Which Accent Ingglish Spells
The first constraint on any phonetic spelling is that it has to pick an accent. "Spell it as it sounds" only works once you say whose voice it sounds like, because English accents disagree about hundreds of common words. This page is the first step of the design story told in How Ingglish Was Designed: it says which accent Ingglish follows, why, and where speakers of other accents will find the spelling doesn't match how they talk.
Ingglish spells words as they sound in General American English (GenAm), using the pronunciations in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, a free list of English words and how Americans say them.
The CMU dictionary writes pronunciations in ARPAbet, a plain-text notation that names each sound with one or two capital letters (AH, K, SH). It has 39 phonemes (distinct sounds): 15 vowels and 24 consonants. That set of sounds is itself American. It has no /ɒ/ (the British vowel in "lot"), no /ʍ/ (a breathy "hw" sound), and no separate symbol for schwa, the weak vowel in "about". Schwa is written as the "but" vowel, AH, marked unstressed: AH0. A digit after a vowel gives its stress: 1 or 2 for stressed, 0 for none.
In the tables, symbols between slashes, like /æ/, are IPA (the International Phonetic Alphabet) and show the sounds a speaker thinks of a word as having. Symbols in square brackets, like [ɾ], show exactly how a sound comes out.
Capitalised names like LOT, TRAP and BATH are standard linguists' labels for groups of words that share a vowel, each named after one of its words: "the BATH words" means bath, grass, dance and so on. A merger is when an accent pronounces two such groups the same way; a split is the reverse.
Why General American?
- The CMU Pronouncing Dictionary is the largest free English pronunciation dictionary, with 126,051 entries.
- Thanks to American media, GenAm is the most widely recognized English accent worldwide.
- A spelling needs one accent to start from, and this one comes with the dictionary.
Other accents could be supported later with alternative sound-to-spelling mappings.
Major Dialect Features
Rhoticity (Post-Vocalic R)
Ingglish assumes every R is pronounced, including after a vowel. Accents that do this are called rhotic.
| Word | Ingglish | GenAm (rhotic) | British RP (non-rhotic) |
|---|---|---|---|
| car | kar | /kɑɹ/ | /kɑː/ |
| park | park | /pɑɹk/ | /pɑːk/ |
| bird | berd | /bɝd/ | /bɜːd/ |
| near | neer | /nɪɹ/ | /nɪə/ |
| nurse | ners | /nɝs/ | /nɜːs/ |
Who this affects: Speakers of non-rhotic accents see an R where they don't say one. These include RP (the standard British accent), Australian, New Zealand, some Southern US and some New England accents. This is the assumption with the widest reach: it touches almost every word with a vowel followed by R. It is also why Ingglish can give vowels before R their own spellings (see R-Colored Vowels).
Who this matches: General American, Canadian, and most other rhotic accents. Scottish and Irish accents are rhotic too, but their vowels before R differ. Many Scottish speakers keep the vowels of "fern", "bird" and "hurt" apart, where General American merges all three into /ɝ/, spelled "er" (fern, berd, hert). So for them the R is right but the vowel spelling may not match.
The TRAP-BATH Split
Ingglish uses /æ/, the vowel in "trap", for all BATH words (bath, grass, dance and similar).
| Word | Ingglish | GenAm | British RP |
|---|---|---|---|
| bath | bath | /bæθ/ | /bɑːθ/ |
| grass | gras | /æ/ | /ɑː/ |
| dance | dans | /æ/ | /ɑː/ |
| castle | kasal | /æ/ | /ɑː/ |
| class | klas | /æ/ | /ɑː/ |
| ask | ask | /æ/ | /ɑː/ |
Who this affects: RP and South African speakers use /ɑː/ in these words and would expect "bahth", "grahs", "dahns". Australian English uses /ɑː/ in some BATH words (bath, grass) but /æ/ in others (dance, castle), so it is partly affected.
Who this matches: General American, Canadian, Northern English, Scottish, Irish.
