Class	Websters	GnuSpeech (Trillium)	IPA	IPA description	Example words (British pronunciation, unless noted)
_______________________________
Short vowels				Schwa (Lower mid central, unstressed) _________	above, banana, collide, abut
				Lower mid central (Pike) (See note 1) _________	hud, humdrum, abut
				Upper mid front unrounded _________	head, bet, bed, peck
				Semi-high front unrounded _________	hid, tip, banish, active
				Lower mid back rounded _________	hod, nod, bottom, slot
				Semi-high back rounded _________	hood, pull, pull, look
_______________________________
Medium vowel				Raised low front unrounded _________	had, mat, apple, scrap
_______________________________
Long vowels				High front unrounded _________	heed, beet, machine, even
				Mid central unrounded (not US rhotacised version) _________	herd, birt, word, fertile
				Low back unrounded (not US rhotacised version) _________	hard, rather, arctic, blah
				Lower mid back rounded (not US rhotacised version) _________	all, gnaw, caught, worn
_______________________________
Diphthongs				(See components) _________	hate, today, grey, maiden
				(See components) _________	hoed, boat, beau, crowed, open
				(See components) _________	now, loud, bed, out
				(See components) _________	boy, coin, ointment, noise
				(See components) _________	nine, sight, buy, ply
_______________________________
Glides and liquids				Voiced rounded labiovelar approximant _________	won, away, waiver, always
				Voiced palatal central approximant _________	year, yoyo, onion, aryan
				(Commonly used for several "r"sounds. Technically, for IPA, an inverted "r" should be used for the English frictionless continuant "r". _________	zero, rise, arrow, ground
				Voiced alveolar lateral approximant (See note 2) _________	let, alone, lily, pull
_______________________________
Unvoiced stops				Voiceless bilabial stop _________	pat, slipper, map, piper
				Voiceless alveolar or dental stop _________	tap, wet, letter, potato
				Voiceless velar stop _________	kill, lacky, tack, racoon, cognac
_______________________________
Voiced stops				Voiced bilabial stop _________	ebbd, banana, rebel, pub
				Voiced alveolar or dental stop _________	udder, dad, elder, drop
				Voiced velar stop _________	get, bigger, hag, egregious
_______________________________
Nasals				Voiced bilabial nasal _________	me, moon, lemon, dam
				Voiced alveolar or dental nasal _________	now, canal, enemy, train
				Voiced velar nasal _________	ring, angst, anger, ungulate
_______________________________
Unvoiced fricatives				Voiceless alveolar central fricative _________	sit, sister, whisper, juice
				Voiceless palato-alveolar central laminal fricative _________	shot, mission, quiche, action, fish
				Voiceless labio-dental central fricative _________	fright, phone, effort, rough, ruff
				Voiceless inter-dental central fricative _________	thin, anther, truth, geothermal
_______________________________
Voiced fricatives				Voiced alveolar central fricative _________	zip, zoom, azalea, rose
				Voiced palato-alveolar central laminal fricative _________	measure, corsage, beige, asia
				Voiced labio-dental fricative _________	vat, verb, over, avenge, rave
				Voiced apico-dental or inter-dental fricative _________	that, mother, clothed, then
_______________________________
Unvoiced affricate				Voiceless palato-alveolar affricate _________	chat, fetch, ratchet, church
_______________________________
Voiced affricate				Voiced palato-alveolar affricate _________	jot, page, judge, adjacent
_______________________________
Aspirate				Voiceless glottal central fricative (See note 3) _________	hat, house, behind, eck

Note 1: Same as schwa in many US dialects (return)
Note 2: English has "clear l" and "dark l" (or "velarised l"). Synthesisers may account for the difference by a rewrite rule since in English these sounds do not distinguish words. The "dark l" occurs in post-vocalic positions (loosely, following vowels, diphthongs and triphthongs). "Clear l" occurs elsewhere. (return)
Note 3: In English, "h" is usually at least partially voiced in intervocalic position. Although there is a distinct IPA symbol for this ("h" with a right hook on the tail), the effect may be taken care of by a rewrite rule, as in the previous note. (return)

The following illustrate some pitfalls between American and British English

(The underscore is used to separate individual phonetic elements)

Note: an "r" sound is usually inserted between words in British English if the word junction is between two vowel-like sounds, even when no "r" is apparently present. Since an "r" is usually represented by a schwa sound at the end of words, the "r" will reappear as an "r" if the next word begins with a vowel-like sound (not for glides/liquids though).

	American				British
Websters	GnuSpeech (Trillium)	IPA	Example words	Websters	GnuSpeech (Trillium)	IPA
-	-	-	when, whisper
-	-	-	herd, bird, word
-	-	-	cheer, hear	-	-	-
-	-	-	error, merry (The second syllable in "error" is schwa-r in American and schwa only in British)	-	-	-
--	--	--	care, bear	-	-	-
--	--	--	mary	--	--	--
-	-	-	poor
-	-	-	Lourdes, tour	-	-	-
-	-	-	cord, lord
-	-	-	porridge, foreign	-	-	-

Note concerning the GnuSpeech standard dictionary and spoken output: The pronunciation of all words in the GnuSpeech test-to-speech system assumes a rhotic accent: that is, an "r" appearing in the orthographic form before a consonant, or a place where a pause will occur when spoken, is pronounced, as in General American, and unlike the Educated Southern English (RP) accent from Britain. Another systematic characteristic of General American compared to the RP accent is the use of short (IPA) rather than long in words like "command" and "dance". In fact the Educated Southern English accent seems to be changing in that direction anyway. Otherwise the GnuSpeech dictionary broadly follows the RP accent as specified by the new Oxford English dictionary and as informed by native speakers. It is considered that this gives an acceptable, if slightly strange mid-Atlantic accent. Later versions should allow selection between more precisely defined, better approximated accents.

Syllables, stress and American versus British English

(The underscore is used to separate individual phonetic elements)

Note: A period indicates nominal syllable boundaries. A single quotation mark (') denotes that the following syllable is given primary stress. A double quotation mark (") indicates secondary stress. Monosyllabic words are generally given stress only if they are "content" words (that is to say, they are a noun, verb, adjective or adverb). Form words (the rest) with only one syllable are not given stress (though some particular utterances may demand contrastive stress such as: "We were on the way to the stadium, not from it"). Americans do not all speak the same way, nor do the British speak the same way. Even within a group of people who nominally have the same accent, there will often be individual variation. The topic of accent and dialect cannot be covered here, except to draw to the reader's attention that the precise choice of the sounds and stresses are among the factors that comprise an individual's accent. Below are represented a few words in a typical British and a typical American accent. This hardly begins to address the topics of rhythm and intonation which are also important, and (for English) closely tied in to stress and vowel quality choices. It also ignores the more subtle differences in vowel quality between vowels which are represented by the same broad transcription symbol, but are articulated somewhat differently between (say) General American and RP. Narrow transcription and phonetic/phonological training are necessary for real precision. Exactly how to represent and reproduce correct vowel quality can still cause debate and confusion!

Word	Accent	Websters	GnuSpeech (Trillium)	IPA
Polygon	British
	American
Polygonal	British
	American
About	British
	American
Fire	British
	American
Command	British
	American

Page last updated 01-11-04.