User:Gilgamesh~enwiktionary/English words by phonological interest


 * This is a user page project. It is not intended as an accredited reference.

Notes on weak vowel metaphonemes used on this page
Since neither Wiktionary nor Wikipedia's conventional IPA for English permits these anymore.

Alternate pronunciations with
This list does not include:
 * Words where the only pronunciations involve either or.

⟨a⟩ as or
Most such words have the spelling combinations ⟨wa⟩, ⟨ua⟩ or ⟨wha⟩.

This list does not include:
 * Words only pronounced with, such as or.
 * Words pronounced with from L-vocalization, such as  or.

⟨aCC⟩ as and final ⟨aC⟩ as
This list does not include:
 * Words where the consonant cluster sequence is only (as in ) or only  (as in ), since vowels are expected to be long in these spellings.
 * Words where the spelling ⟨agC⟩ is pronounced from older.
 * Words pronounced with or, as this is specific and regular to certain dialects of North American English.

These words mostly have in North American English, though certain words may still retain.

⟨au⟩ as
This pronunciation mainly occurs before a cluster of and another consonant, and most such words also have alternate pronunciations with.

This sound tends to merge with in certain accents of North American English.

BATH lexical set
These words tend to have in North American English and  in Received Pronunciation. Some accents have both sounds, but varying word by word.

CLOTH lexical set
These words tend to have in North American English and  in Australian English and Received Pronunciation. Some accents have both sounds, but varying word by word.

⟨ei⟩ and ⟨ey⟩ as
This list does not include:
 * Words where ⟨ei⟩ or ⟨ey⟩ only represents the HAPPY vowel.

These words mostly have in North American English, though certain words may still retain.

⟨g⟩ as before ⟨e⟩, ⟨i⟩ or ⟨y⟩
This list does not include:
 * Common inflections involving, , , and so forth.

⟨i⟩ and ⟨y⟩ as
This list does not include:
 * Words where ⟨i⟩ and ⟨y⟩ only represent the HAPPY vowel.

⟨iCC⟩ and ⟨yCC⟩ as and final ⟨iC⟩ and ⟨yC⟩ as
This list does not include:
 * Words where the spelling ⟨igC⟩ is pronounced from older  from previous.

⟨ie⟩ as
This list does not include:
 * Words where ⟨ie⟩ only represents the HAPPY vowel.

These words mostly have in North American English, though certain words may still retain.

⟨o⟩ and ⟨oe⟩ as
This list does not include:
 * Words where ⟨o⟩ only represents.

⟨oCC⟩ as and final ⟨oC⟩ as
This list does not include:
 * Words where the consonant cluster sequence is only (as in ) or only  (as in ), since vowels are expected to be long in these spellings.
 * Plurals formed with.
 * Words with ⟨olC⟩ or final ⟨ol⟩.

⟨ou⟩ as
This list does not include:
 * Words where ⟨ou⟩ only represents.

⟨ou⟩ and ⟨ow⟩ as
This sound historically never overlapped with ⟨ou⟩ or ⟨ow⟩ as or post-Great Vowel Shift.

⟨ou⟩ as
All these words imply ⟨ou⟩ that remained after ⟨ou⟩ had regularly shifted to  in the Great Vowel Shift.

For historical reasons, this list also includes ⟨ou⟩ as from older post-GVS.

PALM lexical set
This list does not include:
 * Words with a common alternate pronunciation with, or.
 * Words in the START lexical set.

Silent ⟨u⟩ and ⟨w⟩
This list does not include:
 * Silent ⟨w⟩ in ⟨wr⟩.

Irregularly short vowels
English has many such words, so for illustrative purposes, this list is limited to two-syllable words of penultimate stress where a vowel pronounced short precedes a single written consonant that would regularly make the vowel pronounced long. Even in these words, oftentimes the short vowel resulted from trisyllabic laxing, after which the third syllable went silent and was sometimes later removed from spelling.

This list does include: This list does not include:
 * Words where the one written consonant is any of ⟨b c d f g k l m n p r s t z⟩ or the digraphs ⟨ch qu⟩, or ⟨ci si ti⟩ where they are pronounced as single consonants through yod coalescence.
 * Words where the one consonant is followed by either ⟨l⟩ or ⟨r⟩ and another orthographic vowel (including silent ⟨e⟩), as even with these in cluster, the vowel would still regularly be pronounced long.
 * Words where that one written consonant is the digraph ⟨sh⟩, which traditionally functions as a consonant cluster in spelling even though today it is pronounced as a single consonant.
 * Words where that one written consonant is the digraph ⟨th⟩, before which vowel length is often unpredictable.
 * Words where that one written consonant is ⟨v⟩, which for historical reasons is almost always written single because ⟨vv⟩ appeared too similar to ⟨w⟩.
 * Words where that one written consonant is the single letter ⟨x⟩, which is actually a consonant cluster.
 * Words that are otherwise spelt irregularly, except the final weak vowel.