Help talk:Pronunciation respelling key

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This help page was nominated for deletion on 20 March 2006. The result of the discussion was no consensus.

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Glottal stop?

The glottal stop (ʔ) indicates that there is a full stop between vowels. In the "Naujan" page, the respelling appears to be "naʔ-OO-han." Is the glottal stop optional for the respelling key, or remove the "ʔ" symbol? BIG DADDY Dunkleosteus (talk) 07:20, 27 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

No respelling should be given in the first place since it's not preceded by a transcription of English. Nardog (talk) 11:05, 27 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

/ɜːɹ/ is inappropriate

there is underlying /ɜ/ in English. Plus I pronounce the vowel in "bird" the same as "letter", which is listed under as /əɹ/

ur

bird, furry

/ɜːɹ/

ər

letter

/əɹ/

I would delete this column, but I'm sure there are many articles which use the ur spelling. SasquatchRF (talk) 04:57, 9 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

"Wikipedia Respelling" listed at Redirects for discussion

The redirect Wikipedia Respelling has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2025 October 5 § Wikipedia Respelling until a consensus is reached. Utopes _{(talk / cont)} 08:01, 5 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

"Wikipedia respelling" listed at Redirects for discussion

The redirect Wikipedia respelling has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2025 October 5 § Wikipedia respelling until a consensus is reached. Utopes _{(talk / cont)} 08:01, 5 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Mary, Marry, and Merry

These words are used as examples for /ɛər/, /ær/, and /ɛr/ respectively, yet at least the majority of the United States pronounces these words the same, and thus they aren't very good examples of each sound for many people. TheAllegedFerretBuisness (talk) 18:37, 2 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]

It seems like you have it backwards. The reality is that most Americans pronounce these words (and all words in their same lexical sets) the same, which entails that there are no examples that would help them. They have a phonological merger. Wolfdog (talk) 22:02, 3 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]

More respelling options for /aɪ/ (igh?)

There should be other respelling options for /aɪ/, such as "igh" (as is used in the OED and NBC Handbook of Pronunciation for respelling). Under the current key, a sound like /jaɪ/ would need to be respelt as yy or yeye. Totally unreadable/useless respelling. Sandhals (talk) 09:53, 21 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]

/jaɪ/ is extremely rare, and we don't need three ways to represent /aɪ/ (and if we do, there should be a clear way to know which one to use when, as there currently is for eye vs y). Respelling /aɪ/ with igh is not out of question, but it should be to replace eye/y, not in addition to them.

Respelling /aɪ/ is indeed difficult. See /Archive 5#The PRICE vowel for the last time we took a stab (only to be shot down). Nardog (talk) 15:51, 21 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]