Questions tagged [phonetics]
Phonetics (pronounced /fəˈnɛtɪks/, from the Greek: φωνή, phōnē, 'sound, voice') is a branch of linguistics that comprises the study of the sounds of human speech, or—in the case of sign languages—the equivalent aspects of sign.
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'Does that': devoicing [tsaet]
Here are two examples thereof
Does that feel OK, comfortable?
min 09:02:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdLB3udjOR0&feature=youtu.be&t=530
Does that sound good?
min 1:02 https://youtu.be/...
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Is the /əʊ/ diphthong in “won’t” and “don’t” elided in SSBE/GB speech?
I'm curious about a pronunciation feature I’ve noticed in British English.
Don't you think that the correct pronunciation of words in SSBE/GB—but not so much in RP—such as "won't" or "...
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Is “-ing” after “k” sometimes pronounced like “-eeng”?
I've noticed that native English speakers sometimes pronounce -ing after a "k" more like -eeng.
For instance, "thinking" may sound more like [ˈθɪŋkiŋ] than [ˈθɪŋkɪŋ].
Is this a ...
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'Coffee': American English pronunciation
According to the Longman Pronunciation Dict., in American English:
57% /ɔː/
6% /ɑː/
37% no distinction.
What does "no distinction made" exactly mean?
Free variation? If so, interspeaker ...
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How can native speakers distinguish between lenis and fortis finals such as /tʃ/ and /dʒ/ as in /ɛtʃ/ and /ɛdʒ/?
I find it very challenging to tell apart a lenis and a fortis finals, for example /tʃ/ and /dʒ/ as in /ɛtʃ/ and /ɛdʒ/.
I'm not sure about native speakers. Is it easy to them to distinguish between for ...
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Deletion of interconsonantal schwa in words with phonetic rhotic reduction
Waterway /ˈwɔːt(ə)weɪ/
00:07:40 https://youtu.be/G4uHFEBHAw4?si=PhUGNtF_ysBCryur&t=454
According to the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, this should not be possible, unlike say fathomless /ˈfæð(...
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Does clipping (also rhythmic) still work for flap /t/ in modern General American accent?
In Longman Pronunciation Dictionary (LPD), Wells states that the vowel immediately preceding the flap /t/ experiences clipping. However, many recent speeches on Youglish shows that this doesn't seem ...
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Pronunciation of English 'hiccup': Which syllables takes [k]?
At the time of writing, Internet sources in general, dictionaries in particular, give differing answers to my question. For example, Cambridge dictionaries specify [ˈhɪk.ʌp], whereas Merriam-Webster ...
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Glottal stop after the obstruents
This is my first post here, so if I make any mistakes, please correct me.
At the beginning, I must specify that I mean the Standard Southern British English/General British/modern RP.
I'd like to ask ...
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Final stem -s pronounced /z/ in Latinism (glans, ens, lens)
How come the final sibilant became voiced /z/ in words such as glans (plural glandes /ˈɡlændiːz/), ens (plural entia /ˈEntiə/), or lens (plural lenses)?
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Wronger (comparative): /ˈrɔːŋər/
According to the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, wronger (comparative) is pronounced as /ˈrɔːŋər/, without restoring the /g/, unlike for example younger /ˈjʌŋɡər/, longest /ˈlɒŋɡəst)/, etc.
Are ...
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Whispered voiced sibilant fricatives / z ʒ / (e.g., cee vs zee)
Are whispered voiced sibilant fricatives devoiced to the point of being indistinguishable from their (whispered) voiceless counterparts, /s ʃ/ ?
For example, Asher = azure, mesher = measure, buses = ...
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How should phonetic symbol "tilted t" be pronounced?
The phonetic symbols for the first and second words' "t" are different from the "t" in the third word. What is the difference? How should the tilted "t" be pronounced?
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I don't understand what this woman said in radio station [closed]
I have some difficult to understand phonetic in English, i speak a bad English (but tourists can understand it), I can write (maybe with some errors) in English, but it's rare for me to understand ...
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Is "parker" ([ˈpʰɑ̈˞kɚ]) a common pronunciation of "parkour" in American English?
I've recently had a small argument with a coworker about the pronunciation of parkour. Neither of us is a native speaker. She seems to believe "parker" (in narrow IPA, [ˈpʰɑ̈˞kɚ]) is the &...
