[:en]Help with phonemic transcription and pronunciation[:]

Phonemic transcription (see footnote) is, as Monk would say, both “a gift and a curse”. It’s a gift because it helps us see how words are really pronounced in English, despite their spelling. It’s a curse because you need to learn the script.

Well, now things have got a whole lot easier thanks to Lingorado, where you can type in a text in English and click to get the phonemic transcription. You even get the option of American or British pronunciation, and can listen to a robotic audio version.

Check your knowledge of English pronunciation and phonemic script with these jokes, transcribed at Lingorado:

wɒts ðə ˈdɪfrəns bɪˈtwiːn ə ˈkɒmə ənd ə kæt?
ə ˈkɒmə z ə pɔːz ət ði ɛnd əv ɪts klɔːz waɪl ə kæt həz klɔːz ət ði ɛnd əv ɪts pɔːz

ɪf ˈæpl meɪd ə kɑː, wəd ɪt həv ˈwɪndəʊz?

wɒts ðə bɛst θɪŋ əˈbaʊt ˈlɪvɪŋ ɪn ˈswɪtsələnd?
nɒt ʃʊə, bət ðə flæg z ə bɪg plʌs.

At the very least, Lingorado will help lots of students with their English pronunciation homework.

Do you know of any similar pages for other languages? I would really like you to leave a comment if you do.

Footnote

Phonemic transcription (sometimes called broad transcription) is a code for the significantly different sounds in a specific language. Sounds are often pronounced slightly differently in different contexts but they are perceived as the same by native speakers and are written the same in phonemic script.

Phonetic script (sometimes called narrow transcription) is a code for precise description of all spoken language sounds. Phonetic script tells you exactly how a sound is.

In other words, phonemic script is a kind of simplified script for a specific language or dialect.

Thus the English word “clean” is

• [kl̥i:n] in phonetic script (where the l̥ symbol marks a voiceless l sound)
• /kli:n/ in phonemic script

There are different versions of both phonetic and phonemic script. The phonetic script above uses the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). The phonemic script could be one of many, such as the British Council chart of sounds in English. See also American and British English contrasted by Antimoon.[:]