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    Phonetic Pronunciation Guide

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    khalidpearl
    This document provides a pronunciation guide for British and American English. It begins by explaining the pronunciation symbols used and providing examples of vowel and consonant sounds. It then discusses differences in pronunciation between British and American English, such as vowel sounds, diphthongs, syllabic consonants, weak forms, tapping of /t/, and use of glottal stops. The guide aims to help readers understand and correctly use pronunciation symbols.

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    Phonetic Pronunciation Guide

    Uploaded by

    khalidpearl
    521 views4 pages
    This document provides a pronunciation guide for British and American English. It begins by explaining the pronunciation symbols used and providing examples of vowel and consonant sounds. It then discusses differences in pronunciation between British and American English, such as vowel sounds, diphthongs, syllabic consonants, weak forms, tapping of /t/, and use of glottal stops. The guide aims to help readers understand and correctly use pronunciation symbols.

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    Phonetic Keyoard Guide

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    This document provides a pronunciation guide for British and American English. It begins by explaining the pronunciation symbols used and providing examples of vowel and consonant sounds. It then discusses differences in pronunciation between British and American English, such as vowel sounds, diphthongs, syllabic consonants, weak forms, tapping of /t/, and use of glottal stops. The guide aims to help readers understand and correctly use pronunciation symbols.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    521 views4 pages

    Phonetic Pronunciation Guide

    Uploaded by

    khalidpearl
    This document provides a pronunciation guide for British and American English. It begins by explaining the pronunciation symbols used and providing examples of vowel and consonant sounds. It then discusses differences in pronunciation between British and American English, such as vowel sounds, diphthongs, syllabic consonants, weak forms, tapping of /t/, and use of glottal stops. The guide aims to help readers understand and correctly use pronunciation symbols.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 4

    PRONUNCIATION GUIDE

    Oxford Advanced Lerners Dictionary.

    This guide will help you to understand and use the pronunciation symbols found in this dictionary. The British pronunciations given are those of younger speakers of General British. This includes RP (Received Pronunciation) and a range of similar accents which are not strongly regional. The American pronunciations chosen are also as far as possible the most general (not associated with any particular region). If there is a difference between British and American pronunciations of a word, the British one is given first, with NAmE before the American pronunciation.

    Consonants
    p b t d k t d f v pen bad tea did cat get /pen/ /bd/ /ti/ /dd/ /kt/ /et/ s z h m n l r j w see zoo shoe /si/ /zu/ /u/

    vision /vn/ hat man now sing leg red yes wet /ht/ /mn/ /na/ /s/ /le/ /red/ /jes/ /wet/

    chain /ten/ jam fall van thin this /dm/ /fl/ /vn/ /n/ /s/

    The symbol (r) indicates that British pronunciation will have /r/ only if a vowel sound follows directly at the beginning of the next word, as in far away; otherwise the /r/ is omitted. For American English, all the /r/ sounds should be pronounced. /x/ represents a fricative sound as in /lx/ for Scottish loch, Irish lough.

    Vowels and Diphthongs


    i i e u u see /si/ e o a a e fur /f(r)/

    happy /hpi/ sit ten cat /st/ /ten/ /kt/

    about /bat/ say go go my boy now near hair pure /se/ // (British English) /o/ (American English) /ma/ /b/ /na/ /n(r)/ (British English) /he(r)/ (British English) /pj(r)/ (British English)

    father /f(r)/ got saw put /t/ (British English) /s/ /pt/

    actual /ktul/ too cup /tu/ /kp/

    Many British speakers use // instead of the diphthong //, especially in common words, so that sure becomes /(r)/, etc. The sound // does not occur in American English, and words which have this vowel in British pronunciation will instead have // or // in American English. For instance, got is /t/ in British English, but /t / in American English, while dog is British /d/, American /d/. The three diphthongs / e / are found only in British English. In corresponding places, American English has a simple vowel followed by /r/, so near is /nr/, hair is /her/, and pure is /pjr/. Nasalized vowels, marked with //, may be retained in certain words taken from French, as in penchant /p/, coq au vin /kk v/.

    Syllabic Consonants
    The sounds /l/ and /n/ can often be syllabic that is, they can form a syllable by themselves without a vowel. There is a syllabic /l/ in the usual pronunciation of middle /mdl/, and a syllabic /n/ in sudden /sdn/.

    Weak Vowels (/i/ and /u/


    The sounds represented by /i/ and // must always be made different, as in heat /hit/ compared with hit /ht/. The symbol /i/ represents a vowel that can be sounded as either /i/ or //, or as a sound which is a compromise between them. In a word such as happy /hpi/, younger speakers use a quality more like /i/, but short in duration. When /i/ is followed by // the sequence can also be pronounced /j/. So the word dubious can be /djubis/ or /djubjs/. In the same way, the two vowels represented /u/ and // must be kept distinct but /u/ represents a weak vowel that varies between them. If /u/ is followed directly by a consonant sound, it can also be pronounced as //. So stimulate can be /stmjulet/ or /stmjlet/.

    Weak Forms and Strong Forms


    Certain very common words, for example at, and, for, can, have two pronunciations. We give the usual (weak) pronunciation first. The second pronunciation (strong) must be used if the word is stressed, and also generally when the word is at the end of a sentence. For example: Can /kn/ you help? Ill help if I can /kn/.

    Tapping of / t /
    In American English, if a /t/ sound is between two vowels, and the second vowel is not stressed, the /t/ can be pronounced very quickly, and made voiced so that it is like a brief /d/ or the rsound of certain languages. Technically, the sound is a tap, and can be symbolised by /t /. So Americans can pronounce potato as /ptet o/, tapping the second /t/ in the word (but not the first, because of the stress). British speakers dont generally do this. The conditions for tapping also arise very frequently when words are put together, as in not only, what I, etc. In this case it doesnt matter whether the following vowel is stressed or not, and even British speakers can use taps in this situation, though they sound rather casual.

    The Glottal Stop


    In both British and American varieties of English, a /t/ which comes at the end of a word or syllable can often be pronounced as a glottal stop // (a silent gap produced by holding ones breath briefly) instead of a /t/. For this to happen, the next sound must not be a vowel or a syllabic /l/. So football can be /fbl/ instead of /ftbl/, and button can be /bn/ instead of /btn/. But a glottal stop would not be used for the /t/ sounds in bottle or better because of the sounds which come afterwards.

    Phonetics
    Pronunciations in the American English and Essential American English dictionary do not use the 'long vowel' marker // and, in place of the syllable division marker /./, they use a raised dot //. i a u i Long Vowels sheep farm coo horse bird sheep ship hat foot sock (UK) ship hat Short Vowels e head above mother (US) worm (US) cup

    b d v z d l r j w m n

    ConsonantsVoiced book day give very the zoo vision jump look run yes we moon name sing

    p t k f s t

    Voiceless pen town cat fish think say she ch

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