Nupedia Pronunciation Guide
British English Version
Edited by Ruth Ifcher
BRP Phonetics Assistance by Sebastian Hew

This Guide is based on British Received Pronunciation, 
the dialect spoken by the educated classes of 
Southern England.

Symbol	Examples

  a	cat, acid, academy, arrow, carry
  aa	father, barn, yard, far, ask, calm,
	dance, army, starry 
  aw	tall, awful, haul, appallimg, born, 
	force, pour, orbit, oral, boring
  ay	day, ache, prey, debase, alien
  b	but, amber, rubbber
  ch	chin, church, factual
  d	do, riddle, send
  & 	(schwa -- see notes below)
	about, item, common, circus
  e	bet, imbed, feather, cherish
  e&	hair, aerate, care, vary, careless, their
  ee	feel, seal, eager
  ei	buy, dice, eyes, guide, sky
  ei&	fire, choir, lair, pyre, ire, fiery, 
	dairy, wiry, desirous 
  f 	fond, effort, phase, rough
  g	go, egg, bigamy
  h	hat, rehearse, apprehend
  hw	when, awhile, whim
  i	pit , imperial, guild, women, prescribe,
 	consecrate, busy, city, lyric, syrup
  i&	fear, peer, pierce, mere, serious, ear
  j	juice, gentle, adjust, carriage
  k	key, coach, sick, local, ecology
  l	let, full, trivial
  m	mother, grammar, damage
  n	not, another, spent
  ng	song, rung, finger
  o	pot, octave, robot, off, orange, torrid 
  oh	toe, open, know, echo
  oo	boot, school, through
  ou	foul, out, howl, owl
  ou&	sour, power, hour, dowry
  oy	coin, oyster, boy, noisy
  oo	boot, school, through
  p	pen, apple, ramp
  r	road, current, spirit
 (r)	(post-vocalic 'r' as final sound --
        see notes below)
 	fa(r), me(r)e, fi(r)e, pie(r), pou(r),
	poo(r), sou(r), hai(r)    
  s	say, sauce, cost, massive
  sh	sheep, dish, mission, action
  t	tell, utter, latent
  th	thin, ethnic, cloth
  dh	this, neither, bathe 
  ts	tsetse fly, tsunami
  u	cut, utter, tuck, some, putt, strut,
	touch, ugly, furrow
  uu	took, put, wood, could
  uu&	tour, poor, p[y]ure, gourd, rural, jury
  uh	fur, merge, purge, urge, firm, word,
	early 
  v	very, envy, valve
  w	way, award, wail
  y	yet, yellow, beyond, n[y]ew, d[y]et, t[y]ne,
	ass[y]me
  z	buzz, zone, desire 
  zh	vision, pleasure, collage

Foreign Words:

  ae	German mädchen
  B	Spanish caverna	 Note: This is the same as
			 a Spanish 'b'.  It is 
			 somewhere between the 
			 British English 'b' 
			 and 'v'.
  gw	Spanish agua	 Note: This applies to 'gu' 
			 when it appears before an 
			 'a'.
  kh	German ich, Bach
	Scottish loch
	Spanish frijoles
  N	French vin,	 Note: The 'N' indicates
	blanc, bon, un	 nasalization of preceding
			 vowel.
  ny	French agneau 
	i.e., \aa-nyoh'\
  oe	German schön
	French feu 
  R	Non-British English 'r' (trills, flaps)
	French parler	(trill)
	French l'Arc de
	       Triomphe	(both trills)
	German sprechen	(trill)
	German Reich	(trill)
	Spanish arroz	(trill)
	Spanish Puerto 	(flap)
		Rico	(trill)
  ue	French rue
	German über
  ?	(glottal stop)
	German be[?]achten   Note: This is similar 
			to the sound between the 
			two syllables in English 
			'uh oh' when pronounced as 
			two separate words.


Stress Marks:

'  primary stress 
   as in pronounce [pr&-nouns']
"  secondary stress 
   as in pronunciation [pr&-nun"-see-ay'-sh&n;]

N.B. the stress marks are appended to the end of
the stressed syllable.


Syllabification:

All syllables are to be separated by a hyphen: '-'.



The Schwa: An Explanation

The schwa represents a short weak vowel that, 
when it is the only vowel in a syllable 
(not part of a diphthong or triphthong),
is unstressed syllables in British English.

It sounds something like the verbal pause 'uh'.  
Since all British English words have at least one 
stressed  syllable (aside from some articles), a 
word should not have all of its vowels represented 
by the schwa.  The schwa, as the only vowel sound
in a syllable, normally appears as an 
initial sound, a final sound, and as the vowel 
sound between two consonants.

Additional examples: 

	alone
	silent
	lemon
	Nupedia
	tremendous
	limousine

N.B. It will also be used where the vowel sound has 
all but disappeared.

Examples:

	needle		i.e. need'-&l;
	partial		i.e. paa'-sh&l;
	sudden		i.e. sud'-&n;
	cushion		i.e. kuu'-sh&n;



The Post-Vocalic 'r': An Explanation

The post-vocalic 'r' is an 'r' that occurs after 
a vowel sound.

The '(r)' represents an 'r' that occurs both after 
a vowel sound and at the end of a word.

At the end of a word, (r) is pronounced 'r' only if 
the following word begins with a vowel sound, as in 
'far away'. If the following word begins with a 
consonant sound the (r) is not pronounced.

Examples:

        far		i.e. faa(r)
        far away	i.e. faar &-way'
        far beyond	i.e. faa bee-jond'

The same phenomenon occurs within words.

Within a word, an 'r' that follows a vowel sound 
is pronounced if it is followed by a vowel sound as 
well.  But an 'r' that follows a vowel sound is not
pronounced if it is followed by a consonant sound.

Examples:

	barn		i.e. baan
	starry		i.e. staari

N.B. The symbol (r) will be used to indicate an 'r' 
in the pronunciation of a word or expression when 
that 'r' is the final sound of the word or 
expression and is preceded by a vowel sound.

Examples:

	Ecuador		i.e. ek'-w&-daw(r)
	Myanmar		i.e. mee-an''-maa(r)'