Help:Pronunciation respelling key

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".

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.

Vowels

Rspl.	Example(s)	IPA
a	bat	See also: /æ/
ah	father	See also: /ɑː/
air	bear, Mary	See also: /ɛər/
ar	farther	See also: /ɑːr/
arr	marry	See also: /ær/
aw	bought	See also: /ɔː/
ay	bait	See also: /eɪ/
e	bet	See also: /ɛ/
eh	prestige
ee	beat	See also: /iː/
	happy, serious	See also: /i/
eer	beer, nearer	See also: /ɪər/
err	merry	See also: /ɛr/
ew	cute, beauty, dew	See also: /juː/
ewr	cure, lure	See also: /jʊər/
eye	item, yikes	See also: /aɪ/
i	bit	See also: /ɪ/
ih	historic
ire	hire	See also: /aɪər/
irr	mirror	See also: /ɪr/
o	bot	See also: /ɒ/
oh	boat	See also: /oʊ/
oir	coir	See also: /ɔɪər/
oo	boot, you	See also: /uː/
	influence, fruition	See also: /u/
oor	poor, tourist	See also: /ʊər/
or	horse, hoarse, pour, forum	See also: /ɔːr/
orr	moral	See also: /ɒr/
ow	bout, vow	See also: /aʊ/
owr	flour	See also: /aʊər/
oy	choice, boy	See also: /ɔɪ/
u	but	See also: /ʌ/
uh	frustration
ur	bird, furry	See also: /ɜːr/
urr	hurry	See also: /ʌr/
uu	book	See also: /ʊ/
uurr	courier	See also: /ʊr/
y	bite, bide	See also: /aɪ/
ə	about, comma	See also: /ə/
ər	letter	See also: /ər/

Consonants

Rspl.	Example(s)	IPA
b	buy	See also: /b/
ch	church, nature	See also: /tʃ/
d	dye, ladder	See also: /d/
dh	thy, this	See also: /ð/
f	fight	See also: /f/
g	go	See also: /ɡ/
gh	guess, guitar
h	high	See also: /h/
j	jive	See also: /dʒ/
k	kite, sky, lock	See also: /k/
kh	loch, Chanukah	See also: /x/
l	lie, sly	See also: /l/
m	my	See also: /m/
n	nigh	See also: /n/
ng	ring, singer	See also: /ŋ/
nk	sink	See also: /ŋk/
p	pie, spy	See also: /p/
r	rye, try	See also: /r/
s	sigh	See also: /s/
ss	ice, tense
sh	shy	See also: /ʃ/
t	tie, sty, latter	See also: /t/
tch	church, natural	See also: /tʃ/
th	thigh	See also: /θ/
v	vine	See also: /v/
w	wine	See also: /w/
wh	whine	See also: /hw/
y	you	See also: /j/
z	zoo	See also: /z/
zh	pleasure	See also: /ʒ/

Syllables and stress

Syllables are separated by hyphens ("-"). 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, as the difference is automatic. In words where primary stress precedes secondary stress, however, the secondary stress should not be differentiated from unstressed syllables, because to respell "motorcycle" (/ˈmoʊtərˌsaɪkəl/), for example, as MOH-tər-SY-kəl instead of 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

See also: /aʊ/ could prove problematic as there are a variety of monosyllabic words spelled with "ow" and pronounced with

See also: /oʊ/: blow, blown, bow, bowl, flow, flown, glow, grow, grown, growth, growths, low, mow, mown, own, row, show, slow, snow, sow, sown, stow, strow, throw, tow, and trow. There is no universal solution to this problem ("ou" also varies as in loud, soup, soul, and touch), so respelling a word including

See also: /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

See wikipedia for original page: wikipedia:Help:Pronunciation respelling key Template:IPA keys