The phoneme mnemonics are based on the scheme by Kirschenbaum: www.kirshenbaum.net/IPA/ascii-ipa.pdf, which gives the International Phonetic Alphabet equivalents.
Phoneme mnemonics can be used directly in the text input to speak. They are enclosed within double square brackets. Spaces are used to separate words and all stressed syllables must be marked explicitly. eg:
[[D,Is Iz sVm f@n'EtIk t'Ekst 'InpUt]]
Short vowels | |||
a | trap | E | dress |
I | kit | I2 | as [I] but marked 'unstressed' |
0 | lot ('zero', note 1) | V | strut |
U | foot | aa | bath (note 2) |
@ | the (schwa, unstressed) | @- | favourite (very short schwa) |
a2 | about (note 3, unstressed) | ||
Long vowels |
|||
i: | fleece | 3: | nurse ('three', note 4) |
A: | palm | O: | thought |
u: | goose | aI | price |
eI | face | oI | choice |
i@ | near | e@ | square |
O@ | force (note 5) | U@ | cure |
aU | mouth | oU | goat |
aI@ | fire | aU@ | power |
@L | vessel (unstressed) | ||
Additional vowels (note 6) |
|||
e: | Ger: tee, segen, Fr: é | o: | Ger: ton, Fr: chaud |
i | Short [i:] | O | Short [O:] |
y: | Ger: tür, Fr: cru | y | Ger: glück |
Y: | Ger: schön, Fr: jeûne | W | Ger: können, Fr: beurre |
eU | uI | ||
a~ | Fr: nasal an | E~ | Fr: nasal in |
O~ | Fr: nasal on | W~ | Fr: nasal un |
u- | unrounded [u] | o- | unrounded [o] |
Consonants |
|||
n^ | Spanish ñ (Palatal nasal) | N | sing (Velar nasal) |
S | show | Z | pleasure |
tS | church | dZ | judge |
T | thin | D | the |
C | Ger: ich | ? | Glottal Stop |
x | Ger: buch | Q | (Voiced velar frictative, voiced [x]) |
; | "Palatalized". A weak [j] | ||
The following consonants are the same as the symbols in the International Phonetic Alphabet: p t k b d g f s h v z r l j w m n |
[0]
(digit zero) is used rather than the Kirschenbaum symbol [A.] (rounded [A]).
[aa]
is used in those cases where the pronunciation changes from [a] to [A:] between northern and southern British English.
[a2]
is used as a more open variant of schwa [@] in words where an unstressed [a] is reduced to schwa.
[3:]
is used rather than the Kirschenbaum symbol [R].
[O@]
is used as an alternative symbol to [O:]
, with the same sound, where the spelling has a following 'r' which has been absorbed into the vowel. This would allow different sounds for 'thought' and 'force' if required.
[@2]
Is used for [@]
which changed to [I2]
when followed by a vowel (used in 'the').
[@5]
Is used for [@]
which changed to [U]
when followed by a vowel (used in 'to').