Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
The pronunciation of the vowel of the prefix di-in words such as dichotomy, digest (verb), dilate, dilemma, dilute, diluvial, dimension, direct, dissect, disyllable, divagate, diverge, diverse, divert, divest, and divulge as well as their derivational forms vary between / aɪ / and / ɪ / or / ə / in both British and American English.
British and other Commonwealth English use the ending -logue while American English commonly uses the ending -log for words like analog (ue), catalog (ue), dialog (ue), homolog (ue), etc., etymologically derived from Greek -λόγος -logos ("one who speaks (in a certain manner)").
English phonology is the system of speech sounds used in spoken English. Like many other languages, English has wide variation in pronunciation, both historically and from dialect to dialect. In general, however, the regional dialects of English share a largely similar (but not identical) phonological system.
In a small number of words, these phonemes are exactly reversed in the two dialects, such as banana, khaki, and Pakistan. RP has three open back vowels, where GA has only two or even one. GA speakers use /ɑ/ for both the RP /ɒ/ ( spot) and /ɑː/ ( spa ): the father–bother merger . Nearly half of American speakers additionally use the same ...
The pronunciation of certain words shows a British influence. For instance, shone is /ʃɒn/ ; been is often /biːn/ ; lieutenant is /lɛfˈtɛnənt/ ; process can be /ˈproʊsɛs/ ; etc. Words like drama , pajamas/pyjamas , pasta tend to have /æ/ rather than /ɑ/ ~ /ɒ/ .
For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and , see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters. Throughout Wikipedia, the pronunciation of words is indicated using the International Phonetic Alphabet ( IPA ). The following tables list the IPA symbols used for English words and pronunciations.
The Great Vowel Shift was a series of changes in the pronunciation of the English language that took place primarily between 1400 and 1700, beginning in southern England and today having influenced effectively all dialects of English. Through this vowel shift, the pronunciation of all Middle English long vowels were changed.
Pronunciation respelling systems for English have been developed primarily for use in dictionaries. They are used there because it is not possible to predict with certainty the sound of a written English word from its spelling or the spelling of a spoken English word from its sound. So readers looking up an unfamiliar word in a dictionary may ...