Pronunciation respelling for English explained

pronounced as /notice/

A pronunciation respelling for English is a notation used to convey the pronunciation of words in the English language, which do not have a phonemic orthography (i.e. the spelling does not reliably indicate pronunciation).

There are two basic types of pronunciation respelling:

As an example, one pronunciation of Arkansas, transcribed in the IPA, could be respelled är′kən-sô′ or in a phonemic system, and arken-saw in a non-phonemic system.

Development and use

Pronunciation respelling systems for English have been developed primarily for use in dictionaries. They are used there because it is not possible to predict with certainty the sound of a written English word from its spelling or the spelling of a spoken English word from its sound. So readers looking up an unfamiliar word in a dictionary may find, on seeing the pronunciation respelling, that the word is in fact already known to them orally. By the same token, those who hear an unfamiliar spoken word may see several possible matches in a dictionary and must rely on the pronunciation respellings to find the correct match.

Traditional respelling systems for English use only the 26 ordinary letters of the Latin alphabet with diacritics, and are meant to be easy for native readers to understand. English dictionaries have used various such respelling systems to convey phonemic representations of the spoken word since Samuel Johnson published his Dictionary of the English Language in 1755, the earliest being devised by James Buchanan us be featured in his 1757 dictionary Linguæ Britannicæ Vera Pronunciatio,[1] although most words therein were not respelled but given diacritics;[2] since the language described by Buchanan was that of Scotland, William Kenrick responded in 1773 with A New Dictionary of the English Language, wherein the pronunciation of Southern England was covered and numbers rather than diacritics used to represent vowel sounds;[3] Thomas Sheridan devised a simpler scheme, which he employed in his successful 1780 General Dictionary of the English Language, a much larger work consisting of two volumes;[4] [5] in 1791 John Walker produced A Critical Pronouncing Dictionary, which achieved a great reputation and ran into some forty editions.[6] [7] Today, such systems remain in use in American dictionaries for native English speakers, but they have been replaced by the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) in linguistics references and many bilingual dictionaries published outside the United States.

The pronunciation which dictionaries refer to is some chosen "normal" one, thereby excluding other regional accents or dialect pronunciation. In England this standard is normally the Received Pronunciation, based upon the educated speech of southern England. The standard for American English is known as General American (GA).

Sophisticated phonetic systems have been developed, such as James Murray's scheme for the original Oxford English Dictionary, and the IPA, which replaced it in later editions and has been adopted by many British and international dictionaries. The IPA system is not a respelling system, because it uses symbols not in the English alphabet, such as ð and θ. Most current British dictionaries[8] use IPA for this purpose.

Traditional respelling systems

The following chart matches the IPA symbols used to represent the sounds of the English language with the phonetic symbols used in several dictionaries, a majority of which transcribe American English.

These works adhere (for the most part) to the one-symbol-per-sound principle. Other works not included here, such as Webster's New Twentieth Century Dictionary of the English Language (unabridged, 2nd), do not adhere and thus have several different symbols for the same sound (partly to allow for different phonemic mergers and splits).

