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.
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Can American ‘bought’ sometimes sound like ‘bop’?
In American English, I’ve noticed that the word bought sometimes sounds like bop when followed by a word starting with a bilabial consonant, such as [p], [b], or [m].
For example, She bought me a car ...
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FLAP T has two versions?
everyone, my question is about the flap T. I'm not a native American English speaker, but I hear the difference between flap t in pretty (some natives pronounce it like the Spanish R, some like a soft ...
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American 'd' sound is sometimes retroflex? [duplicate]
In fast-paced American English speech, I've observed that the 'd' sound in certain words containing -rd- consonant clusters such as 'hurdle' and 'border' seems to be pronounced as a voiced retroflex ...
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Is there a common origin of the German and English "ch" and does English know the pronunciation of "ch" like in German "machen"
In German "ch" is pronounced in at least three different ways depending on context. It could be pronounced more like a K like in "Charakter" and in the two other forms which I ...
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Why is 'women' sometimes pronounced as 'woman'?
Some American speakers pronounce both 'woman' and 'women' as 'woman' (ˈwʊm.ən). Is this a recent pronunciation change? Where, why, and when did it originate?
I specified the American accent because ...
Lina
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T turning into what sounds like a trill in Irish English?
I have been recently watching a channel run by an Irish guy and he has many interesting speech quirks (like the fact he still pronounces "wh-" like <hw>). But the thing that puzzles me ...
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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 ...
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Assimilation of /ʃ/ to [ɕ] before bunched [ɹ̈]
I noticed an odd phonetic phenomenon in my own speech that I initially assumed was widespread; then I asked @tchrist about it and he seemed to think it was highly unusual, which made me curious. IANAP ...
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What's the difference between ɔ & ɒ? [duplicate]
What is the difference between ɔ and ɒ? Would bɔl and bɒl both be "ball"? (I'm talking about in standard American English.)
I saw this similar question but it hasn't had any answers for ...
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Is the 't' silent in the word "fasten"? Or is it the 'e'? [closed]
There are mixed answers online. Some say 't' is silent. Others say 'e' is silent.
Dictionaries don't seem to give a consistent pronunciation for this word, so it's hard know what is correct.
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Do terms that end with 'mate' need to be clarified where people say 'mate'?
Do terms that end with 'mate' need to be clarified where people say 'mate'?
Like while playing chess, if someone says "checkmate" in somewhere like England or Australia, is it assumed they ...
user486316
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Merriam Webster vs Oxford Languages Dictionary phonetic transcriptions of 'man'
I've noticed that in MW words "now" and "man" have the same middle sound (ˈnau̇ vs ˈman), but in Oxford dictionary these two words have two different sounds (naʊ vs mæn). So which ...
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Do "radiant" and "brilliant" rhyme for the purposes of poetry? Wiktionary says their transcriptions are /ˈɹeɪ.di.ənt/ and /ˈbɹɪljənt/
Is this a dialectal/idiolectal thing, where some merge /i/ and /j/, and others don't? I'm ESL and always thought they're merged until now.
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Acoustic description of the realization [ɛə] of the North American raised /æ/
The Wikipedia article on /æ/ raising uses the transcription [ɛə] for a realization of the North American raised /æ/, as in the words ram and ran. I'm having trouble interpreting this transcription, ...
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Is there dialectal variation in the weak form of "on"?
This question is related, but not quite identical, to a previous one and to another similar one.
In a recent video, phonetician Geoff Lindsey claimed that the words "off" and "on" ...
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