Scottish English loch, German Bach, Russian хороший [xɐˈroʂɨj] "good", Spanish joven
X
k
English kick, skip
K
^The phoneme /hw/ is not distinguished from /w/ in the many dialects with the wine–whine merger, such as RP and most varieties of General American. For more information on this sound, see voiceless labialized velar approximant.
^The IPA value of the letter ⟨j⟩ may be counterintuitive to English speakers, but the spelling is found even in some common English words like hallelujah and fjord.
^/l/ in the syllable coda, as in the words all, cold, or bottle, is pronounced as [o], [u], [w] or a similar sound in many dialects through L-vocalization.
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^In most varieties of English, /r/ is pronounced as an approximant [ɹ]. Although the IPA symbol ⟨r⟩ represents the alveolar trill, ⟨r⟩ is widely used instead of ⟨ɹ⟩ in broad transcriptions of English.
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^A number of English words, such as genre and garage, may be pronounced with either /ʒ/or/dʒ/.
^In most dialects, /x/ can also be replaced by /k/ in most words, including loch. It is also replaced with /h/ in some words, particularly of Yiddish origin, such as Chanukah.
^ ab/ɒ̃,æ̃/ are only found in French loanwords and often replaced by another vowel and a nasal consonant: bon vivant/ˌbɒnviːˈvɒnt/, ensemble/ɒnˈsɒmbəl/, etc.[a]
^/ɜː/ is only found in loanwords and represents a situation where such an r-less vowel is used only in British or Southern Hemisphere accents, and therefore a transcription that includes it must always be prefaced with a label indicating the variety of English. It is to be used only when a reliable source shows that General American has a different vowel in the same position. If r-ful NURSE is used even in GA, even if spelled without ⟨r⟩, as in Goethe and hors d'oeuvre, use /ɜːr/. /ɜː/ is also not the same as ⟨œ⟩ seen in some American dictionaries. ⟨œ⟩ in those dictionaries is merely a notational convention and does not correspond to any vowel in any accent of English, so a transcription containing ⟨œ⟩ cannot be converted to one that uses this key.
^In dialects with the father–bother merger such as General American, /ɒ/ is not distinguished from /ɑː/.
^In North America, /æ/ is often pronounced like a diphthong [eə~ɛə] before nasal consonants and, in some particular regional dialects, other environments. See /æ/ raising.
^ abIn much of North America, /aɪ/or/aʊ/ may have a slightly different quality when it precedes a voiceless consonant, as in priceormouth, from that in ride/pieorloud/how, a phenomenon known as Canadian raising. Since this occurs in a predictable fashion, it is not distinguished in this transcription system.
^/ɛ/ is transcribed with ⟨e⟩ in many dictionaries. However, /eɪ/ is also sometimes transcribed with ⟨e⟩, especially in North American literature, so ⟨ɛ⟩ is chosen here.
^ abcd/ɪ/ and /oʊ/ may be strong or weak depending on context.[b] Whether an instance of unstressed /ɪ/ is strong or weak may not be clear in some circumstances.[c]
^ abWords like idea, real, theatre, and cruel may be pronounced with /ɪə/or/ʊə/ in non-rhotic accents such as Received Pronunciation, and some dictionaries transcribe them with /ɪə,ʊə/,[d] but since they are not pronounced with /r/ in rhotic accents, they should be transcribed with /iːə,uːə/, not with /ɪə,ʊə/, in this transcription system.
^/oʊ/ is often transcribed with ⟨əʊ⟩, particularly in British literature, based on its modern realization in Received Pronunciation. It is also transcribed with ⟨o⟩, particularly in North American literature.
^Some, particularly North American, dictionaries notate /ʌ/ with the same symbol as /ə/, which is found only in unstressed syllables, and distinguish it from /ə/ by marking the syllable as stressed. Also note that although ⟨ʌ⟩, the IPA symbol for the open-mid back vowel, is used, the typical modern pronunciation is rather close to the near-open central vowel[ɐ] in most dialects, including Received Pronunciation and General American.
^/ʌ/ is not used in the dialects of the northern half of England, some bordering parts of Wales, and some broad eastern Ireland accents. These words would take the /ʊ/ vowel: there is no foot–strut split.
^In accents with the weak vowel merger such as most Australian and American accents, /ɪ/ in unstressed positions is not distinguished from /ə/, making rabbit and abbot rhyme and Lenin and Lennon homophonous. Pairs like roses and Rosa's are kept distinct in American accents because of the difference in morphological structure,[e] but may be homophonous in Australian.[f] In these accents, unstressed /ɪl,ɪn,ɪm/ merge with /əl,ən,əm/, so that the second vowel in Latin may be lost and cabinet may be disyllabic (see the previous note).
^ ab/oʊ/ and /u/ in unstressed, prevocalic positions are transcribed as /əw/ by Merriam-Webster, but no other dictionary uniformly follows this practice.[g] Hence a difference between /əw/ in Merriam-Webster and /oʊ/or/u/ in another source is most likely one in notation, not in pronunciation, so /əw/ in such cases may be better replaced with /oʊ/or/u/ accordingly, to minimize confusion: /ˌsɪtʃəˈweɪʃən/ → /ˌsɪtʃuˈeɪʃən/, /ˈfɒləwər/ → /ˈfɒloʊər/.
^ ab⟨i⟩ represents variation between /iː/ and /ɪ/ in unstressed prevocalic or morpheme-final positions. It is realized with a quality closer to /iː/ in accents with happy tensing, such as Australian English, General American, and modern RP, and to /ɪ/ in others. ⟨u⟩ likewise represents variation between /uː/ and /ʊ/ in unstressed prevocalic positions.
^The sequence ⟨iə⟩ may be pronounced as two syllables, [i.ə]or[ɪ.ə], or as one, [jə]or[ɪə̯]. When pronounced as one syllable in a non-rhotic accent, it may be indistinguishable from, and identified as, the NEAR vowel (/ɪər/).[d] This transcription system uses ⟨iə⟩, not ⟨i.ə⟩, ⟨ɪə⟩, etc., to cover all these possibilities.
^The sequence ⟨uə⟩ may be pronounced as two syllables, [u.ə]or[ʊ.ə], or as one, [wə]or[ʊə̯]. When pronounced as one syllable in a non-rhotic accent, it may be indistinguishable from, and identified as, the CURE vowel (/ʊər/).[d] This transcription system uses ⟨uə⟩, not ⟨u.ə⟩, ⟨ʊə⟩, etc., to cover all these possibilities.
^Syllable divisions are not usually marked, but the IPA dot ⟨.⟩ may be used when it is wished to make explicit where a division between syllables is (or may be) made.
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