| Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-07. |
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| Key to Pronunciation |
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 | sofa (s ´f), item ( ´tm), easily ( ´zl), cannon (k n´n), circus (sûr´ks) | | act (kt), bat (bt) |  | ape (p), fail (fl), day (d) | | â | air (âr), care (kâr) | | ä | art (ärt), father (fä´thr) | | b | back (bk), labor (l´br), cab (kb) | | ch | chin (ch n), hatchet (hch´t), rich (rch) | | d | dock (d k), lady (l´d), sad (sd) |  | end (nd), steady (std´), met (mt) | | eve (v), clear (klr), see (s) | | f | fat (ft), phase (fz), cough (kôf) | | g | get (gt), bigger (bg´r), tag (tg) | | h | hand (hnd), ahead (hd´) | | hw | wheel (hwl), which (hwch) | | it (t), pill (pl), mirror (mr´r) | | iron (´rn), eye (), buyer (b´r) | | j | jam (jm), ginger (jn´jr), edge (j) | | k | kit (kt), tackle (tk´l), cook (k k) | | l | little (lt´l), holly (hl´), pull (pl) | | m | man (mn), hammer (hm´r), climb (klm) | | n | new (n), known (nn), winner (wn´r) | | ng | singing (sng´ng), finger (fng´gr), sang (sng), sank (sngk) | | hot (ht), body (bd´) | | over (´vr), hope (hp), grow (gr) | | ô | orbit (ôr´bt), fall (fôl), saw (sô) | | foot (ft), wolf (wlf), put (pt), pure (pyr) |  | boot (bt), lose (lz), drew (dr), true (tr) | | oi | oil (oil), royal (roi´l), boy (boi) | | ou | out (out), crowd (kroud), how (hou) | | p | pipe (pp), happy (hp´) | | r | road (rd), appeared (prd´), carpenter (kär´pntr) | | s | so (s), cite (st), baste (bst) | | sh | shall (shl), sure (shr), nation (n´shn) | | t | tight (tt), better (bt´r), talked (tôkt) | | th | thin (thn), bath (bth) | | th | then (thn), father (fä´thr), bathe (bth) |  | but (bt), flood (fld), some (sm) | | û | curl (kûrl), girl (gûrl), fern (fûrn), worm (wûrm) | | v | vest (vst), trivial (trv´l), eve (v) | | w | wax (wks), twins (twnz) | | y | you (y), onion (n´yn) | | z | zipper (zp´r), ease (z), treads (trdz) | | zh | pleasure (plzh´r), rouge (rzh) | | | | FOREIGN SOUNDS | | ö | as in French peu (pö), German Goethe (gö´t) | | ü | as in French Cluny (klün´) | | kh | as in German ach (äkh), ich (kh); Scottish loch (lkh) | | N | this symbol indicates that the preceding vowel is nasal as in French cinq (sNk), un (öN), sans (säN), tombe (tôNb), en (äN); Portuguese São João (souN zhwouN) | | | | ACCENTS AND HYPHENS | | ´ | primary accent, written after accented vowel or syllable: Nebraska (nbrs´k), James Buchanan (byk´nn) | | ´´ | secondary accent: Mississippi (ms´´sp´) | | – | dash, replacing obvious portion of pronunciation: hegemony (hjm´n, h–, hj´m´´n, hg´–) | | - | hyphen, to prevent ambiguity in syllabification: Erlanger (ûr´lng-r), dishearten (ds-här´tn) | |
