Bible Basics - Words
Explanation of Phonetic Representation of Pronunciations
Phonetics are commonly used as a way to represent the sounds required for each syllable in a word. Dictionaries use a complex method of letters, symbols, and markings to represent the pronunciation. In the English alphabet there are approximately 39 sounds that can be made although there are only 26 letters. To represent these sounds on the computer screen, the following standards, which do not require special symbols, are being used. Each symbol is followed by common words which exemplify the sound.
Vowel Sounds:
- EE - eat, beet, neat
- IH - bit, hit
- AY - ace, hey, day
- EH - bread, Fred, Ted
- A - cat, sat
- AH - car, far
- AW - law, saw
- O - home, coat
- OU - book, took, hook
- OO - moon, spoon
- UH - cut, nut, love
- ER - bird, heard
- EHR - air, tear, fair
- AI - ice, nice, fly
- AU - out, shout, down
- OI - boy, coin
Consonant Sounds:
Consonants sound as the letter normally sounds with these exception:- G - (hard G) gun, lug
- ZH - garage, mirage, lodge
- TSH - church, chance, cheep