Zelda Wiki:Pronunciation Guide

Key

These are the keys for IPA and English pronunciation respelling, an alternative to IPA that does not represent dialects or accents.

• To display a formatted English pronunciation respelling when defining pronunciation, use Template:Respell.

IPA Respelling symbol(s) Examples Consonants /b/ b but, web /d/ d do, odd /ð/ dh this, breathe, father /dʒ/ j gin, joy, edge /f/ f fool, enough, leaf /ɡ/ g go, get, beg /h/ h ham, ahead /j/ y yes /k/ k cat, kill, skin, queen, thick /l/ l left, bell /m/ m man, ham /n/ n no, tin /ŋ/ ng ringer, sing, sink /ŋɡ/ ng-g finger /p/ p pen, spin, tip /r/ r run, very /s/ s or ss see, city, pass /ʃ/ sh she, sure, emotion, leash /t/ t two, sting, bet /tʃ/ ch chair, nature, teach /v/ v voice, have /w/ w we /z/ z zoo, rose /ʒ/ zh pleasure, vision, beige /θ/ th thing, teeth Stress /ˈ/ Represented by capitalizing the syllable. intonation (/ˌɪn.tɵˈneɪ.ʃən/)

IPA Respelling symbol(s) Examples Vowels /ɪ/ i or ih bid, pit /iː/ ee bead, peat /i/ ee happy, city /ɛ/ e bed, pet /æ/ a bad, pat /ɑː/ ah or aa balm, father, pa /ɒ/ o bod, pot, cot /ɔː/ aw bawd, paw, caught /ʊ/ oo good, foot, put /uː/ oo booed, food /ʌ/ u bud, butt Diphthongs /eɪ/ ay bay, hey, fate /ɑɪ/ eye buy, high, ride, write /ɑʊ/ ow bough, how, pout /ɔɪ/ oy boy, hoy /oʊ/ oh or oe beau, hoe, poke /juː/ ew beauty, hue, pew, dew R-colored vowels /ɪr/ irr mirror /ɪər/ eer beer, mere /ɛr/ err berry, merry /ɛər/ air bear, mare, Mary /ær/ arr barrow, marry /ɑr/ ar bar, mar /ɒr/ orr moral, forage /ɔr/ or or awr born, for /ʌr/ urr hurry, Murray /ʊər/ oor boor, moor /ɜr/ ur or ər at the end of words bird, myrrh, furry (alternatively //ɝː//) Reduced vowels /ɨ/ ə roses, business /ə/ ə Rosa’s, above /ər/ ər runner, mercer (alternatively //ɚ//)

Using IPA for Standard American English

IPA, as it applies to Standard American English, consists of only a fraction of the symbols available in IPA.

Some Helpful Rules

Here are a few tips to get you started. Always remember the following while using IPA.

• First and foremost is not to rely on existing notions of how a word is spelled. Take a moment to review the following examples and note how the spelling in English is drastically different from the spellings in IPA.
  • Picture
  • Leisure
  • Portion
  • Caught
  • Context
  • Fight

• Each syllable needs at least one vowel.

• Approximants modify vowels around them.

• The symbols ə and ʌ are both Central-Mid vowels. The difference is that the ʌ is used in the stressed syllable.
  • Butter

Glossary

• Articulators: Speech organs involved in making a sound, such as the lips, teeth, and tongue.
• Voiced: A sound in which the vocal cords vibrate. Examples are /v/, and /ð/ as in These. Note that the use of articulators in these examples are exactly the same as in the voiceless examples below, but the vocal cords vibrate.
• Voiceless: A sound in which the vocal cords do not vibrate. Examples are /f/, and /θ/ as in teeth. Note that the use of articulators in these examples are exactly the same as in the voiced examples above, but the vocal cords do not vibrate.
• Manner of Articulation: How articulators are involved in making a sound make contact. In Standard American English, there are only seven.
• Places of Articulation: Where an obstruction occurs in the vocal tract between an active articulator (typically part of the tongue) and a stationary articulator (typically part of the roof of the mouth). In Standard American English, there are only eight.

Classifications

Consonants:

The phonemes /r/ and /ɹ/ are interchangeable; /ʍ/ is present only in varieties that have not undergone the wine-whine merger.

• Manner of Articulation:
  • Stops: A consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the vocal tract. The sound is produced at, and cannot be made after, the initial expulsion of air.
  • Fricatives: Sounds produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. Examples of these are /f/ (produced by joining the teeth and lip) and /θ/ (produced by joining the teeth and tongue).
  • Affricates: Consonants that begin as stops but release as a fricative.
  • Nasals: A sound produced in the nose, where the oral cavity acts as a resonance chamber for the sound but the air does not escape through the mouth.
  • Approximants: Speech sounds in which the articulators approach each other but not narrowly enough to create turbulent airflow.
  • Glides (Semivowels): A sound that is phonetically equivalent to a vowel sound but functions as the syllable boundary.

• Places of Articulation:
  • Bilabial: A consonant articulated with both lips.
  • Labio dental: A consonant articulated with the lower lip and the upper teeth.
  • Inter dental: A consonant produced by placing the blade of the tongue against the upper incisors.
  • Alveolar: A consonant articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge.
  • Alveo-palatal: A consonant articulated with the blade of the tongue behind the alveolar ridge, and the body of the tongue raised toward the palate.
  • Palatal: A consonant articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the middle part of the roof of the mouth.
  • Velar: A consonant articulated with the back part of the tongue against the back part of the roof of the mouth.
  • Glottal: A consonant articulated with the glottis.

Vowels:

Note that /a/ and /o/ as they appear in this image correlate to /ɑ/ and /ɒ/, respectively.

• Classifications:
  • High, Mid, and Low: The vertical position of the tongue relative to either the roof of the mouth.
  • Front, Central, and Back: The position of the tongue during the articulation of a vowel relative to the back of the mouth.
  • Rounded and Unrounded: Whether or not the lips are rounded.