Pronunciation

The way a word or a language is said

Pronunciation is the way in which a word or a language is spoken. This may refer to generally agreed-upon sequences of sounds used in speaking a given word or language in a specific dialect ("correct" or "standard" pronunciation) or simply the way a particular individual speaks a word or language.

Words' pronunciations can be found in reference works such as dictionaries. General-purpose dictionaries typically only include standard pronunciations, but regional or dialectal pronunciations may be found in more specific works.[1] Orthoepy means pronunciation considered correct, or the study thereof.

A word can be spoken in different ways by various individuals or groups, depending on many factors, such as: the duration of the cultural exposure of their childhood, the location of their current residence, speech or voice disorders,[2] their ethnic group, their social class, or their education.[3]

## Linguistic terminology

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Syllables are combinations of units of sound (phones), for example "goo" has one syllable made up of [g] and [u]. The branch of linguistics which studies these units of sound is phonetics. Phones which play the same role are grouped together into classes called phonemes; the study of these is phonemics or phonematics or phonology. Phones as components of articulation are usually described using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).[4]

## See also

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* Elision
* Elocution
* Epenthesis
* Help:IPA/English — the principal key used in Wikipedia articles to transcribe the pronunciation of English words
* Help:Pronunciation respelling key — a secondary key for pronunciation which mimics English orthography
* Metathesis (linguistics)

## References

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1. ^ The Oxford Handbook of Lexicography, 2016, page 303
2. ^ Beech, John R.; Harding, Leonora; Hilton-Jones, Diana (1993). "Assessment of Articulation and Phonology". In Grunwell, Pam (ed.). Assessment in Speech and Language Therapy. CUP Archive. p. 55\. ISBN 0-415-07882-2.
3. ^ Paulston, Christina Bratt; Tucker, G. Richard (February 14, 2003). "Some Sociolinguistic Principles". In Labov, William (ed.). Sociolinguistics: The Essential Readings. Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 234–250. ISBN 0-631-22717-2.
4. ^ Schultz, Tanja (June 12, 2006). "Language Characteristics". In Kirchhoff, Katrin (ed.). Multilingual Speech Processing. Elsevier. p. 12\. ISBN 0-12-088501-8.

## External links

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* Media related to Pronunciation at Wikimedia Commons
* The dictionary definition of pronunciation at Wiktionary

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