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Pronunciation of initialisms from early-stressed compounds
Orange juice is early-stressed, but initialisms are usually late-stressed (e.g., CIA /ˌsiaɪˈeɪ/), so how is OJ pronounced?
Compare knockout /ˈnɒk aʊt/ and KO /ˌkeɪ ˈəʊ/
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'wins' versus 'winds' versus 'wince' verus "wintce" Intrusive /t/ before devoicing in final position
According to J. Higgins, the wins/wince contrast is not so much between /z - s/ as between a fully voiced vs partially devoiced /ɪn/.
I wonder if, once the citation form wins shows devoicing of the /z/...
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Where does the letter "u" in modern "build" and "guild" come from?
Old English (OE), Old Norse (ON), and Middle English (ME) do not include a 'u' in these words. In guild and build, the 'u' is silent, and the 'i' is pronounced short.
Just looking at the pronunciation ...
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Can American ‘bought’ sometimes sound like ‘bop’?
In American English, I’ve noticed that the word bought sometimes sounds like bop when followed by a word starting with a bilabial consonant, such as [p], [b], or [m].
For example, She bought me a car ...
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FLAP T has two versions?
everyone, my question is about the flap T. I'm not a native American English speaker, but I hear the difference between flap t in pretty (some natives pronounce it like the Spanish R, some like a soft ...
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American 'd' sound is sometimes retroflex? [duplicate]
In fast-paced American English speech, I've observed that the 'd' sound in certain words containing -rd- consonant clusters such as 'hurdle' and 'border' seems to be pronounced as a voiced retroflex ...
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Is there a common origin of the German and English "ch" and does English know the pronunciation of "ch" like in German "machen"
In German "ch" is pronounced in at least three different ways depending on context. It could be pronounced more like a K like in "Charakter" and in the two other forms which I ...
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Why is 'women' sometimes pronounced as 'woman'?
Some American speakers pronounce both 'woman' and 'women' as 'woman' (ˈwʊm.ən). Is this a recent pronunciation change? Where, why, and when did it originate?
I specified the American accent because ...
Lina
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T turning into what sounds like a trill in Irish English?
I have been recently watching a channel run by an Irish guy and he has many interesting speech quirks (like the fact he still pronounces "wh-" like <hw>). But the thing that puzzles me ...
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Who distinguishes roll from role?
I pronounce roll with the same vowel as the word all.
roll - [ɹɔɫ]
all - [ɔɫ]
But for role, I will often actually use the vowel in bowl
role - [ɹɔuɫ]
bowl - [bɔuɫ]
However, when I encountered someone ...
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Assimilation of /ʃ/ to [ɕ] before bunched [ɹ̈]
I noticed an odd phonetic phenomenon in my own speech that I initially assumed was widespread; then I asked @tchrist about it and he seemed to think it was highly unusual, which made me curious. IANAP ...
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What's the difference between ɔ & ɒ? [duplicate]
What is the difference between ɔ and ɒ? Would bɔl and bɒl both be "ball"? (I'm talking about in standard American English.)
I saw this similar question but it hasn't had any answers for ...
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Is the 't' silent in the word "fasten"? Or is it the 'e'? [closed]
There are mixed answers online. Some say 't' is silent. Others say 'e' is silent.
Dictionaries don't seem to give a consistent pronunciation for this word, so it's hard know what is correct.
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Do terms that end with 'mate' need to be clarified where people say 'mate'?
Do terms that end with 'mate' need to be clarified where people say 'mate'?
Like while playing chess, if someone says "checkmate" in somewhere like England or Australia, is it assumed they ...
user486316
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Merriam Webster vs Oxford Languages Dictionary phonetic transcriptions of 'man'
I've noticed that in MW words "now" and "man" have the same middle sound (ˈnau̇ vs ˈman), but in Oxford dictionary these two words have two different sounds (naʊ vs mæn). So which ...
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Do "radiant" and "brilliant" rhyme for the purposes of poetry? Wiktionary says their transcriptions are /ˈɹeɪ.di.ənt/ and /ˈbɹɪljənt/
Is this a dialectal/idiolectal thing, where some merge /i/ and /j/, and others don't? I'm ESL and always thought they're merged until now.
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Acoustic description of the realization [ɛə] of the North American raised /æ/
The Wikipedia article on /æ/ raising uses the transcription [ɛə] for a realization of the North American raised /æ/, as in the words ram and ran. I'm having trouble interpreting this transcription, ...
