Questions tagged [phonetics]

For questions relating to proper pronunciation using symbols and specialized letters.

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4 votes
1 answer
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How to pronounce [ɮˤ]

When attempting to produce it, I move my tongue to the top-left back teeth where I make a sound which resembles a drowned out [d͡z]. If I misplace my tongue here, this devolves into a trilled [r]. ...
murshad's user avatar
  • 91
5 votes
1 answer
112 views

Having trouble with English vowels

Being Turkish, I think my command of English phonology suffers from L1 transfer. Consonants seem to be fine, in that I can produce them on command, and can transcribe others' production of them more ...
murshad's user avatar
  • 91
2 votes
0 answers
40 views

How are words divided to into syllables?

My question is more about the pronunciation of words like arbitrary, oblivion and experience. The way theses words are divided into syllables make them harder for me to pronounce them due to the lack ...
TumTUm's user avatar
  • 21
3 votes
0 answers
51 views

how to acquire a certain sound which lack in my mother tongue?

In my mother language, there is a lack of the N sound as an initial consonant. Every time when I say English words like nature, new, it will naturally or unconsciously be pronounced as lature, lew. ...
zzzgoo's user avatar
  • 131
4 votes
0 answers
47 views

How to learn phonemic vowel length?

I recently started learning Mongolian and I'm having trouble with phonemic vowel length. I have great difficulty distinguishing long and short vowels both in listening and speaking. I find it ...
user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
143 views

Polish affricates learning tips

I find Polish affricates extremely challenging, especially the juxtaposition of non-palatized and palatized affricates, e.g. dżem vs. dźwięk, ćma vs. czas. Any learning tips, e.g. using a widely ...
Dan's user avatar
  • 254
3 votes
0 answers
75 views

Are there any languages in the world that contain no sounds foreign to English?

Are there any languages in the world that contain no sounds foreign to English? It need not contain all or even most of the sounds in English. Just no additional ones that native English speakers ...
K Man's user avatar
  • 975
5 votes
1 answer
128 views

How can I make sure my pronunciation based on IPA is correct?

I have read this question and answers titled "How can I learn IPA?" and now start to (finally) learn IPA and phonetics. However, while the question asks about the way to learn the IPA, which focuses ...
Blaszard's user avatar
  • 1,253
10 votes
1 answer
105 views

How to speak a language that makes phonemic distinctions between /a/ and /aː/ if you're having trouble with /a/ and /aː/?

Title says it all. I'm talking specifically about Central Yiddish אַ = /a/ vs. ײַ = /aː/. My native language is American English.
user5487's user avatar
  • 101
8 votes
0 answers
424 views

Bulk-add pronunciations to Anki decks

This is what I want to do: I have a large Anki collection (over 20,000 notes of Japanese vocabulary). I want to add Japanese pitch/accent information to each note. Possible solutions? I have no idea ...
kandyman's user avatar
  • 226
11 votes
5 answers
347 views

How can one learn a language (such as Korean), when there is no agreement as to how to properly pronounce it?

This is a problem that's been plaguing me for years. I have been wanting to learn Korean, but I just can't get the past the first step: pronouncing it. I can produce and hear aspirated consonants ...
user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
887 views

What's the name of this non-IPA phonetic notation?

In The Free Dictionary you usually see definitions extracted from several sources. Usually the first one uses a phonetic notation which is unknown to me. What's the name of that phonetic notation ...
Tulains Córdova's user avatar
8 votes
2 answers
2k views

Is there an online resource that transliterates from IPA into different writing systems?

I am trying to transliterate the pronunciation (i.e. I do not mind the actual meaning of the sentence) of a French sentence (e.g. "Qui est Kaélé ?") into other writing systems (like simplified Chinese,...
Xavier Labouze's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
255 views

How to learn the pronunciation of ejectives?

As a person native to a language with no ejective-aspirated distinction I don't know how to learn to pronounce the ejective consonants in Georgian. The formal descriptions (e.g. on Wikipedia) are not ...
zefciu's user avatar
  • 583
14 votes
4 answers
3k views

What advantages, if any, are there for learning the IPA when studying a language with phonetic spelling?

The IPA provides a standard, unambiguous way of writing the pronunciation of words, which can be quite helpful when learning a language like English, which has very irregular spelling (with respect to ...
Flimzy's user avatar
  • 5,142
17 votes
3 answers
173 views

How to train yourself to contrast heard sounds

When trying to learn new languages, I have often encountered a problem when hearing sounds that don't exist in the Polish language (my native language). In my mind they "become" other, more familiar ...
zefciu's user avatar
  • 583
14 votes
5 answers
2k views

Pros and cons of using IPA over other phonetic alphabets

I've taught myself to use the IPA as an aide for pronunciation training, but I'm well aware that other phonetic alphabets are in widespread use in language courses. Where does the IPA fall short ...
Flimzy's user avatar
  • 5,142