Questions tagged [phonetics]

Phonetics (pronounced /fəˈnɛtɪks/, from the Greek: φωνή, phōnē, 'sound, voice') is a branch of linguistics that comprises the study of the sounds of human speech, or—in the case of sign languages—the equivalent aspects of sign.

Phonetics (pronounced /fəˈnɛtɪks/, from the Greek: φωνή, phōnē, 'sound, voice') is a branch of linguistics that comprises the study of the sounds of human speech, or—in the case of sign languages—the equivalent aspects of sign. It is concerned with the physical properties of speech sounds or signs (phones): their physiological production, acoustic properties, auditory perception, and neurophysiological status. Phonology, on the other hand, is concerned with the abstract, grammatical characterization of systems of sounds or signs.

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How widespread is labialization of [ʃ] and [ʒ] in 'dish' and 'beige'?

I'm reading The Sounds of Japanese (Vance 2008), which is an introductory textbook in Japanese articulatory phonetics. The first chapter lays out some basic concepts in phonetics, and although the book is essentially about Japanese, the author…
user28567
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Does [ʌ] represent near-open central vowel in IPA system?

[ɐ] near-open central vowel [ʌ] open-mid back unrounded vowel Can I use [ʌ] to represent near-open central vowel sound in IPA system?
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The /ɪ/ sound vs the /i/ sound - exact difference?

What's the exact difference in the 'pi' sound between 'happiness' /ˈhæp.i.nəs/ and epicentre /ˈep.ɪ.sen.tər/ that prompts the Cambridge Dictionary compilers to use a diffrerent vowel code for each case? More generally, what's the exact difference…
BazAU
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Website where I could find words

Do you know any website where I could search a word by a sound from it's IPA transcription ( for instance like ə and get awesome, jonathan etc.). Thank you
Alex S
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“I die” and “I’d die”

I have a question about the pronunciation between “I die” and “I’d die”. If I consider linking words and link the “d” in “I’d and the d in “die”, the pronunciation of I DIE and I’D DIE would be the same. Would I only get either by the context?…
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Dissimilation: 'taper' from 'papyrus'

I was researching the etymology of taper {verb} which motivated this question. Observe that Etymonline's entry for the verb just rechannels to that for the noun: taper (n.) Old English tapur, taper "candle, lamp-wick," not found outside English,…
user472688
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Why Germanic type of Language (German, English,...) uses a lot of air from Lung to contruct the sound?

I speak Thai belonging to Sino-Tibetan language (Chinese, Japanese, Korean..). In Sino-Tibetan language, we mostly use tongue to construct the sound, we use very little air from lung to make sound. But when we learn English, we have to change & use…
Kiti
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Who distinguishes roll from role?

I pronounce roll with the same vowel as the word all. roll - [ɹɔɫ] all - [ɔɫ] But for role, I will often actually use the vowel in bowl role - [ɹɔuɫ] bowl - [bɔuɫ] However, when I encountered someone typing roll instead of role, I realized they are…
iopq
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What is/are the process(es) leading to the mispronunciation of the word "extra"?

I find that it is not uncommon for the word extra to be pronounced without the letter 'x' being enunciated such that it sounds like /ˈɛkʃᵗrə/ instead of /ˈɛkstrə/. That is the /s/ sound is substituted with a /ʃ/ sound and the /t/ sound becomes much…
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how is /p/ pronunced in responsibility

In Cambridge dictionary, the pronunciation of responsibility is /rɪˌspɑːn.səˈbɪl.ə.t̬i/, but I am pretty sure p is not pronounced /p/, at least not the same way as /p/ in peach. So what is happening here?
jxhyc
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Is there a sentence that contains every English phoneme?

An example of a sentence with every letter of the alphabet is: "A quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dogs." Is there an example of a sentence which contains every English phoneme? I realize accents would skew this. I would be happy to see a…
Klik
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What is the tolerance on formants?

On Wikipedia, there is a list of phonetic vowels and their average 1st and 2nd formants. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formant#Formants_and_phonetics Throughout the web are many more of such charts with varying frequencies. So obviously some amount…
Seph Reed
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Phonetic understanding of tongue twisters

I like tongue twisters. Five fine vine weevils (plays with W, F and V) Six sick stick insects (plays with S, ST, KT, K and T) Gran crams clams into clean clam cans (plays with R and L and also with M and N) How many more English sounds can be…
Dan
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What is the difference between /ʃ/ and /ʒ/?

I am trying to understand the difference in pronunciation between the sound /ʃ/ (shell, cash, sure) and /ʒ/ (treasure, pleasure, leisure). I am able to tell these sounds apart when listening; however, I can't quite wrap my mind about how they are…
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Phonetic similarity metrics

I am looking for similarity metrics based on IPA symbols in English. In other words, given two phonemes A and B (given in IPA format), I want to know how similar they are based on some metric, M. For example, M(ɒ, oʊ) would yield a higher score than…
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