General American English with maximal distinctions

From Fresh Dictionary

Proposal for using IPA to represent American English

goals:

1. simplicity while still being true to IPA
   • use ASCII where possible (a instead of ɑ, r instead of ɹ or É»)
     • Only use ASCII symbols which correspond to sounds which are "close to" the sounds used in American English but aren't used. i.e. there is no trill in AmE, so r is fine for ɹ or É».
   • use as few symbols as possible (o instead of oʊ, e instead of eɪ)
2. maximal coverage of distinctions
3. separation of reduced and non-reduced vowels (use ɨ instead of ɪ, ə instead of ʌ, ɚ instead of ɝ in unstressed syllables)
   • This means that for many words it may not be necessary to explicitly mark stress. Stress is assumed to be carried by the unreduced vowel.

Contents 1 vowels 1.1 reduced 1.2 diphthongs 2 consonants 2.1 flaps 2.2 syllabics 2.3 optionals

vowels

• i as in [pit] "peat"
• ɪ as in [pɪt] "pit"
• e as in [ple] "play"
• ɛ as in [pɛt] "pet"
• æ as in [pæt] "pat"
• a as in [pat] "pot"
• ʌ as in [pʌt] "putt"
• ɔ as in [pɔ] "paw"
• o as in [go] "go"
• u as in [fud] "food"
• ʊ as in [gʊd] "good"
• ɝ as in [hɝ] "her"

reduced

• ə as in [əˈbʌv] "above"
• ɚ as in [ˈrʌnɚ] "runner"
• ɨ as in [rɨˈkɔrd] "record"

diphthongs

• aɪ as in [raɪd] "ride"
• aʊ as in [laʊd] "loud"
• ɔɪ as in [bɔɪ] "boy"

consonants

• p as in [ple] "play"
• b as in [be] "bay"
• t as in [ti] "tea"
• d as in [de] "day"
• k as in [ki] "key"
• g as in [go] "go"
• m as in [mi] "me"
• n as in [no] "no"
• ŋ as in [lɔŋ] "long"
• r as in [re] "ray"
• f as in [fi] "fee"
• v as in [vaɪ] "vie"
• θ as in [pæθ] "path"
• ð as in [beð] "bathe"
• s as in [se] "say"
• z as in [zu] "zoo"
• ʃ as in [ʃi] "she"
• ʒ as in [ˈtrɛʒɚ] "treasure"
• l as in [lʊl] "lull"
• j as in [ju] "you"
• w as in [wi] "we"
• ʍ as in [ʍaɪl] "while" (maybe use hw instead?)
• h as in [hu] "who"

flaps

• ḓ as in [raɪḓɚ] "rider"
• á¹± as in [raɪṱɚ] "writer"

syllabics

• nÌ©Ì©Ì©Ì©Ì© as in [buʔnÌ©Ì©Ì©Ì©Ì©] "button" (maybe use ən instead?)
• mÌ© as in [prɪzmÌ©] "prism" (maybe use əm instead?)
• lÌ© as in [baá¹±lÌ©] "bottle" (maybe use əl instead?)

optionals

to be used in optional pronunciations

• (ʔ) as in [buʔnÌ©Ì©Ì©Ì©Ì©] "button"
• (x) as in [bax] "Bach"