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Is there dialectal variation in the weak form of "on"?
This question is related, but not quite identical, to a previous one and to another similar one.
In a recent video, phonetician Geoff Lindsey claimed that the words "off" and "on" ...
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How does one show in IPA that the first sound in "get" and "got" is different?
So one has that "get" /ɡɛt/ and "got" /ɡɒt/ are a minimal pair, for it's only the vocalic phoneme which distinguishes them. However, the first sound is not pronounced/articulated ...
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Why can "spider" and "cider" undergo Canadian raising in American English?
If I understand it correctly: Canadian raising is a phenomenon that, in many AmE speakers, alters the pronunciation of /aɪ/ before voiceless consonants. (The Canadians also have it in /aʊ/.) This ...
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*an unitary operator* or *a unitary operator*
This is related to the question that I asked in English language and usage community: about whether there is a dialectal difference among the native English speakers in pronouncing the u of words like ...
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Flapped r after th in English?
I have heard a few English speakers — native — say the word “three” with what sounds like a flapped r. This might include other words that begin with “thr”, but I can’t remember. It’s just been ...
TheAquilineNose
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*an unitary operator* or *a unitary operator* [duplicate]
The rule that I usually use in such cases is that *an* precedes a vowel sound, while *a* is used before a consonant sound. I understand sound as different from letter - conventionally u would be ...
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Gemination of plosives in final positions following a consonant
Whenever a plosive like p,t,k follows a consonant in the final position, it is always released or else it can't be heard at all. For example: lamp, act, thank, etc. Yet in the word lamppost, the first ...
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How phonetically distinct in terms of quality (tongue gesture) are /ɜː/ and /ə/ in Received Pronunciation?
The English Wikipedia article on Received Pronunciation uses two particular vowel charts adapted from two sources, an article by Peter Roach titled British English: Received Pronunciation published in ...
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In IPA transcription, what is the difference between “ɪ”, "i", “i:”?
What is the difference between “ɪ”, "i", “i:”?
Are these two same “ɪ”, "i" and won't be wrong if interchanged while transcripting?
For example: Is it correct to write either /ʃɪp/ ...
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How are /ɪ/ and /ʌ/ realised in the Nottingham (East Midlands) accent?
I've got a sample of a few words pronounced by a Nottingham accent representative: https://youtu.be/2fCSeDEZeVU
My ear is far from perfect and this is why I'd like to ask for your help in this ...
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Is this intrusive r? "Arya Stark" pronounced as "Aryer Stark"
In Game of Thrones, season 4, ep.8 around 37:50, The Hound says:
[...]and his travelling companion Arya Stark.
He pronounces it like "Aryer Stark". It seems to be a similar concept as an ...
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Cot caught merger - /ɔɪ/ or /ɑɪ/ in boy, choice...?
Here is the pronunciation guide from Oxford American English dictionary:
Some speakers only use the sound /ɔ/ when it is followed by /r/ (as in horse /hɔrs/) and use /ɑ/ in all other words that are ...
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Do any speakers have contrastive vowel qualities for the NURSE and lettER sets?
John Wells’ lexical sets are usually useful classifications for determining differences in the realizations of vowels across English accents. Two of the sets are the NURSE set, referring to a stressed ...
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L-epenthesis in “both” and other words
I’m a younger speaker from Chicago with some version of a General American accent. I’ve noticed that a small number of words seem to have a nonstandard pronunciation with an inserted lateral sound, ...
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Rounding of the START and PALM vowels
I’m a younger speaker from Chicago with a relatively standard General American accent. I have noticed that the vowels in the words “start” and “palm” sound like they have some lip rounding in my ...
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Pronunciation of “have to” as “haf to”
I’m a young speaker from Chicago. A colloquial phrase I hear and say often is “I have to _,” indicating an obligation to do something. However, I’ve noticed that “have” is pronounced in a nonstandard ...
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When does n sounds like m? [duplicate]
I hear that native (american, but maybe others do too) English speakers sometimes change the sound /n/ for a /m/ in between words like "Conversation" and "Grandpa". Is there a rule ...
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How to explain to a five year old why certain words are spelled this way [closed]
My five-year-old is learning phonics. I give him spelling test time to time. I asked him to spell "Hair" and he spelled it as "Her" & then I told him this is incorrect spelling....
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