Pronunciation

Pronunciation is the way in which a word or a language is spoken.

This may refer to generally agreed-upon sequences of sounds used in speaking a given word or all language in a specific dialect—"correct" or "standard" pronunciation—or simply the way a particular individual speaks a word or language.

Words' pronunciations can be found in reference works such as dictionaries. General-purpose dictionaries typically only include standard pronunciations, but regional or dialectal pronunciations may be found in more specific works. Orthoepy is the study of the pronunciation of a language.

A word can be spoken in different ways by various individuals or groups, depending on many factors, such as: the duration of the cultural exposure of their childhood, the location of their current residence, speech or voice disorders, their ethnic group, their social class, or their education.

Linguistic terminology

Syllables are combinations of units of sound (phones), for example "goo" has one syllable made up of [g] and [u]. The branch of linguistics which studies these units of sound is phonetics. Phones which play the same role are grouped together into classes called phonemes; the study of these is phonemics or phonematics or phonology. Phones as components of articulation are usually described using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).

See also

• Elision
• Elocution
• Epenthesis
• Help:IPA/English — the principal key used in Wikipedia articles to transcribe the pronunciation of English words
• Help:Pronunciation respelling key — a secondary key for pronunciation which mimics English orthography
• Metathesis (linguistics)

External links

• Error creating thumbnail: File missing Media related to at Wikimedia Commons
• The dictionary definition of pronunciation at Wiktionary