Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pronunciation in Wikipedia should be transcribed using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), except in the particular cases noted below.
 | This guideline is a part of the English Wikipedia's Manual of Style. Editors should generally follow it, though exceptions may apply. Substantive edits to this page should reflect consensus. |
For English pronunciations, broad diaphonemic transcriptions should be used; these are intended to provide a correct interpretation regardless of the reader's accent. The system for doing this is outlined at Help:IPA/English, and the first instance should include a link to that page; for example: England (/ˈɪŋɡlənd/)
. This should be done using the template {{IPAc-en}}. The Wikipedia respelling system, using the {{respell}} template, can be used in addition to the IPA.
Phonetic transcriptions are not always the best way to render pronunciation. For brand names which are intended to be respellings of an existing word, it is better to provide that word than a phonetic transcription. Similarly, initialisms are better spelled out than transcribed. In both situations this will generally be unambiguous, and accessible to more of our readers.
For non-English pronunciations, a phonetic transcription is normally used, with a link to Help:IPA or to various language-specific IPA keys. If phonemic transcriptions are used, these require a link to a description of the phonology of the language in question, as otherwise the symbols used may be ambiguous.
Other options are to link to the corresponding entry in Wiktionary, or to include an audio file together with the transcription. Consider that Wikipedia is not a dictionary when thinking of adding a pronunciation to an article; also, if the pronunciation is included in the main article, it is best not to repeat it in various sub-articles. Besides the clutter, subsequent edits may result in contradictory pronunciations.
See also:
- Help:IPA – a non-technical introduction to the symbols used in the IPA for languages other than English
- The more detailed IPA chart for English dialects – a good place for English-speakers to start learning IPA
- Help:IPA/Conventions for English – compares Wikipedia's IPA conventions with the in-house conventions found in various dictionaries
- Pronunciation respelling for English – compares the IPA with non-IPA transcriptions found in various American dictionaries
- Phonetic transcription – explains the difference between phonemic, phonetic, and morphological transcriptions, and broad vs narrow transcriptions
Appropriate use
Normally, pronunciation is given only for the subject of the article in its lead section. For non-English words and names, use the pronunciation key for the appropriate language. If a common English rendering of the non-English name exists (Venice, Nikita Khrushchev), its pronunciation, if necessary, should be indicated before the non-English one. For English words and names, pronunciation should normally be omitted for common words or when obvious from the spelling; use it only for loanwords from other languages (coup d'etat), names with counterintuitive pronunciation (Leicester, Ralph Fiennes), or very unusual words (synecdoche).
Pronunciation should be indicated sparingly, as parenthetical information disturbs the normal flow of the text and introduces clutter. In the article text, it should be indicated only where it is directly relevant to the subject matter, such as describing a word's etymology or explaining a pun. Less important pronunciations should be omitted altogether, relegated to a footnote, or to a dedicated section in the article or infobox. Articles about phonology and other aspects of a language may normally use pronunciation keys throughout the text, as appropriate.
Do not include pronunciations for names of countries whose pronunciations are well known in English (France, Poland). Do not include them for common English words just because they have pronunciations that might be counterintuitive for those learning the English language (laughter, sword). If the name consists of more than one word, include pronunciation only for the words that need it (all of Jean van Heijenoort but only Cholmondeley in Thomas P. G. Cholmondeley).
IPA style
Whenever the IPA appears in an article, it should be contained within the {{IPA}} template or a similar template such as {{IPAc-en}}. This allows software to tell the text is in IPA, and registered users to assign a different font to display the IPA symbols. The [brackets] should be inside the {{IPA}} template for uniformity of the font.
When using the IPA, provide an explanation for the reader. If there are multiple instances of IPA in an article, you may want to use the template {{IPA notice}} at the top of the page. However, if there are only a few instances of IPA, you may instead wish to use a template to link the first to one of the help keys, such as:
{{IPA|fr|ɛɡzɑ̃pl}}
This yields:
- French pronunciation: [ɛɡzɑ̃pl]
Without the label:
{{IPA|fr|ɛɡzɑ̃pl|}}
yields:
If the first parameter is an IETF language tag and the second a transcription, as in the above, {{IPA}} automatically provides a label and, if a dedicated key for the language exists, links the transcription to the key.
Audio samples may be included in the IPA template as |audio=.
When a specific phonetic pronunciation is indicated, as in non-English names, this is marked by square brackets. Normally a reader will not know the structure of the language in question well enough for a phonemic transcription in slashes to be useful. The use of slashes is only permitted in cases where the pronunciation represents phonemes, as in broad transcriptions of English. However, phonetic transcriptions of English may be useful to represent a specific accent, local or historical pronunciations, or how a person pronounces their own name. For example, the English name Florence would normally be given the generic transcription /ˈflɒrəns/, but in the case of Florence Nightingale we have a recording of her saying her name, and she pronounces it [ˈflɒɾəns], with a flapped ar [ɾ] that is no longer the norm in English. Non-universal pronunciations such as these should be clearly marked for what they are.
