Help:IPA/Conventions for English: Difference between revisions

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For a list of those languages other than English which have agreed-upon transcriptions in Wikipedia, see {{tl|IPAhelp}}. For a comparison of the non-IPA transcriptions found in many US dictionaries, see [[Pronunciation respelling for English]].

==Alternate pronunciations==

When dictionaries give alternate pronunciations, they may mean that people disagree. For example, some people pronounce ''bath'' {{IPA|/ˈbæθ/}}, with the vowel of ''bat,'' while others pronounce it {{IPA|/ˈbɑːθ/}}, with the vowel of ''bra.'' This is the kind of difference celebrated in "[[Let's Call the Whole Thing Off|You like to-{{sc|may}}-toes and I like to-{{sc|mah}}-toes]]". On Wikipedia, we would normally need to transcribe both, unless only one is considered correct, as may be the case for personal and place names.

When dictionaries give alternate pronunciations, they may mean that people disagree. For example, some people pronounce ''bath'' {{IPA|/ˈbæθ/}}, with the vowel of ''bat,'' while others pronounce it {{IPA|/ˈbɑːθ/}}, with the vowel of ''bra.'' On Wikipedia, we would normally need to transcribe both. However, often variant transcriptions reflect distinctions between accents, and these we do not need to transcribe, since our IPA key already covers such distinctions. For example, dictionary.com transcribes ''horse'' as "{{IPA|/hɔrs/}}" and ''hoarse'' as "{{IPA|/hɔrs, hoʊrs/}}". This is meant to show that some people pronounce ''hoarse'' the same as ''horse;'' it does ''not'' mean that there isare disagreementtwo aspronunciations howof ''hoarse'' among those who make the distinction. It would not be possible to pronouncehave the wordsong amonglyric "You say ''hoarse'' and I say ''horse''", because only those people who makesay ''hoarse'' would be able to sing it. And indeed in the distinction[[OED]] there is only one pronunciation for each: ''horse'' {{IPA|(hɔːs)}} and ''hoarse'' {{IPA|(hɔəs)}}. Therefore on Wikipedia we would only have one transcription per word, and the distinct pronunciation would suffice: ''horse'' {{IPA|/ˈhɔrs/}}, ''hoarse'' {{IPA|/ˈhɔərs/}}. Since the IPA key defines the conventions {{IPA|/ɔr/}} and {{IPA|/ɔər/}} according to basic English words, readers who do not make the distinction will see them as being equivalent, much as the spelling pronunciations ''YOU-clid'' and ''EWE-clid'' for "Euclid" would be seen as equivalent.

==Consonants==

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==Vowels==

When dictionaries give alternate pronunciations, they may mean that people disagree. For example, some people pronounce ''bath'' {{IPA|/ˈbæθ/}}, with the vowel of ''bat,'' while others pronounce it {{IPA|/ˈbɑːθ/}}, with the vowel of ''bra.'' On Wikipedia, we would normally need to transcribe both. However, often variant transcriptions reflect distinctions between accents, and these we do not need to transcribe, since our IPA key already covers such distinctions. For example, dictionary.com transcribes ''horse'' as "{{IPA|/hɔrs/}}" and ''hoarse'' as "{{IPA|/hɔrs, hoʊrs/}}". This is meant to show that some people pronounce ''hoarse'' the same as ''horse;'' it does ''not'' mean that there is disagreement as how to pronounce the word among those who make the distinction. Therefore on Wikipedia the distinct pronunciation would suffice: ''horse'' {{IPA|/ˈhɔrs/}}, ''hoarse'' {{IPA|/ˈhɔərs/}}. Since the IPA key defines the conventions {{IPA|/ɔr/}} and {{IPA|/ɔər/}} according to basic English words, readers who do not make the distinction will see them as being equivalent, much as the spelling pronunciations ''YOU-clid'' and ''EWE-clid'' for Euclid would be seen as equivalent.

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"