Skip to main content
English Language & Usage

Questions tagged [phonetics]

Ask Question

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.

39 questions with no upvoted or accepted answers
Newest Active Bountied Unanswered
Filter by
Sorted by
Tagged with
6 votes
0 answers
289 views

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 ...
musialmi's user avatar
  • 187
4 votes
0 answers
188 views

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 ...
z_meister's user avatar
  • 61
4 votes
0 answers
192 views

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 ...
alphabet's user avatar
  • 20.9k
3 votes
0 answers
122 views

I am wondering if the same phenomenon occurs in English, as described here in Spanish: https://spanish.stackexchange.com/q/37916/11155. Q: Why did the Latin coemeterium change into cementerio* in ...
Honza Zidek's user avatar
  • 4,093
3 votes
0 answers
98 views

I ask because post-alveolar r could not be used after dental θ. My intuition tells me that it should be alveolar r, but I have not found on the Internet any confirmation for it.
vitaly.v.ch's user avatar
  • 139
3 votes
0 answers
274 views

At some point in the Archer series, Lana starts saying very emphatic Yup!s. I was recently wondering about triphthongs and whether they occur in English, and found the Wikipedia entry had only a few ...
Claudiu's user avatar
  • 11.1k
2 votes
0 answers
74 views

Written numbers can be read aloud in multiple different ways: Nominal numbers can be read by pronouncing each digit individually: "My phone number is 123456" read as "one, two, three......
Tenders McChiken's user avatar
  • 139
2 votes
0 answers
79 views

Do you know any website where I could search a word by a sound from it's IPA transcription ( for instance like ə and get awesome, jonathan etc.). Thank you
Alex S's user avatar
  • 21
2 votes
0 answers
515 views

Cut to the chase pals Could anybody confirm the southern pronunciation of "already" as something like oddy ? if so, What's its phonetic transcription? is there any eye spelling for it? I've ...
GJC's user avatar
  • 4,151
2 votes
2 answers
105 views

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 ...
Tran Khanh's user avatar
  • 487
1 vote
0 answers
70 views

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 "...
z_meister's user avatar
  • 61
1 vote
0 answers
166 views

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 ...
Danylo Mysak's user avatar
  • 151
1 vote
0 answers
136 views

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 ...
Plazma's user avatar
  • 11
1 vote
0 answers
124 views

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 ...
iopq's user avatar
  • 131
1 vote
0 answers
254 views

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 ...
Brack Bruno's user avatar
  • 91
1 vote
0 answers
83 views

I find that it is not uncommon for the word extra to be pronounced without the letter 'x' being enunciated such that it sounds like /ˈɛkʃᵗrə/ instead of /ˈɛkstrə/. That is the /s/ sound is substituted ...
peanutjelly's user avatar
  • 326
1 vote
0 answers
179 views

According to the Wikipedia page, GOAT in GenAm is realized as a slightly fronted [ö̞ʊ]. I have also heard some GenAm(-like) speakers produce that variant, though others produced a completely back ...
JMRD's user avatar
  • 19
1 vote
0 answers
60 views

This post Phoneticised alphabet letters refers to "initialisms," a term that describes a word that has been formed by phoneticizing a set of initials that is in common usage, such as "emcee" or "...
Mike Slass's user avatar
  • 11
1 vote
0 answers
50 views

I've noticed lately the flapped realization of /l/ in AmE, as in the sentence "It's solo" from the song Solo (Clean Bandit feat. Demi Lovato). What are the causes behind this pronunciation?
GJC's user avatar
  • 4,151
1 vote
0 answers
117 views

I'm looking for a tool for write the sound of the word (phonetic) and have all the words that have that sound. It's very usefull when people don't use the good sounds or to know what a native speaker ...
Frédéric Roy's user avatar
  • 11
1 vote
0 answers
122 views

I noticed that in New Zealand most people pronounce "o" at the end of "no" or "so" in a rather rolled manner - something closer to [our] instead of simple [ou]. For example, lady in this video does ...
Sergey's user avatar
  • 74
1 vote
0 answers
161 views