Consonants
WikipediaExamples
pronounced as /tʃ/ pronounced as /tʃ/ č ᴄʜ ch c͜h ch ch c̷h ch ch ch ch ch, tchch ch ch chch chch ch ch, tch ch ch ch, tch church
pronounced as /ɡ/g g g g g g g g g g g g gg g g gg gg g g g g g, gh game
pronounced as /h/ h h h h h h h h h h h h hh h h hh hhh h h h h h hat
pronounced as /hw/ hw hw (h)w hw hw hw hw hw hw hw  hw (h)w w hwhw wh which
pronounced as /dʒ/ pronounced as /dʒ/ ǯ j j j j j j j j j j jj j j jj jjh j j j j j judge
pronounced as /k/ pronounced as /k/ k k k k k k k k k k k k, ck k k k k k kk k k k k kkick
pronounced as /x/ x x ᴋʜ ᴋʜ ᴋ͜ʜ kh ʜ ḵ kh(χ) k͟h hh xhᴋʜ kh kh loch (Scottish and Irish)
Buch (German)
pronounced as /ŋ/ ŋ ŋ ɴɢ ng n͡g ng ng ŋ ng ng ng ŋ ngng ng ng ngng ngng ng ng
(ng-g, nk) 		ng ng ng thing
pronounced as /s/ s s s s s s s s s s s s s, sss s s ss ss s s s s s, ss sauce
pronounced as /ʃ/ pronounced as /ʃ/ š ꜱʜ sh s͜h sh sh s̷h sh sh sh sh shsh sh sh shsh shsh sh sh sh sh sh ship
pronounced as /θ/ θ θ ᴛʜ th t͜h th th t̷h th th th th thth th th thth thth th th th th th thin
pronounced as /ð/ ð ð ᴛ͟ʜ ℎ ᵺ th t͟h ̷h ᵺ T̶H th꞉ t͟h dhdh t͟h dh dhTH t͟hdh ℎ dh dh dh this
pronounced as /j/ j y y y y y y y y y y y yy y y yy yy y y y y y yes
pronounced as /ʒ/ pronounced as /ʒ/ ž ᴢʜ zh z͜h zh z͟h z̷h zh zh zh zh zhzh z͟h zh zhzh zhzh zh zh zh zh zh vision
The following letters have the same values in all systems listed: b, d, f, l, m, n, p, r, t, v, w, z.
Vowels

AmE, BrE		WikipediaExamples
pronounced as /æ/ æ æ a ă a a a a a a a a aă a a aa aae a a (arr) a a a (arr) cat
pronounced as /eɪ/ e e(y) ā ā ā ay ay ā ay ā ay ā ayā ay ā ehay, a_e ayey ey ay ei ay ay day
pronounced as /ɛər/ pronounced as /ɛr/ εr e(ə)r âr âr air air – – âr air er airār air ār, er airair aireh r air air ehr, euh air air hair
pronounced as /ɑː/ pronounced as /ɑ/ a ä ä ä ah aa ä aw, o ä ah ä, ȧ ahah aa ä ahah ahaa ah aa aa ah ah father
pronounced as /ɑːr/ pronounced as /ɑr/ ar är är är ahr aar är – är ahr är ara͡r aar är ar ahraa r ahr ar aar, aa ar arm
pronounced as /ɛ/ pronounced as /ɛ/ ε e ĕ e eh e e ɛ e e e eě e e ee eeh e e (err) e/eh e e (err) let
pronounced as /iː/ i i(y) ē ē ē ee ee ē ē ē ee ē eeē ee ē eeee eeiy ee ee ee ee ee see
