The pronunciations
A foneme is a small group of similar sounds that we think of as the same “sound”. Rather than use the International Phonetic Alphabet or some similar complex system, this site uses the following simple way of denoting spellings and foneme sounds.
- Werds used as examples (such as fox) are written in italics.
- Spelling is represented by capital letters. So, fox has an F in it and not a PH.
- fonemes are written within slashes, with a space between syllables. So F makes the /f/ sound generally, and PH makes the /f/ sound in graph.
- Elsewhere, it is useful to refer to any consonant or any vowel; these are represented by lowercase “c” and “v”. So “Acc” is the letter A followed by any two consonants. “Ecv” is the letter E followed by any consonant, then any vowel.
- All pronunciations are written as if spoken clearly in an isolated context. So the pronunciation of latter is /la t.r/, even tho most Americans would pronounce it /la d.r/ in casual speech. Likewise, I give more credit to unstressed vowels than most do; just because a vowel is unstressed doesn’t mean that it is a schwa.
Phonemes — /foh neemz/
/a/ = A in apple
/ah/ = A in blah and far
/ay/ = A in pay
/au/ = AU in caught and A in ball and war (for menny Americans, /aur/ sounds just like /ohr/)
/b/ = B in bill
/ch/ = CH in church
/d/ = D in mad
/e/ = E in bet
/ee/ = EE in feet
/.l/ = L in fiddle (the syllabic L)
/f/ = F in fit
/g/ = G in go
/h/ = H in him
/i/ = I in fit
/iy/ = I in site and Y in fly
/j/ = J in jump and G in gem
/k/ = K in kiss and C in cat
/l/ = L in lamp
/m/ = M in milk
/n/ = N in no
/o/ = O in hot (slightly different from /ah/ for Brits; generally the same for Americans)
/oh/ = O in hope and for
/oo/ = OO in loop and O in prove
/ou/ = OU in about and OW in cow
/oy/ = OY in toy and OI in oil
/p/ = P in pig
/r/ = R in run, very, and here (different for those who drop their Rs)
/s/ = S in sit and C in face
/sh/ = SH in ship and TI in motion
/t/ = T in tap and latter
/th/ = TH in thin and this (slightly different sounds, but they never differentiate two words)
/u/ = U in dud
/./ = the dull vowel called “schwa”: A in about
/.r/ = UR in hurry and ER in better (the syllabic R)
/uu/ = U in put and OO in wood
/iu/ = U in cube and EW in few
/v/ = V in vest
/w/ = W in warp
/hw/ = WH in whip (slightly different from /w/ for Brits; for Americans it’s generally the same)
/y/ = Y in yell
/z/ = Z in zebra
/zh/ = S in lesion and G in mirage
Examples — /eg zam p.lz/
the = /thee/ (or /th./, before words that start with a consonant: the apple vs the dog)
fiddle = /fi d.l/
rough = /ruf/
flout = /flout/
blood = /blud/
fruit = /froot/
psychology = /siy kol o jee/
physical = /fiz i k.l/
dead = /ded/
rustle = /rus .l/
few = /fiu/
flew = /floo/
bought = /baut/
war = /waur/ (for menny Americans, this sounds just like /wor/)
diaphragm = /diy . fram/
schedule = /ske jiu .l/ (US), /she jiul/ (UK)
zebra = /zee br./ (US), /zeb r./ (UK)
leisure = /lee zh.r/ (US), /le zh.r/ (UK)
