Piotr Gąsiorowski

WWWebster into IPA – a conversion chart for General American

\&\

as a and u in abut

[ə], [ʌ]

(unstressed/stressed respectively)

\&\

as e in kitten

\&n\ = [n̩]

(a syllabic consonant)

\&r\

as ur and er in further

[ɝː], [ɚ]

(stressed/unstressed r-coloured vowels; worry = [ˈwɝːiː])

\A\

as a in ace

[eɪ]

(a diphthong!)

\a\

as a in ash

[æ]

(often [ɛə] in words like class, land, sad; this looks like the beginning of a phonemic split)

\ä\

as o in mop

[ɑ(ː)]

(lengthened when stem-final, as in pa [ˈpɑː], in this position it may be replaced by [ɒː])

\au\

as ou in out

[aʊ]

(often [æʊ], with a front starting-point)

\b\

as b in bat

[b]

 

\ch\

as ch in chin

[ʧ]

 

\d\

as d in deep

[d]

(see \t\ for a description of tapped \d\)

\e\

as e in bet

[ɛ]

 

\E\

as ea in easy

[iː]

(usually slightly diphthongal [ɪi]; may be unstressed, as finally in very [ˈvɛɹiː])

\f\

as f in fit

[f]

 

\g\

as g in go

[g]

(x = [gz] in exist)

\h\

as h in hit

[h]

 

\hw\

as wh in what

[ʍ]

(= the voiceless counterpart of [w], also transcribed [hw]; most speakers use [w] instead)

\i\

as i in hit

[ɪ]

 

\I\

as i in ice

[aɪ]

(often [ɑɪ], with a retracted starting-point))

\j\

as j in job

[ʤ]

 

\k\

as c in cat

[k]

(note: qu = [kw] in quit, x = [ks] in ax)

\l\

as l in lot

[l]

(pronounced as ‘dark’ [ɫ], except when followed by [j]; syllabic in bottle, whistle)

\m\

as m in mad

[m]

(syllabic in rhythm, prism)

\n\

as n in not

[n]

(syllabic in prison, button; postvocalically often realised as a nasalised off-glide before stops, as in can’t [ˈkɛə̃t], mountain [ˈmæʊ̃ʔn̩])

\[ng]\

as ng in sing

[ŋ]

(note: ng in finger, longer = [ŋg])

\o\

as aw in law

[ɔ(ː)] or [ɑ(ː)]

(lengthened when stem-final: a wide range of variants, including [ɒ(ː)], a low vowel with slight lip-rounding. Many (most?) Americans nowadays have the same vowel, [ɑ(ː)], in mop and law, dog, cause, but [ɔ] is usually retained before a final or preconsonantal /r/, as in forty [ˈfɔɚɾiː]. In story [ˈstɔɹiː], [ɔ] derives from earlier [oː] and a rounded vowel generally remains, but sorry [ˈsɔɹiː] may become [ˈsɑɹiː])

\O\

as o in go

[oʊ]

(a diphthong; often unstressed, as in follow)

\oi\

as oy in boy

[ɔɪ]

 

\p\

as p in past

[p]

 

\r\

as r in red

[ɹ]

(unstressed after viceless stops, especially /t/; pronounced [ɻ] or [ɚ] before a consonant and word-finally, e.g. pork [ˈpɔɚk]~[ˈpɔɻk])

\t\

as t in tip

[t]

(note: The phoneme /t/ has a wide range of allophones; it may be pronounced as a glottal stop [ʔ] before nasals, as in button. Both t and d are normally ‘tapped’, i.e. pronounced as a brief voiced sound [ɾ] intervocalically before an unstressed vowel, or word-finally after a vowel when the next word is vowel-initial, e.g. in matter [ˈmæɾɚ], petal = peddle [ˈpɛɾl̩] , get it [ˈgɛɾət]; -nt- may be pronounced [ɾ̃] in the same context, as in winter [ˈwɪɾ̃ɚ])

\th\

as th in the

[ð]

 

\th\

as th in thin

[θ]

 

\u\

as oo in foot

[ʊ]

(stressed [ʊl] may be indistinguishable from syllabic [l], e.g. bull [ˈbl̩])

\ü\

as oo in loot

[uː]

(usually diphthongal: [ʊu] or [ɨu], also unstressed as in value [ˈvæljuː])

\v\

as v in very

[v]

 

\w\

as w in water

[w]

 

\y\

as y in yet

[j]

(note: u in music = [juː])

\z\

as z in zero

[z]

 

\zh\

as si in vision

[ʒ]

 

 

American English vowel mergers before /r/:

\i\ or \E\ + \r\ > [ɪɹ]

\e\, \a\ or \A\ + \r\ > [ɛɹ] (e.g. marry = merry = Mary [ˈmɛɹiː] in many accents)

\i\ or \E\ + \r\ > [ɪɹ]

\o\ or \O\ + \r\ > [ɔɹ] (prevocalic \or\ and \är\ may merge as [ɑɹ])

\u\ or \ü\ + \r\ > [ʊɹ]

(also, hurry and furry rhyme as [-ɝːiː])