pronounced as /ɪər/ pronounced as /ɪr/ ιr i(ə)r îr ēr ihr eer ir ierir eerēr eer ēr ihr eeriy r eer eer eer, eeuh ear eer here
pronounced as /ɪ/ pronounced as /ɪ/ pronounced as /ɪ/ i ĭ i ih i i i i i i iǐ i i ii iih i i (irr) i i i (irr) pit
pronounced as /aɪ/ pronounced as /aɪ/ ay ī ī ī y ī ī y ī igh ī ighī ī ī aieye, i_e, ye ɪay ahy igh, y ai uy y, eye by
pronounced as /ɒ/ pronounced as /ɑ/ a ä ŏ o o o ä o o ah ä oǒ o o oo oaa o o (orr) aa, o o o (orr) pot
pronounced as /oʊ/ o o(w) ō ō ō oh ō ō ō ō oh ō ohō ō ō ohoh, o_e ohow oh oh ow oh oh no
pronounced as /ɔː/ pronounced as /ɔ/ ɔ ô ô ô aw aw ô aw, o ô aw ȯ awaw aw ö awaw awao aw aw aa, aw aw aw caught
pronounced as /ɔːr/ pronounced as /ɔr/ pronounced as /ɔr/ ôr ôr ôr awrȯr oröror orao rawr or or, aw or north
pronounced as /or/ pronounced as /o(w)r/ ōr, örawr, ohr force
pronounced as /ɔɪ/ pronounced as /ɔɪ/ ɔy oi oi oi oy oy oi oy oi oi ȯi oyoi oy oi oyoi oyoy oi oy oy oy oy noise
pronounced as /ʊ/ ᴜ ᴜ o͝o o͝o o͝o u o͝ooo u u̇ oo u̇ uuo͝o o͝o ŭ uuu uuuh uu u oo uu took
pronounced as /ʊər/ ᴜr ᴜr o͝or o͝or o͝or ur oor u̇r ooru̇r ooroor oor oor ooruh r r oor oor, uor oouh oor tour
pronounced as /uː/ u u(w) o͞o o͞o o͞o oo oo o͞o ū ü oo꞉ ü ooo͞o o͞o oo oooo oouw oo oo oo ooh oo soon
pronounced as /aʊ/ aᴜ aw ou ou ou ow ow ou ow ou ow au̇ owow ow ow owou owaw ou ow aw ow ow out
pronounced as /ʌ/ pronounced as /ʌ/ ʌ ə ŭ u uh u u ꭒ u uhə uǔ u u uuh əah uh u uh u u cut
pronounced as /ɜːr/ pronounced as /ɜr/ ər ər ûr ûr ur ur ʉr er ėr er ər ure͡r ər ûr urur ərer ur ur ur, uh er ur word
pronounced as /ə/ ə ə ə ə ə uh ə ə e ə uh ə uh,,,, ə ə uhuh əah ℎ uh uh uh ə about
pronounced as /ər/ pronounced as /ɚ/ ər ər ər ər uhr ər ər er ər er ər urer ər ər ur ərer er uhr r, uh ər butter
pronounced as /juː/ ju yu yo͞o yo͞o yo͞o yoo yoo yo͞o yū yü yoo꞉ yü yooū yo͞o ū yoo yooy uw yoo yoo yoo yooh ew view
Stress
WikipediaExamples
pronounced as /ˈa/ pronounced as /ˈa/ á ˈa a′ a′ á a′ a′ a′ A pronounced as /ˈa/ Aa· á a' aa a1 a A a (')a A primary stress
pronounced as /ˌa/ pronounced as /ˌa/ à ˌa a′ a′ a′ aa′
a pronounced as /ˌa/ a(a·) a a a2 a a a .a secondary stress
pronounced as /a/ a a a a a a 0 a a a tertiary stress

