Summary: This form provides phonetic transcriptions of English
words in IPA, SAMPA, CMU, HTML, and LaTeX formats using the CMU
pronouncing dictionary.
This tool outputs the pronunciation of English words in several
formats for those learning the English language or studying phonetics.
The transcription tool is written in HTML with interpreted in-line Perl,
javascript, and a Perl-script backend called
ipa.
The Perl script,
ipa, is a command-line script
that searches a local copy of the
CMU pronouncing dictionary,
translating the output to IPA, SAMPA, CMU, HTML, or LaTeX format.
To display the IPA phonetic symbols correctly in a web browser,
the browser must be Unicode compliant and a Unicode font, such as
Lucida Sans Unicode,
must be installed.
English Phonetics
Consonants
The standard English consonant system is comprised of
17 obstruents (6 plosives, 2 affricates, and 9 fricatives)
and 7 sonorants (3 nasals, 2 liquids, and 2 semivowel glides).
With the exception of the fricative
h,
the obstruents are usually classified in pairs as "voiceless" and "voiced",
although the presence or absence of periodicity in the signal resulting
from laryngeal vibration is not a reliable feature distinguishing the
two classes.
They are better considered "fortis" (strong) and "lenis" (weak),
with duration of constriction and intensity of the noise component
signalling the distinction.
The six plosives are
p,
b,
t,
d,
k, and
g.
| p |
p |
pin |
pɪn |
pIn |
| b |
b |
bin |
bɪn |
bIn |
| t |
t |
tin |
tɪn |
tIn |
| d |
d |
din |
dɪn |
dIn |
| k |
k |
kin |
kɪn |
kIn |
| g |
g |
give |
gɪv |
gIv |
The "lenis" stops are most reliably voiced intervocalically; aspiration
duration following the release in the fortis stops varies considerably
with context, being practically absent following
s,
and varying with degree of stress syllable-initially.
The two phonemic affricates are
tʃ and
dʒ.
| tʃ |
tS |
chin |
tʃɪn |
tSIn |
| dʒ |
dZ |
gin |
dʒɪn |
dZIn |
As with the lenis stop consonants,
dZ
is most reliably voiced between vowels.
There are nine fricatives,
f ,
v ,
θ,
ð,
s ,
z ,
ʃ,
ʒ, and
h.
| f |
f |
fin |
fɪn |
fIn |
| v |
v |
vim |
vɪm |
vIm |
| θ |
T |
thin |
θɪn |
TIn |
| ð |
D |
this |
ðɪs |
DIs |
| s |
s |
sin |
sɪn |
sIn |
| z |
z |
zing |
zɪŋ |
zIN |
| ʃ |
S |
shin |
ʃɪn |
SIn |
| ʒ |
Z |
measure |
meʒə |
meZ@ |
| h |
h |
hit |
hɪt |
hIt |
Intervocalically the lenis fricatives are usually fully voiced
and they are often weakened to approximants (fricationless continuants)
in unstressed position.
The sonorants are three nasals,
m,
n, and
ŋ,
two liquids,
r and
l,
and two sonorant glides,
w and
j.
| m |
m |
mock |
mɒk |
mQk |
| n |
n |
knock |
nɒk |
nQk |
| ŋ |
N |
thing |
θɪŋ |
TIN |
| r |
r |
wrong |
rɒŋ |
rQN |
| l |
l |
long |
lɒŋ |
lQN |
| w |
w |
wasp |
wɒsp |
wQsp |
| j |
j |
yacht |
jɒt |
jQt |
Vowels
The English vowels fall into two classes, traditionally known as "short"
and "long", but owing to the contextual effect on duration of following
"fortis" and "lenis" consonants (traditional "long" vowels preceding
fortis consonants can be shorter than "short" vowels preceding lenis
consonants), they are better described as "checked" (not occurring in
a stressed syllable without a following consonant) and "free".
The checked vowels are
ɪ,
e,
æ,
ɒ,
ʌ, and
ʊ.
| ɪ |
I |
pit |
pɪt |
pIt |
| e |
e |
pet |
pet |
pet |
| æ |
{ |
pat |
pæt |
p{t |
| ɒ |
Q |
pot |
pɒt |
pQt |
| ʌ |
V |
cut |
kʌt |
kVt |
| ʊ |
U |
put |
pʊt |
pUt |
There is a short central vowel,
ə,
that is normally unstressed.
ə |
@ |
another |
əˈnʌðə |
@"nVD@ |
The free vowels comprise monophthongs and diphthongs, although no hard
and fast line can be drawn between these categories. They can be placed
in three groups according to their final quality:
iː,
eɪ,
aɪ, and
ɔɪ;
nɔɪz,
uː, and
əʊ;
aʊ,
ɜː,
ɑː,
ɔː,
ɪə,
eə, and
ʊə.
They are exemplified as follows:
iː |
i: |
ease |
iːz |
i:z |
eɪ |
eI |
raise |
reɪz |
reIz |
aɪ |
aI |
rise |
raɪz |
raIz |
ɔɪ |
OI |
noise |
nɔɪz |
nOIz |
uː |
u: |
lose |
luːz |
lu:z |
əʊ |
@U |
nose |
nəʊz |
n@Uz |
aʊ |
aU |
rouse |
raʊz |
raUz |
ɜː |
3: |
furs |
fɜːz |
f3:z |
ɑː |
A: |
stars |
stɑːz |
stA:z |
ɔː |
O: |
cause |
kɔːz |
kO:z |
ɪə |
I@ |
fears |
fɪəz |
fI@z |
eə |
e@ |
stairs |
steəz |
ste@z |
ʊə |
U@ |
cures |
kjʊəz |
kjU@z |
The vowels
iː and
uː
in unstressed syllables vary in their pronunciation between
a close
i/
u
and a more open
ɪ/
ʊ.
Therefore it is suggested that
i and
u
be used as indeterminacy symbols.
| i |
i |
happy |
ˈhæpi |
"h{pi |
| u |
u |
into |
ˈɪntu |
"Intu |
Notes
- Notational variants.
Differently from the notation set out above:
- It is possible to transcribe English long vowels without
using length marks, thus
i,
u,
ɜ,
ɑ, and
ɔ.
This is phonemically unambiguous, although it does remove the
option of restricting the symbols
i and
u
to the use just described, for the phonemically indeterminate weak vowels.
- The symbol
ɛ
is quite widely used in place of
e
for the vowel of "pet".
- In an older notation, now no longer in general use, paired short
and long vowels were transcribed using the same vowel symbol with and
without length marks, thus
i,
iː,
ɔ, and
ɔː.
- Additional symbols.
For some purposes and some varieties of English it is useful to give
explicit symbolization to the glottal stop and/or the voiceless
velar fricative:
| ʔ |
? |
network |
neʔwɜːk |
ne?w3:k |
| x |
x |
loch |
lɒx |
lQx |
Including IPA Symbols in Web Pages
You are recommended to reference each IPA symbol as a
"decimal numeric entity", using the code numbers listed below.
To do this you put ampersand, number sign, the Unicode number for the
symbol, and semicolon.
For example,
- to include the velar nasal symbol,
ŋ,
which has the Unicode number 331, write
ŋ.
- to transcribe the English word "thing",
θɪŋ,
write
θɪŋ.
- to specify Unicode, include
<meta content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
in the <head> section.
- use of the font by including in the body the tag
<font face="Lucida Sans Unicode">.
$Id: ipa,v 1.2 2005/02/13 19:19:10 forman Exp forman $
$Id: phonetics.html,v 1.3 2005/02/13 19:18:36 forman Exp forman $
