13 KiB
Sounds of American English
Introduction
1. English Alphabet
Modern English is composed of 26 letters, each with both uppercase and lowercase forms. English stands out among European languages for not using diacritics, which are special marks added to letters to alter their pronunciation or meaning, such as â, é or ç, etc.
NATO has a system that uses common words to identify each letter, which is particularly helpful for military and civil aviation, emergency serivces, radio or phone communication, and many others to avoid confusion when spelling out words.
| Letter | Pronunciation | NATO Phonetic Alphabet |
|---|---|---|
| A a | /eɪ/ |
Alpha /ˈæl.fə/ |
| B b | /biː/ |
Bravo /ˈbrɑː.voʊ/ |
| C c | /siː/ |
Charlie /ˈtʃɑːr.liː/ |
| D d | /diː/ |
Delta /ˈdɛl.tə/ |
| E e | /iː/ |
Echo /ˈɛk.oʊ/ |
| F f | /ɛf/ |
Foxtrot /ˈfɔːks.trɒt/ |
| G g | /dʒiː/ |
Golf /ɡɑːf/ |
| H h | /eɪtʃ/ |
Hotel /hoʊˈtɛl/ |
| I i | /aɪ/ |
India /ˈɪn.di.ə/ |
| J j | /dʒeɪ/ |
Juliet /ˈdʒuːliːˌɛt/ |
| K k | /keɪ/ |
Kilo /ˈkiː.loʊ/ |
| L l | /ɛl/ |
Lima /ˈliː.mə/ |
| M m | /ɛm/ |
Mike /maɪk/ |
| N n | /ɛn/ |
November /noʊˈvɛm.bər/ |
| O o | /oʊ/ |
Oscar /ˈɑːs.kɑːr/ |
| P p | /piː/ |
Papa /pəˈpɑː/ |
| Q q | /kjuː/ |
Quebec /kəˈbɛk/ |
| R r | /ɑːr/ |
Romeo /ˈroʊ.miːˌoʊ/ |
| S s | /ɛs/ |
Sierra /siˈɛr.ə/ |
| T t | /tiː/ |
Tango /ˈtæŋ.ɡoʊ/ |
| U u | /juː/ |
Uniform /ˈjuː.nɪ.fɔːrm/ |
| V v | /viː/ |
Victor /ˈvɪk.tər/ |
| W w | /ˈdʌbl̩juː/ |
Whiskey /ˈwɪs.kiː/ |
| X x | /ɛks/ |
X-ray /ˈɛks.reɪ/ |
| Y y | /waɪ/ |
Yankee /ˈjæŋ.kiː/ |
| Z z | /ziː/ |
Zulu /ˈzuː.luː/ |
In British, letter z is pronounced as /zed/。
Note
- The synthesized audio files primarily utilizes OpenAI's TTS (Text-to-Speech) and Microsoft Edge's TTS. The blue speaker iconrepresents a male voice, whereas the brown speaker iconsignifies a female voice.
- The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) notation used for phonetic transcription is generated by OpenAI's ChatGPT, which may occasionally make mistakes that need to be corrected.
2. Phonemes
In natural speech, indivisible sound segments are referred to as phonemes. English language categorizes these phonemes into two main types: vowels and consonants.
Note
The phonetic notation system employed in this tutorial is the D.J. Phonetic transcription, introduced by Daniel Jones who published his English Pronouncing Dictionary (EPD) back in 1917 and continually revised it over many years. Eventually handed over to Cambridge University Press, its name was revamped as the Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary (CEPD). The CEPD rolled out its 15^th^ edition sometime around 1997 with an additional set of symbols for American pronunciations tallied along. Now on par with their 18^th^ outing, this sitely respin of Jone's original framework has been widely adopted amongst major authoritative dictionaries - including but not limited to Oxford's upstanding series or Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English down till Collins COBUILD.
2.1 Vowels
English approximately has 20 vowels.
Vowels can be classified into long and short vowels, or alternatively, they can also be grouped as monophthongs and diphthongs.
| Monophthongs | Diphthongs | |
|---|---|---|
| Short vowels | ʌ, e, ə, ɪ, ʊ, ɒ |
|
| Long vowels | ɑː, æ, əː, iː, uː, ɔː |
aɪ, eɪ, ɔɪ, aʊ, oʊ, eə, ɪə, ʊə |
English may well be the language with the most regional accents on Earth, leading to frequent debate over the actual number of vowel sounds. Take American English for instance, ʌ is pronounced as ə, effectively reducing one vowel sound compared to British English. Additionally, some linguists argue that eə, ɪə, and ʊə shouldn't count as independent diphthongs but rhotic versions of existing vowels: e, ɪ and ʊ, thus stripping off three more distinct vowels...
A prominent feature of American English is the rhotacized ə. The IPA developed two specific marks to note this, with ɚ corresponding to əʳ, and ɝ to əːʳ. Bear in mind not all instances of ə will be subjected to rhotacization; certain words like focus retain their original pronunciations as /ˈfoʊkǝs/ rather than veering towards a rendition such as /ˈfoʊkɚs/.
2.2 辅音
英文大约 28 个辅音。
| 爆破音 | 清辅音 | p, t, k |
|---|---|---|
| 浊辅音 | b, d, g |
|
| 摩擦音 | 清辅音 | f, s, θ, ʃ, h |
| 浊辅音 | v, z, ð, ʒ, r |
|
| 破擦音 | 清辅音 | tʃ, tr, ts |
| 浊辅音 | dʒ, dr, dz |
|
| 鼻音 | 浊辅音 | m, n, ŋ |
| 边辅音 | 浊辅音 | l |
| 半元音 | 浊辅音 | j, w |