Update: 2004-04-02 09:34 AM -0500

TIL

Pronouncing the letters

ENGLISH PRONOUNCING DICTIONARY

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_v-w-x-y-z
V | W | WH
X | XC
Y | Z

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letter V

p573. The consonant letter [v] is always realised as /v/ in English words, e.g.:

However, in words borrowed from German and Slavic languages, the pronunciation may be /f/, e.g.:

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letter W

p584. The consonant letter [w] is most often realised as /w/, e.g.:

In addition

[w] can be silent. There are four conditions under which this can occur. In the spelling combination [wr] , [w] is not pronounced and the realisation is /r/. In some instances of [tw] when at the beginning of a word, the pronunciation is /t/. Some word-meidal [sw} spellings are pronounced /s/. Finally, in (mostly) British place names ending [-wich], [w] is not normally pronounced, although exceptions do exist. E.g.:

The examples given above are for [w] in word or syllable-initial position. The letter [w] can also appear at the end of a word or syllable. These instances of [w] are covered at the panels for [aw] and [ow].

In words borrowed from German, [w] may be pronounced /v/. Words borrowed from Slavic may have /v/ or /f/. E.g.:

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p592. The consonant digraph [wh] is found in word or morpheme initial position in English, and usually pronounced as /w/ in British English and /hw/ in US English. The realisation /hw/ also occurs amongst some speakers of British English. In this dictionary, the transcription /hw/ is used to cover both variants, e.g.:

Another realisation of the consonant digraph [wh] is /h/, e.g.:

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letter X

p601. The consonant letter [x], which rarely occurs at the beginning of a word, has three main pronunciations:

When [x] does appear at the beginning of word, it is almost always pronounced /z/, e.g.:

Another pronunciation associated with [x] is /eks/, e.g.:

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letters XC

p601. The consonant digraph [xc] has two pronunciations: /ks/ and /ksk/.

Before the vowel letters [ i ] or [e], it is pronounced as /ks/, e.g.:

In other situations, [xc] is pronounced as /ksk/, e.g.:

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letter Y

p602. The consonant letter [y] is special in that it can act as both a vowel and consonant. At the beginning of a word, it most often behaves as a consonant and, when doing so, is pronounced as /j/, e.g.:

When acting as a vowel, the letter [y] has two main strong pronunciations: a 'short' pronunciation /i/ and a 'long' pronunciation /aɪ/. There are no definite rules for when either of these pronunciations will occur, e.g.:

At the end of a word, in adjectives, and adverbs ending with a letter [y], a short /i/ is usually used. However, for other types of word, either /i/ or /aɪ/ may occur, e.g.:

When [y] is followed by [r], the strong pronunciation is one of four possibilities:
/aɪə (us) aɪɚ/ ,
/aɪə.r (us) aɪ.r/ , or
/ɪ/ when followed by a single consonant and then a vowel, otherwise
/ɜː (us) ɝː/, e.g.:

In addition

When acting as a vowel, [y] can also be realised as /iː/ or /ɪ/ in a small number of words, usually proper nouns, e.g.:

In weak syllables

When acting as a vowel, the letter [y] is realised with the vowels /ɪ/ and, occasionally, /ə/ and /i/ in word-medial weak syllables, e.g.:

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p605. The consonant letter [z] is most often realised as /z/, e.g.:

It can also be pronounced as /ʒ/ in words where it is followed by the letter [u], e.g.:

In addition

In the word rendezvous, [z] is silent, e.g.:

This is an exceptional case, the word is a borrowing from French.

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