Abbreviations and conventions
References to
counties in Scotland and England are to the pre-1974 counties.
The following
conventions are used in discussing sounds and spellings:
< >
brackets enclose graphemes (letters and combinations of letters, the latter
often digraphs, i.e. combinations of two letters, such as
<ch>) and spellings of words;
/ / brackets
enclose phonemes (crudely, the sounds corresponding to graphemes, see
below);
[ ]
brackets enclose phonetic realisations (the fine details of pronunciation
not usually relevant to spelling).
C stands for 'any
consonant'.
V stands for 'any
vowel'.
The symbols used
are those specified by the International Phonetic Association (IPA). See Figures i-iii. In addition to those in the figures,
the following symbols are used:
ʍ a consonant, a voiceless labio-velar
fricative, as at the beginning of where
w a
consonant, a voiced labio-velar approximant, as at the beginning of wear
ʧ a
consonant, a voiceless affricate, as at the beginning of char
ʤ a
consonant, a voiced affricate, as at the beginning of jar
and the following
diacritics:
n̩ the
consonant is syllabic, as /n/ in heaven
d̪ the
consonant is dental
d̥ the
normally voiced consonant is devoiced
e̝ the
vowel is raised
e̞ the vowel is lowered
ε̈ the vowel is centralised (i.e.
backed in the case of a front vowel, fronted in the case of a back vowel)
i: the
vowel is long
a̫ the
normally non-rounded vowel is partly rounded.
A vowel or /j/
written as a superscript after a vowel is an off-glide from that vowel, i.e. a
sound that the vowel shades into towards the end of its duration.
A stressed
syllable can be indicated thus: contents /'kɔntεnts/ n.pl., /kən'tεnts/ v. The stressed element of a diphthong can
be indicated thus: [íu].
The following
symbols are traditionally used with PreSc/ME spellings to indicate
pronunciation:
ă the vowel
is short
ā the
vowel is long (OE)
á the vowel is
long (ON)
ọ the vowel is raised
ę the vowel is lowered.
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| Figure i: Consonants | |
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| Figure ii: Non-rounded vowels | Figure iii: Rounded vowels |
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