuE open front unrounded vowel
• AmE , BrE , AuE
• body – AmE open back unrounded vowel, BrE & AuE open back rounded vowel
• AmE , BrE & AuE
• baud – open-mid back rounded vowel
• bud – open-mid back unrounded vowel
• bode – diphthong: AmE close-mid back rounded vowel + near-close near-back rounded vowel, BrE schwa + near-close near-back rounded vowel, AuE open-mid back unrounded vowel + near-close near-back rounded vowel
• AmE , BrE , AuE
• good – near-close near-back rounded vowel
• booed – close back rounded vowel

1. The symbol is just the IPA symbol that means the vowel to the left is long. The vowels marked here with are the English vowels that are usually longer than the others. The distinction between long and short vowels is more pronounced in British and Australian English than in American English (where many researchers do not transcribe any length for vowels at all).
2. The English and vowels are realized as diphthongs, but they are included here with the plain vowels because the and are just off-glides.
3. Many AmE speakers (particularly in and around Philadelphia and New York City) have an additional phoneme in this region, the "raised" or "tense short a". The exact pronunciation of this sound varies widely; it can be realized as any of , , , . Some speakers have minimal pairs such as can (tin container) vs. can (be able) or nonrhyming pairs such as mannish vs. Spanish . For most such speakers occurs also before in words like bared and Mary--though usually not marry or merry . Many other American speakers, particularly in a swath from upstate New York to Chicago, whose speech has undergone the northern cities vowel shift, have only a single phoneme, whose realization is virtually the same as the Philadelphia/New York "tense short a". Most Americans from the West agree with English speakers from other countries in having only one phoneme, whose realization is a lax .
4. For a large number of speakers of North American English, there is no distinction between and . This is frequently called the cot-caught merger. For many of these speakers, the two vowels have merged as ; for others they have merged as . Among American speakers who do have , it is distinctly more open than in British and Australian English; it could also be transcribed , though in practice this is rarely done.

Reduced vowels

• roses – AmE close central unrounded vowel (called barred-i), BrE near-close near-front unrounded vowel, AuE schwa
• AmE , BrE , AuE

Note: some speakers do not have a contrast between barred-i and schwa.

• Rosa's – This sound is called schwa
• runner – AmE - this is called an r-colored schwa, which is a single sound, not a sequence of schwa and r. BrE & AuE - this is just the reduced vowel schwa.
• AmE , BrE & AuE
• button – This is called syllabic n.
• bottle – This is called syllabic l.
• open pronounced "opm" – rapid speech only. This is called syllabic m.

R-colored vowels

• bird
• AmE , BrE & AuE
• beard
• AmE , BrE , AuE
• beer
• AmE , BrE & AuE
• marry *
• merry *
• AmE & BrE, AuE
• Mary * / bared
• AmE , BrE , AuE
• bard
• AmE , BrE , AuE
• board
• AmE , BrE & AuE
• boor
• AmE , BrE , AuE

Often in BrE

After palatals (for example in sure, jury, cure, Europe) often in AmE

• byre
• AmE , BrE , AuE
• Bauer
• AmE , BrE , AuE

Diphthongs

• bide
• AmE & BrE , AuE
• Boyd
• bowed, mouth
• AmE & BrE , AuE
• imbued

This is phonemically a sequence of and rather than a diphthong, because English speakers perceive ewe and two as a valid rhyme, and they say "a ewe" instead of "an ewe", which would be correct if was a vowel.

Consonants

Stops

• pit – voiceless bilabial plosive
• bit – voiced bilabial plosive
• tin – voiceless alveolar plosive
• din – voiced alveolar plosive
• kin – voiceless velar plosive
• gone – voiced velar plosive
• button – glottal stop (considered an allophone of .)

Affricates

• chop
• joy

Fricatives

• fool – voiceless labiodental fricative
• voice – voiced labiodental fricative
• thing – voiceless interdental fricative
• this – voiced interdental fricative
• see – voiceless alveolar fricative
• zoo – voiced alveolar fricative
• she – voiceless postalveolar fricative - This symbol is called esh
• measure – voiced postalveolar fricative - This symbol is called ezh
• ham – voiceless glottal fricative
• when – voiceless labial-velar fricative - occurs in those English dialects that distinguish between the words which and witch.

Nasals

• nap – alveolar nasal
• map – bilabial nasal
• emphasis – labiodental nasal - this is not a separate phoneme, but an allophone of
• bang – velar nasal - This sound is called eng, engma or agma

Approximants

• left – lateral alveolar approximant
• milk – velarized alveolar lateral approximant - this sound is sometimes called dark l (not a separate phoneme of English, but an allophone of )
• run – alveolar approximant

It is frequently written in transcription of English, since the alveolar trill (the sound for which is normally reserved) does not occur in most dialects of English.

• better – AmE & sometimes AuE - alveolar flap (not a separate phoneme of English, but an allophone of and )
• we – labial-velar approximant
• yes – palatal approximant

Suprasegmentals

• primary stress
• secondary stress
• syllable break

Quick reference chart of IPA symbols used for English

  #ipa-table tr { display: none; }  #ipa-table tr.xx,  #ipa-table tr:first-child { display: table-row; } 

See also

• IPA in Unicode
• IPA chart for English
• SAMPA, X-SAMPA and Kirshenbaum are other methods of mapping IPA designations into ASCII. IPA is preferred in Wikipedia articles, however.
• English pronunciation
• List of phonetics topics

<< Previous Word Browser Next >>
gongman terry wallace st. neot spontaneous process canadian federal election, 2004 hands across america pendulum music mayflower (disambiguation) geoff watt john stainer minamata disease	kornet james gleick the wanderings of oisin legilimency newcastle island chris cross australian aboriginal art western allies house party chiral anomaly chris stockwell	walkerton, ontario visage up (complexity) ruth rendell peter urseolo of hungary partition function (number theory) alex trebek partition function (statistical mechanics) partition function (quantum field theory) slit lamp microscope moral support	chinampa water pollution huntingdon life sciences french overture municipalities of denmark 20th congress of the cpsu manuel martn oar blue fairy austin lounge lizards mi'kmaq turul