Is the word “I’m” pronounced like /ʌm/ or /əm/, instead of /aɪm/, when it is unstressed? Answer Yes, it could be, in the U.S. at least, especially when talking quickly. Example: She said we don’t have to be there until 3:00, and anyway I’m not ready yet. AttributionSource : Link , Question Author : Edinburgh1 … Read more
What’s the correct transcription and pronunciation of the ‘un-‘ prefix in General American English? Cambridge Online dictionary provides the following transcription: /ʌn/ It’s the same in words with this prefix: /ʌnˈdu/. Why do they use the /ʌ/ and not the /ə/ (schwa)? It’s the /ə/ sound that typically occurs in unstressed syllables. Thank you. Answer … Read more
For some reason or another, I was looking at the Oxford Dictionaries definition for ailurophile (cat-lover). Then I noticed that, underneath its Pronunciation header, it gives the IPA transcript as /ʌɪˈljʊərəˌfʌɪl/ What bothers me here is the first vowel: /ʌ/. If memory serves me, in BrE, the /ʌ/vowel is a short, low ‘uh’ sound, as … Read more
Consider the word ‘future.’ Cambridge Dictionary shows the transcriptions /ˈfjuːtʃəʳ/ and /ˈfjuːtʃɚ/. Are they different? Answer One is the Standard British English pronunciation, and the other is the General American English pronunciation. In the British pronunciation, you don’t pronounce the /r/ after /ə/ unless the next word starts with a vowel. (The superscript /r/ is … Read more
I’m working with the CMU pronunciation dictionary and I can’t comfortably say I can understand what difference in sound they’re trying to indicate by splitting AA and AO into different phonemes. Wikipedia gives “balm” and “bot” as examples of the AA sound and “bought” as an example of the “AO” sound, but I don’t detect … Read more
I’m confused how to pronounce “urethra”. I looked up in the dictionary, it’s | jʊˈriːθrə |. Shouldn’t it be pronounced “yu-ri-ther”? Many YouTube videos pronounced it “yu-ri-thra”. Answer I have heard physicians (Northeast United States) pronounce it yuh-REE-thruh, which is how I also pronounce it. (The “uh” is a diminished vowel sound, as a schwa … Read more
I see many words in English have the same phonetics but I don’t know why they sound different. It means if we read the phonetics and pronounce, it will be wrong. Here are the examples. fun : /fʌn/ hunt : /hʌnt/ luck : /lʌk/ hulk : /hʌlk/ bulk : /bʌlk/ As you can see, the … Read more
In English, a syllable-initial consonant is semi-vowelized before a semivowel? For example, what’s the IPA pronunciation of the word music? /mjuzɪk/ or /mʲuzɪk/ Answer To answer your question “What’s the IPA pronunciation of the word music?” [mʲuzɪk] is not an accurate transcription in any dialect of English*. I have also used square brackets instead of … Read more
If someone who is a linguistics expert could explain this to me in a way I can understand, I’d really appreciate it. I get that /ʌ/ is used on stressed vowels and /ə/ on reduced vowels, but they sound exactly the same to me. ‘Strut’ (/strʌt/) is given as an example word for the former, … Read more
I am leaning towards no, but would like confirmation and perhaps an example to illustrate. Answer The short answer is no. In English, the phones [ɪ] and [i] are not just allophones of a single phoneme. There are many minimal pairs like “bit-beat”, “shit-sheet”, “bitch-beach” that establish that [ɪ] and [i] (in a usual English … Read more
