International Phonetic Alphabet -Vowels-
Vowel
A speech sound made with your mouth open and your tongue in the middle of your mouth not touching your teeth, lips, etc.
Diphthong
Two vowel sounds joined in one syllable to form one speech sound.
R-colored vowel
Vocalic r refers to the phenomenon of a rhotic segment such as [r] or [ɹ] occurring as thesyllable nucleus.
Vowels, Diphthongs & R-colored vowels
ɑː balm, baht, father, bra
ɑr(ɑːr.) bard, part, barn, snarl, star
ɒ bot, pod, John, doll
(/ɒ/ is not distinguished from /ɑː/ in dialects with the father-bother merger such as Genal American.)
ɒr moral, forage
æ bat, pad, shall, ban
ær barrow, marry
aɪ bite, ride, file, fine, pie
aɪər fire
Note that many speakers distinguish this rhotic vowel from non-rhotic vowels followed by an R.
( hire /ˈhaɪər/ from higher /ˈhaɪ.ər/)
aʊ bout, loud, foul, down, how
aʊər hour
Note that many speakers distinguish this rhotic vowel from non-rhotic vowels followed by an R.
(our /ˈaʊər/ from plougher /ˈplaʊ.ər/)
ɛ bet, bed, fell, men
ɛr error, merry
eɪ bait, made, fail, vein, pay
ɛər(eɪr.) scared, scarce, cairn, there, Mary
ɪ bit, lid, fill, bin
ɪr mirror, Sirius
iː beat, seed, feel, mean, sea
ɪər(iːr.) beard, fierce, nearer, serious
ɔː bought, Maud, dawn, fall, straw
/ɔː/ is not distinguished from /ɑː/ (except before /r/) in dialects with the cot-caught merger such as some varieties of General American.
ɔr(ɔːr.) born, for, aural
ɔɪ exploit, void, foil, coin, boy
ɔɪər loir, coir
Note that many speakers distinguish this rhotic vowel from non-rhotic vowels followed by an R.
(loir /ˈlɔɪər/ from employer /ɪmˈplɔɪ.ər/)
oʊ boat, code, foal, bone, go
Commonly transcribed /əʊ/ or /oː/.
ɔər(oʊr.) boar , four, more, oral
(/ɔər/ is not distinguished from /ɔr/ in dialects with the horse-hoarse merger, which include most dialects of modern English.)
ʊ foot, good, full, woman
ʊr courier
uː boot, food, fool, soon, chew
ʊər(uːr.) boor, moor, tourist
(/ʊər/ is not distinguished from /ɔr/ in dialects with the pour-poor merger, including many younger speakers.)
juː cued, cute, mule, tune, queue
In dialects with yod-dropping, /juː/ is pronounced the same as /uː/ after coronal consonants (/t/, /d/, /s/, /z/, /n/, /θ/, and /l/) in the same syllable, so that dew /djuː/ is pronounced the same as do /duː/. In dialects withyod-coalescence, /tj/, /dj/, /sj/ and /zj/ are pronounced /tʃ/, /dʒ/, /ʃ/ and /ʒ/, so that the first syllable in Tuesday is pronounced the same as choose.
jʊər cure
ʌ butt, mud, dull, gun
(This phoneme is not used in the northern half of England and some bordering parts of Wales. These words would take the ʊ vowel: there is no foot-strut split.)
ʌr borough, hurry
ɜr(ɝː) bird, hurt, curl, burn, furry
※ ɝ Stressed
Reduced vowel (schwa)
An unstressed mid-central vowel (as the usual sound of the first and last vowels of the English word America)
Reduced vowels (schwas)
ə Rosa’s, a mission
ər(ɚ) perform, mercer
※ ɚ Unstressed
ən button
əm rhythm
əl bottle
ɨ, ɪ roses, emission, is
・Pronounced [ə] in Australian and many US dialects, and [ɪ] in Received Pronunciation. Many speakers freely alternate between a reduced [ɪ̈] and a reduced [ə]. Many phoneticians (vd. Olive & Greenwood 1993:322) and the OED uses the pseudo-IPA symbol ɪ , and Merriam–Webster uses ə̇.
ɵ kilogram, omission
・Pronounced [ə] in many dialects, and [ɵw] or [əw] before another vowel, as in cooperate. Sometimes pronounced as a full /oʊ/, especially in careful speech. (Bolinger 1989) Usually transcribed as /ə(ʊ)/ (or similar ways of showing variation between /əʊ/ and /ə/) in British dictionaries.
ʊ(jʊ) beautiful, curriculum
・Pronounced [ʊ] in many dialects, [ə] in others. Many speakers freely alternate between a reduced [ʊ̈] and a reduced [ə]. The OED uses the pseudo-IPA symbol ʊ
i happy, serious
・Pronounced /iː/ in dialects with the happy tensing, /ɪ/ in other dialects. British convention used to transcribe it with /ɪ/, but the OED and other influential dictionaries recently converted to /i/.
Syllabification
Syllabification is the separation of a word into syllables, whether spoken or written.
It is also used to describe the process of something like a consonant turning into a syllable.For example, in North Central American English, "can" is normally pronounced as /kən/, or even with the vowel reduced to a syllabification of the /n/ itself.
. a
shellfish /ˈʃɛl.fɪʃ/, selfish /ˈsɛlf.ɨʃ/
nitrate /ˈnaɪ.treɪt/, night-rate /ˈnaɪt.reɪt/
hire /ˈhaɪər/, higher /ˈhaɪ.ər/
moai /ˈmoʊ.aɪ/
※ Syllables are indicated sparingly, where necessary to avoid confusion.