I would like to know if there is preexisting metalanguage or a term to describe the following types of abbreviations often present in textese or SMS language: see → c, you → u, are → r, your → ur, ...
Cesco's user avatar
  • 80
1 vote
0 answers
3k views

Forgive me if the title is unclear. I am trying to understand how to write two questions, but with the latter question sounding like a statement. Examples: a) Should I go with option A, or option ...
Othya's user avatar
  • 1,308
1 vote
0 answers
667 views

I like tongue twisters. Five fine vine weevils (plays with W, F and V) Six sick stick insects (plays with S, ST, KT, K and T) Gran crams clams into clean clam cans (plays with R and L and also ...
Dan's user avatar
  • 18.1k
1 vote
1 answer
427 views

I know that /ɚ/ is longest when it occurs at the end of a word, since it is occurring at the end of an open syllable, as in < rapture> [ræp̚tʃɚː]. What about when it occurs syllable finally in the ...
midwestinsomniac's user avatar
  • 11
0 votes
0 answers
125 views

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 ...
GJC's user avatar
  • 4,151
0 votes
0 answers
106 views

I am looking for similarity metrics based on IPA symbols in English. In other words, given two phonemes A and B (given in IPA format), I want to know how similar they are based on some metric, M. For ...
postnubilaphoebus's user avatar
  • 101
0 votes
0 answers
121 views

Before /r/, /ɪ/ merged with either /ʊ/ or /ɛ/, depending on context. After labials (plus clusters of labials and /l/) and alveolar stops (like in bird and dirt), the result was /ʊ/ (shown, among other ...
JMRD's user avatar
  • 19
0 votes
0 answers
55 views

The cambridge dictionary phonetics use phonetic symbol /i/ in addition to /I/ and /i:/ I assume they use the DJ phonetic transcription. The other source I read says that /i/ is the old spelling for /I/...
jxhyc's user avatar
  • 391
0 votes
0 answers
66 views

Below you see a clip from the movie "Clockwork Orange". Starting from 2:00 we hear how an officer speaks: he pronounced sound 'r' in an unusual way: vary close to russian sound 'р' ( e.g. 'rings' ). ...
Constantin Werner's user avatar
  • 143
0 votes
0 answers
155 views

I understand that the SQUARE vowel is now often realized as the long monophthong /ɛː/ instead of the traditional diphthong /eə/ in contemporary RP. Do /e/ from the DRESS vowel and /ɛː/ from the modern ...
AlexW36's user avatar
  • 41
0 votes
0 answers
102 views

Here is a personally inspired question, but I hope it finds broader relevance. Without clear specific roots, what phonetically indicates that a word is spelled with a kn rather than an n? Recently a ...
Unrelated's user avatar
  • 4,949
0 votes
0 answers
333 views

I heard the question "Who is it?" in a movie. [Person A] knocked on a door. [Person B] came to open the door, but before that he asks "Who is it?" This three syllables question can be pronounced ...
Zoltan King's user avatar
  • 613
0 votes
0 answers
879 views

I'm working on a libretto for a vocal composition which makes use of vowel formants. It's important that all of the singers can produce exactly the same vowel sound, so I'm using IPA symbols. I'm ...
Lucas W's user avatar
  • 11
0 votes
1 answer
156 views

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 ...
Zyx's user avatar
  • 19
0 votes
1 answer
105 views

I have observed some differences between Americans and British people when pronouncing /z/ in almost any word. But I don't know exactly what is the difference, I would describe it as Ame /z/ being ...
Damaru's user avatar
  • 59
-1 votes
2 answers
7k views

For each of the vowel letters of American English, what is the most commonly used sound of each of them. That is, what is the most commonly used sound that represents the letter "a", the most ...
F. Carman's user avatar
  • 1
-1 votes
2 answers
342 views

Could any English speaker recommend me the best spelling for an 'invented' word that would be pronounced something like /ˈlɛvɪ/. As I'm no expert in phonetic symbols, those phonetic symbols are just ...
Thomas's user avatar
  • 1
-2 votes
1 answer
235 views

In the UK, some of the debates in the Houses of Parliament are televised. On 18th December 2018, Jeremy Corbyn was filmed muttering something—which was interpreted by a Twitter user as "stupid ...
Araucaria - Him's user avatar
  • 50.2k