The Cot-Caught Distinction
Ingglish has two spellings for these vowels: "o" for the LOT vowel (/ɑ/, "cot") and "aw" for the THOUGHT vowel (/ɔ/, "law"). Which one a word gets depends on how the CMU dictionary records it.
| Word | Ingglish | Vowel | GenAm |
|---|---|---|---|
| cot | kot | /ɑ/ | /kɑt/ |
| lot | lot | /ɑ/ | /lɑt/ |
| taught | tawt | /ɔ/ | /tɔt/ |
| daughter | dawter | /ɔ/ | /dɔtɚ/ |
| thought | thawt | /ɔ/ | /θɔt/ |
| cloth | klawth | /ɔ/ | /klɔθ/ |
The distinction is only partial in practice. The CMU dictionary gives some words more than one pronunciation, and Ingglish always uses the first one listed. For a few words, including "caught" and "bought", the first one listed has the LOT vowel and the THOUGHT vowel comes second. So "caught" comes out as kot, the same as "cot", and "bought" as bot. Ingglish's translator also works in reverse, and turning "kot" back into English gives "caught", the more common of the two words. This is a known gap: a later version may prefer the THOUGHT pronunciation for these words.
Who this affects: Speakers with the cot-caught merger say both vowels the same. They include speakers in the Western US, Canada and much of the US Midland. For them the choice between "o" and "aw" will seem arbitrary. Speakers who keep the two apart will find the few words like "caught" spelled with the wrong one.
Who this matches: Speakers who keep the two apart, in the Eastern US and some of the Southern US. RP keeps them apart too, but with different vowel sounds.
The Father-Bother Merger
Ingglish gives LOT ("bother") and PALM ("father") the same vowel, /ɑ/, spelled "o".
| Word | Ingglish | GenAm | British RP |
|---|---|---|---|
| father | fodher | /fɑðɚ/ | /fɑːðə/ (PALM /ɑː/) |
| bother | bodher | /bɑðɚ/ | /bɒðə/ (LOT /ɒ/) |
Who this affects: RP and Australian speakers say these differently: "father" has /ɑː/ (PALM) and "bother" has /ɒ/ (LOT). ARPAbet has no symbol for the rounded /ɒ/, so the dictionary cannot record the difference.
The Mary-Marry-Merry Merger
Ingglish spells all three the same way.
| Word | Ingglish | GenAm | British RP |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mary | Mairee | /mɛɹi/ | /meəɹi/ (SQUARE) |
| marry | mairee | /mɛɹi/ | /mæɹi/ (TRAP) |
| merry | mairee | /mɛɹi/ | /mɛɹi/ (DRESS) |
Who this affects: RP pronounces all three differently, and New York City and Philadelphia speakers may keep two or all three apart. To them, one spelling for all three looks wrong.
Who this matches: Most of General American, where the merger is complete.
Yod-Dropping After Coronals
Ingglish drops the "y" sound (/j/) between /t/, /d/, /n/ or /s/ and /uː/, so "new" is "noo", not "nyoo". Linguists call /j/ "yod", and these four consonants "coronals" because they are made with the tip or blade of the tongue. Hence yod-dropping after coronals.
| Word | Ingglish | GenAm | British RP |
|---|---|---|---|
| dew | doo | /duː/ | /djuː/ |
| due | doo | /duː/ | /djuː/ |
| new | noo | /nuː/ | /njuː/ |
| tune | toon | /tuːn/ | /tjuːn/ |
| suit | soot | /suːt/ | /sjuːt/ |
| student | stoodant | /stuːdənt/ | /stjuːdənt/ |
Who this affects: RP, Australian, and most non-American accents keep the /j/ here and would expect "dyoo", "nyoo", "tyoon".
Who this matches: General American, where dropping it is standard.
The Wine-Whine Merger
Ingglish spells both /w/ and the breathy /ʍ/ ("hw") as "w".
| Word | Ingglish | GenAm | Scottish/Irish |
|---|---|---|---|
| which | wich | /wɪtʃ/ | /ʍɪtʃ/ |
| witch | wich | /wɪtʃ/ | /wɪtʃ/ |
| where | wair | /wɛɹ/ | /ʍɛɹ/ |
| wear | wair | /wɛɹ/ | /wɛɹ/ |
Who this affects: Scottish, Irish, and some Southern US speakers, who start "which" with /ʍ/ ("hw"). For them, a real difference disappears. See Y and W.
Who this matches: Most GenAm and RP speakers, who say "which" and "witch" the same.
