Update: 2012-01-01 12:26 AM +0630

TIL

ENGLISH PRONOUNCING DICTIONARY
Pronouncing the letters

let-s-t.htm

Daniel Jones. Edited by Peter Roach, James Hartman and Jane Setter. Cambridge University Press, 2003.

Scanned by Maung Kan Tun and edited by U Kyaw Tun, M.S. (I.P.S.T., U.S.A.). Not for sale. Prepared for students of TIL Computing and Language Center, Yangon, MYANMAR .

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pronounce_s-t-u
S | SC | SCH | SH
T | TH | TZ

letter S

UKT: After realising that some Europeans hear the Bama sound {cha.} only in terms of [t] and [s], I sensed how difficult it would be to reconcile the IPA representations and the Myanmar phonemes. I became aware of this problem on discovering that the Chinese-Myanmar name {chin: chaun:} was spelled in the 1930s starting with [ts] -- that was before Myanmar got her independence from Britain. Now the name is spelled Chinchaung. In the following sections you will find a similar problem in British spellings, British phonemes and American phonemes. Beware of [t] and [s]. They can be two separate letters [ts] or as a digraph [ʦ] (U02A6). Similarly beware of [t] and [ʃ]. The possibilities are: [tʃ] or [ʧ] (U02A7).

p467. The consonant letter [s] has five realisations: /s z ʃ ʒ/ and silent. The most obvious of these is /s/, e.g.

/z/ is a very common realisation of [s], but it is not usually word-initial, e.g.:

It particularly occurs in the verb form of homographs, and in words ending [sm].

In suffixes [-sion], [-sure], [-sia] and their derivatives, [s] is realised as /tʃ/ (UKT: not ʧ ?) or /ʒ/, e.g.:

In addition

[s] can be silent. This usually happens in word final position, where the word is a borrowing from French, e.g.:

The grammatical inflections -(e)s, -'s

There are three possible ways of pronouncing the grammatical inflections [-(e)s] and [-'s]. Following /s z ʃ ʒ ʧ/ and /ʤ/ the inflection is realised as /ɪz/, e.g.:

Following all other voiceless consonant sounds the inflection is realised as /s/, e.g.:

Following all other voiced consonant sounds and after vowel sounds, the inflection is realised as /z/, e.g.:

UKT: The statement "Following all other voiced consonant sounds and after vowel sounds" is consistent with the the fact that the vowels are voiced.

p473. The consonant digraph [sc] has two main pronunciations: /s/ and /sk/.

It is normally pronounced /s/ before the letters [e], [i] or [y], e.g.:

However, the realisation /sk/ can occur before [e], and /tʃ/ is possible before [ i ], e.g.:

In other cases, /sk/ is the usual pronunciation in word initial position, and /s/ in the combination [-scle], e.g.:

p474. The consonant letter combination [sch] has several possible pronunciations, the most common being /sk/, e.g.:

Other possible realisations are /ʃ/ and /s/.

For words of German origin, the pronunciation is /ʃ/, e.g.:

In addition

When the three letters come together due to the addition of a prefix, the pronunciation is /s.ʧ/, e.g.:

letters SH

p483. The consonant digraph [sh] is most commonly pronounced /ʃ/, e.g.:

In addition

When the two letters come together due to the addition of a prefix, the pronunciation is /s.h/, or /s/ alone with a silent [h], e.g.:

p524. The consonant letter [t] has several possible realisations. In word initial and final position, it is most often realised as /t/, e.g.:

However, in consonant clusters /t/ may be elided, and it is silent in some words borrowed from French, e.g.:

UKT: I am representing syllabic [l] as [ ļ ] U013C see syllabic consonant in the Introduction.

In US English, [t] is often pronounced as a voiced consonant in certain environments. The [t] must be at the end of a stressed syllable, preceded either by one of /n/, /l/, or /r/ or a vowel, and followed by an unstressed syllable, either beginning with a vowel or containing a syllabic consonant other than /n/. Such a pronunciation is shown in EPD as /t̬/.

When appearing between two vowels, [t] is most likely to be pronounced as a tap or flap, e.g.:

Before a syllabic consonant, and following /n/ or /l/, [t] is pronounced as a brief voiced plosive rather than a tap or flap, e.g.:

In careful speech, these words may be pronounced with a voiceless /t/, as in British English.

Another common pronunciation for [t] is /ʃ/ where it is followed by a suffix which begins with the letter [ i ], e.g.:

In addition

[t] can be pronounced as a GLOTTAL STOP either word finally or between two vowels.

[t] is also sometimes realised as /ʧ/, e.g.:

Due to coalescence between /t/ and /j/ in British English and omission of /j/ in US English, syllables beginning with [tu] do not always sound the same, e.g.:

letters TH

p533. The consonant digraph [th] is most commonly pronounced /θ/ or /ð/. In initial position, /ð/ occurs mostly in function or grammar words like determiners and conjuctions, e.g.:

In content words like nouns and main verbs, /θ/ most usually appears in initial position, e.g.:

At the end of words, it is more difficult to predict which realisation will occur. However, /ð is more common here than /θ/, and is highly likely in verbs. For example, before [e] or the grammatical inflection [-ing], the pronunciation is usually /ð/, e.g.:

Note that the verb <bathe> and <bath> when used as a verb both have the same spelling for the present participle, <bathing>, but different pronunciations.

In addition

In some names and a few other words, [th] is pronounced as /t/ , e.g.:

The suffix [-th] when applied to numbers is always pronounced /θ/, e.g.:

When the two letters come together due to the addition of a prefix, the pronunciation is /t.h/ , e.g.:

Occasionally, [th] may be silent, e.g.:

letters TZ

p554. The consonant digraph [tz] is commonly pronounced /ʦ/ , e.g.:

However, the /t/ is sometimes optional in British English, e.g.:

UKT notes

End of TIL file