Paper 6        Linguistics

Phonetic Transcription

Phonetic transcription is usually given in brackets, like this: /hoʊm/, /kʌm/. In a dictionary, it looks like this: dictionary definition of the word 'image' (By the way, not all dictionaries give the pronunciations of words. If you are serious about learning English, you should buy a dictionary which has this information.)

Word stress

When a word has many syllables, one of them is always pronounced more strongly. This is called word stress, and we say that the syllable is stressed. For example, in the word BECOME, the stressed syllable is COME. If the stressed syllable was BE, BECOME would be pronounced like this. Dictionaries tell you which syllable is stressed. The most popular system is to put a vertical line (ˈ) before the stressed syllable in the phonetic transcription of the word. For example, the transcription for BECOME is /bɪˈkʌm/. If a word has only one syllable (examples: PEN, WATCH), dictionaries usually do not put the ˈ stress mark before it. So they don’t write /ˈpen/ — they simply write /pen/. Some dictionaries use other systems for showing word stress. For example, they may put ˈ after the stressed syllable, or they may underline the stressed syllable.

A demonstration

Have a look at our demonstration of the phonetic transcription system. You can read the transcriptions of some English words and listen to their pronunciations at the same time. Representing differences between British and American English Many words are pronounced differently in British and American English. Of course, these differences must be reflected in phonetic transcriptions. There are two basic ways to do this: Separate transcriptions for British and American English, for example: DOT BrE /dɒt/, AmE /dɑːt/ FARM BrE /fɑːm/, AmE /fɑːrm/ GO BrE /gəʊ/, AmE /goʊ/ MOTHER BrE /ˈmʌðəʳ/, AmE /ˈmʌðər/ (or /ˈmʌðɚ/) This system is used in advanced learner’s dictionaries from Longman, Oxford and Cambridge. The problem with this system is that you have to write two transcriptions for most words, which takes up a lot of space. One “compromise” transcription for both British and American English. This is done by using mostly British phoneme symbols plus the ʳ symbol. DOT /dɒt/ FARM /fɑːʳm/ GO /goʊ/ MOTHER /ˈmʌðəʳ/ In this system, transcriptions are shorter, but the reader has to know that, in American English, ɒ changes to ɑ: and ʳ changes to r. This system is used e.g. in the Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner’s English Dictionary and in many places on Antimoon.

Should you care about phonetic transcriptions?

Today, nearly all good English dictionaries have audio recordings. If you can listen to any English word as it is pronounced by a native speaker, why should you care about phonetic transcriptions? Here are a few reasons: If you want to have good English pronunciation, you have to learn and practice all the English sounds anyway. If you’re going to learn each sound in the English sound chart, you might as well learn its symbol – it doesn’t take that much extra effort. It doesn’t even have to be a special project for you – all you have to do is pay attention to the phonetic transcriptions in your dictionary. That way, you will gradually learn the symbols.