Content deleted Content added
Kwamikagami (talk | contribs) |
Kwamikagami (talk | contribs) |
||
Line 10:
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.
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 are two pronunciations of ''hoarse'' among those who make the distinction. (See [[English-language vowel changes before historic r|horse-hoarse merger]].) It would not be possible to have the song lyric "You say ''hoarse'' and I say ''horse''", because only those people who say ''hoarse'' would be able to sing it. And indeed in the [[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==
| |||