Title abbreviations

Pronunciation without respelling

Some dictionaries indicate hyphenation and syllabic stress in the headword. A few have even used diacritics to show pronunciation "without respelling" in the headwords.

The Concise Oxford Dictionary, 1st through 4th edition, used a mix of two systems.[9] Some editions of Webster's Unabridged Dictionary have offered a method for teachers to indicate pronunciation without respelling as a supplement to the respelling scheme used in the dictionary. Pronunciation without respelling is also sometimes used in texts with many unusual words, such as Bibles,[10] [11] [12] when it is desirable to show the received pronunciation. These will often be more exhaustive than dictionary respelling keys because all possible digraphs or readings need to have a unique spelling.

Concise Oxford Dictionarys system without respelling
COD variant IPA
ph pronounced as //f//
kn (initial) pronounced as //n//
wr (initial) pronounced as //r//
g, dg pronounced as //dʒ// (before e, i, y)
pronounced as //ɡ// otherwise
c pronounced as //s// (before e, i, y)
pronounced as //k// otherwise
ai, ay pronounced as //eɪ//
air pronounced as //ɛər//
ae, ea, ee, ie pronounced as //iː//
ė, ie (final), ey pronounced as //ɪ//
ear, eer, ier pronounced as //ɪər//
aw pronounced as //ɔː//
oy pronounced as //ɔɪ//
ou pronounced as //aʊ//
i͡r, u͡r pronounced as //ɜr//
eu, ew pronounced as //juː//
Henry Adeney Redpath's table of signs in the King James Bible[13] ! Symbol !! Original gloss !! Approximate IPA equivalent*
- syllable boundary (always added;
original hyphens become –) 		pronounced as //.//
-́ syllable boundary after stress* pronounced as //ˈ// or pronounced as //ˌ// before syll.
ä ah, arm, father pronounced as //ɑː//
ă abet, hat, dilemma pronounced as //æ, ə‡//
ā tame pronounced as //eɪ//
â fare pronounced as //ɛə†//
ạ call pronounced as //ɔː//
ĕ met, her, second pronounced as //ɛ, ɜ†, ə‡//
ē mete pronounced as //iː//
ë a in tame pronounced as //eɪ//
ī fine pronounced as //aɪ//
ĭ him, fir, plentiful pronounced as //ɪ, ɜ†, i‡, ə‡//
î machine pronounced as //iː//
ị peculiar pronounced as //j//
ō alone pronounced as //oʊ//
ŏ on, protect pronounced as //ɒ, ə‡//
ô nor pronounced as //ɔː//
o̱ son pronounced as //ʌ, ə‡//
ū tune pronounced as //juː//
û rude pronounced as //uː//
ŭ us pronounced as //ʌ, ə‡//
u̇ turner pronounced as //ɜ†//
ȳ lyre pronounced as //aɪ//
y̆ typical, fully pronounced as //ɪ, i‡//
a͞a a of am pronounced as //æ//
a͡a a of fare pronounced as //ɛə//
ǣ, a͞e mediæval pronounced as //iː//
a͡i aisle pronounced as //aɪ//
a͟i hail pronounced as //eɪ//
a͞o o of alone pronounced as //oʊ//
a͡u maul pronounced as //ɔː//
e͡e heed pronounced as //iː//
e͡i i of fine pronounced as //aɪ//
e͡u neuter pronounced as //juː//
e͡w lewd pronounced as //juː//
o͡i oil pronounced as //ɔɪ//
c̣ celestial pronounced as //s//
c͟h character pronounced as //k//
c͞i delicious pronounced as //ʃ//
ġ giant pronounced as //dʒ//
ṡ his pronounced as //z//
s͞i adhesion pronounced as //ʒ//
T͞h Thomas pronounced as //t//
t͞i attraction pronounced as //ʃ//

Notes and References

  1. Web site: dictionary Definition, History, Types, & Facts Britannica. 2021-12-31. www.britannica.com. en.
  2. Book: Buchanan, James. Linguæ Britannicæ Vera Pronunciatio : Or, a New English Dictionary. Containing I. An Explanation of All English Words Used by the Best Writers;...II. The Language from which Each Word is Derived. III. The Part of Speech to which it Belongs. IV. A Supplement of Upwards of 4000 Proper Names.In which Every Words Has Not Only the Common Accent to Denote the Emphasis of the Voice, But, ... by James Buchanan. 1757. A. Millar. en.
  3. Book: KENRICK (LL.D.), William. A new Dictionary of the English Language. ... To which is prefixed a Rhetorical Grammar. 1773. en.
  4. Book: Sheridan, Thomas. A general dictionary of the English language. : One main object of which, is, to establish a plain and permanent standard pronunciation. : To which is prefixed a rhetorical grammar.. 1780. London : Printed for J. Dodsley ... C. Dilly ... and J. Wilkie .... University of California Libraries.
  5. Book: Sheridan, Thomas. A complete dictionary of the English language, : both with regard to sound and meaning. One main object of which is, to establish a plain and permanent standard of pronunciation. To which is prefixed a prosodial grammar.. 1789. London: : Printed for Charles Dilly, in the Poultry.. National Library of Scotland.
  6. Book: Walker, John. A critical pronouncing dictionary and expositor of the English language ... To which are prefixed, principles of English pronunciation ... Likewise rules to be observed by the natives of Scotland, Ireland, and London, for avoiding their respective peculiarities; and directions to foreigners for acquiring a knowledge of the use of this dictionary. The whole interspersed with observations, philological, critical, and grammatical. 1791. London, G.G.J. and J. Robinson. New York Public Library.
  7. Walker, John . 28 . 272.
  8. Such as The Oxford BBC Guide to Pronunciation Mind your language, by Dot Wordsworth, in The Spectator, November 7, 2007.
  9. Book: Fowler. H. W.. Fowler. F. G.. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English. 1st. 1911. Clarendon Press. Oxford.
  10. Book: The self-pronouncing New Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 1895. A. J. Holman & Co.. Philadelphia.
  11. Book: The Oxford self-pronouncing Bible; the Holy Bible containing the Old and New Testaments. 1897. Oxford University Press. New York & London.
  12. Book: The Oxford self-pronouncing Testament; the New Testament.... 1900. Oxford University Press. New York & London.
  13. Book: The Holy Bible: Authorized King James Version. 1959. Collins' Clear-Type Press.

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