The Horse-Hoarse Merger
Ingglish spells these the same way.
| Word | Ingglish | GenAm |
|---|---|---|
| horse | hors | /hɔɹs/ |
| hoarse | hors | /hɔɹs/ |
| for | for | /fɔɹ/ |
| four | for | /fɔɹ/ |
Who this affects: Some Scottish and Irish speakers, who say them differently. Nearly every other major accent says them the same.
Flapping (Allophonic Detail)
Ingglish writes a /t/ as "t", even where Americans say it as a quick tap, [ɾ]. Linguists call this tap a flap, and an allophonic detail: a change in how a sound is said that never turns it into a different sound.
| Word | Ingglish | GenAm pronunciation | What you hear |
|---|---|---|---|
| butter | buhter | /bʌtɚ/ | [bʌɾɚ] (flapped) |
| water | wawter | /wɔtɚ/ | [wɔɾɚ] (flapped) |
| letter | leter | /lɛtɚ/ | [lɛɾɚ] (flapped) |
| ladder | lader | /lædɚ/ | [læɾɚ] (flapped) |
Ingglish records phonemes (in slashes, like /t/), not phonetic detail (in square brackets, like [ɾ]). So a /t/ between vowels is written "t" even though most Americans say it as a flap [ɾ], much like a quick "d". This happens to match RP more closely, since RP doesn't flap /t/.
The -ile Suffix
Ingglish uses the American pronunciation, with a weak "-al" ending.
| Word | Ingglish | GenAm | British RP |
|---|---|---|---|
| hostile | hostal | /hɑstəl/ | /hɒstaɪl/ |
| missile | misal | /mɪsəl/ | /mɪsaɪl/ |
| fertile | fertal | /fɝtəl/ | /fɜːtaɪl/ |
| fragile | frajal | /fɹædʒəl/ | /fɹædʒaɪl/ |
Who this affects: RP speakers say -ile as /aɪl/ (like "aisle") and would expect "hostail", "misail", and so on.
Specific Word Differences
Some individual words are well known for sounding different in America and Britain:
| Word | Ingglish | GenAm | British RP |
|---|---|---|---|
| schedule | skejul | /skɛdʒuːl/ | /ʃɛdjuːl/ |
| lieutenant | lootenant | /luːtɛnənt/ | /lɛftɛnənt/ |
| herb | erb | /ɝb/ (silent H) | /hɜːb/ |
| tomato | tamaytoh | /təmeɪtoʊ/ | /təmɑːtəʊ/ |
| vitamin | vaitaman | /vaɪtəmɪn/ | /vɪtəmɪn/ |
| privacy | praivasee | /pɹaɪvəsi/ | /pɹɪvəsi/ |
| vase | vays | /veɪs/ | /vɑːz/ |
| garage | gerozh | /ɡəɹɑːʒ/ | /ɡæɹɪdʒ/ |
| been | bin | /bɪn/ | /biːn/ |
| leisure | leezher | /liːʒɚ/ | /lɛʒə/ |
Summary: Mergers and Distinctions
| Feature | Ingglish status | Affects |
|---|---|---|
| Rhoticity | Rhotic (all R's pronounced) | RP, Australian, NZ speakers |
| TRAP-BATH | No split (all /æ/) | RP, Australian, SA speakers |
| Cot-caught | Mostly distinct (/ɑ/ vs /ɔ/); caught and bought use /ɑ/ | Western US, Canadian speakers |
| Father-bother | Merged (both /ɑ/) | RP, Australian speakers |
| Mary-marry-merry | Fully merged | RP, NYC, Philadelphia speakers |
| Wine-whine | Merged (both W) | Scottish, Irish speakers |
| Yod after coronals | Dropped | RP, Australian speakers |
| Horse-hoarse | Merged | Some Scottish, Irish speakers |
| Flapping | Written as underlying /t/ | Matches all dialects phonemically |
British Spellings
The CMU dictionary also lists American spellings. When a British spelling such as "colour", "realise" or "centre" is not in it, Ingglish's translator looks up the American spelling ("color", "realize", "center") instead. This only changes which dictionary entry is found; the pronunciation, and so the Ingglish spelling, is still the American one.
The next constraint is how to tell a good spelling from a bad one: see How a Spelling Is Scored.