English IPA

English

English is probably the most confusing of the languages in this IPA set, but because you know English already, you will have the easiest time internalizing the meaning of the texts you sing – an integral part of creating a meaningful performance which will require more work in every other language that you have not grown up speaking. English grammar, for the most part, should make sense, and you will recognize the pronunciations quickly, even though you may not have thought before of how exactly you are singing words you speak every day. Therein lies perhaps the biggest challenge for American singers of English: ensuring that the sound is neither too mundane nor too classical to sound pure and still be understood.

The Vowels:

u- food [fud], do [du]; [ju] is used in words such as view [vju] and dew [dju]

ʊ- book [bʊk], put [pʊt]

o- obey [obeɪ], melody [mɛlodɨ]; the closed o only occurs on unstressed syllables

ɔ- god [gɔd], hot [hɔt]

ɑ-law [lɑ], all [ɑl]

æ- that [ðæt], thanks [thæŋks]

ɛ- bet [bɛt], help [hɛlp]

ɪ- bit [bɪt], think [θɪŋk]

i- meat [mit], me [mi]

ə/ʌ- bubble [bʌbəl], fastest [fæstəst] – in this position, it is close to a muted ɪ.

Special Vowels:

ɨ- very [vɛɹɨ], rosy [ɹouzɨ]; the idea being that unstressed, at the end of a word, you don’t close to a pure [i]

ɚ/ɝ - murder [mɝdɚ], earth [ɝθ]

Glides:

The danger of glides is not starting the initial vowel (see below) on the same note as the following vowel; the temptation is to swoop into the second vowel on the glide vowel – try to avoid this

j- starts on [i] - yes (the glides is over-enunciated on the cd)

w- starts on [u] - web

ɹ- starts on [ɚ] the English “r” is never rolled nor flipped, but instead is a glide - run

Diphthongs:

oʊ - no [noʊ], hope [hoʊp]

ɑʊ - how [hɑʊ], bound [bɑʊnd]

aɪ- I [aɪ], mine [m aɪn]

eɪ- day [deɪ], fade [feɪd]

ɔɪ- boy [bɔɪ], soil [sɔɪl]

ɪɚ - ear [ɪɚ], here [hɪɚ]

ɛɚ - air [ɛɚ], care [kɛɚ]

ɔɚ - pour [pɔɚ], fore [fɔɚ]

ʊɚ - sure [ʃʊɚ], poor [pʊɚ]

ɑɚ - are [ɑɚ], heart [hɑɚt]

Consonants of Note:

ʍ- hw, as in when [ʍɛn], why [ʍaɪ]

θ/ð- soft/hard “th” sound, as in wrath [ɹæθ] or bother [bɔðɚ]; note that with, whenever possible, is sung as [wɪð]

“The”

ðʊ- before voiced consonants (l, m, n, d, v, z, etc.): the lake [ðʊ leɪk]

ðə- before unvoiced consonants (f, s, t, p, etc.): the fire [ðə faɪɚ]

ði- before a vowel: the earth [ði ɝθ]

Thanks to Kathryn LaBouff and her book, Singing and Communicating in English, Oxford University Press 2008.