Distinction between varieties of English
It is often possible to transcribe a word in a generic way that is not specific to any one accent, e.g. Oxford as /ˈɒksfərd/. Speakers of non-rhotic accents, as in much of Australia, England, New Zealand, and Wales, will pronounce the second syllable [fəd], those with the father–bother merger, as in much of the US and Canada, will pronounce the first syllable [ˈɑːks], and those with the cot–caught merger but without the father–bother merger, as in Scotland and Boston, will pronounce the first syllable [ˈɔːks], but since such variation on the part of the speaker is automatic, it need not be spelled out in a simple pronunciation guide to a key word in an article. Indeed, the Help:IPA/English key, designed for readers who are unfamiliar with the IPA, simply defines the sequence /ər/ as the sound at the end of letter, and warns that it may not be distinct from /ə/ for many people. That is, there is little point in transcribing Oxford as [ˈɒksfərd], [ˈɒksfəd], [ˈɑːksfərd], [ˈɑːksfəd], [ˈɔːksfərd], or [ˈɔːksfəd], depending on accent, and this would add a considerable amount of clutter to the article.
If the pronunciation in a specific accent is desired, square brackets may be used, perhaps with a link to IPA chart for English dialects, which describes several national standards, or with a comment that the pronunciation is General American, Received Pronunciation, Australian English, etc. Local pronunciations are of particular interest in the case of place names. If there are both local and national or international standards, it may be beneficial to list both. As long as a transcription is linked to the Help:IPA/English key, the conventions of the key should be used—even if the pronunciation itself is only found in certain locations—so that it can be pronounced in other accents as well.
Non-English names
When a non-English name has a set English pronunciation (or pronunciations), include both the English and non-English pronunciations; the English transcription must always be first. If the native name is different from the English name, the native transcription must appear after the native name.
For example:
'''Venezuela''' ({{IPAc-en|ˌ|v|ɛ|n|ə|ˈ|z|w|eɪ|l|ə}}; {{langx|es|República Bolivariana de Venezuela}}, {{IPA|es|reˈpuβlika βoliβaˈɾjana ðe βeneˈswela|pron}})
which gives: Venezuela (/ˌvɛnəˈzweɪlə/; Spanish: República Bolivariana de Venezuela, pronounced [reˈpuβlika βoliβaˈɾjana ðe βeneˈswela])
Similarly,
'''Nikita Khrushchev''' ({{IPAc-en|n|ɪ|ˈ|k|iː|t|ə|_|ˈ|k|r|ʊ|ʃ|tʃ|ɛ|f}}; {{lang-rus|Никита Хрущёв}} {{IPA|ru|nʲɪˈkʲitə xrʊˈɕːɵf|}})
gives: Nikita Khrushchev (/nɪˈkiːtə ˈkrʊʃtʃɛf/; Russian: Никита Хрущёв [nʲɪˈkʲitə xrʊˈɕːɵf])
Transcriptions should always have a label identifying which language they are transcribing, with the exception of English. They are normally given in the national or international standard of the language in question, unless there is a reason to give a more local pronunciation. For example, the Help:IPA/Spanish key generally uses Castilian Spanish as its standard, for Venezuela [beneˈθwela], but the local pronunciation of [beneˈswela] may be considered more relevant. If a local pronunciation is transcribed, it should be marked as such:
'''Venezuela''' ({{IPA|es|beneˈswela|local}})
- Venezuela (locally [beneˈswela])
If the key doesn't cover the IPA symbols used in the transcription of a local pronunciation, |generic=yes must be given, so it links to the generic key (Help:IPA) instead.
However, in language articles such as Spanish phonology, where the phonology is made explicit, examples may be given in either phonetic or phonemic notation, depending on the point being made, as the reader will have the information available to make sense of either. If for some reason it is desired to indicate the pronunciation of a non-English word phonemically in a non-linguistic article, a link should be provided to the phonology of the language in question.
Tone
Tone should always be included in the transcriptions of tonal languages. Because tone numbers are ambiguous—the reader may not know whether [ma4] is supposed to be high tone, low tone, or a tone number, for example—IPA transcriptions should use diacritic marks ([má]) or tone letters ([ma˦]), unless the article explains the numbering system.
Other transcription systems
If a language is not usually written in the Latin alphabet, an official romanization may exist for it. For example, pinyin for Standard Chinese and the Royal Thai General System of Transcription. In such cases, both the romanisation and the IPA rendering may be given.
For English words, transcriptions based on English spelling ("pronunciation respellings") such as prə-NUN-see-AY-shən (using {{respell}}) may be used, but only in addition to the IPA ({{IPAc-en}}). Whatever system is used, any transcription should link to an explanation of its symbols, since such symbols are not universally understood.
For other languages, only the IPA is normally used. Respelling non-English pronunciations into English is inadequate and misleading. If an English respelling is given for a Welsh or Māori name, not only would it be bad Welsh or Māori but the implication would be that it's the English pronunciation. Nonetheless, an ad hoc description of a non-English language word in that language is permitted. An example is Renault 4CV. This is called the Quatre chevaux in French, but the re is elided, so the French pronunciation can be clarified with "pronounced quat'chevaux" (this appearing with the French IPA transcription [kat.ʃəvo], assuming the editor finds that worth including).
Ad hoc descriptions such as "rhymes with both" or "rhymes with paid" may be useful for describing English sounds, but many such descriptions (e.g. "rhymes with bath", "rhymes with caught") will be interpreted differently depending on the reader's accent, so caution is advised, and this approach should not be used alone.
However, when a name is intended to be a homonym of an existing English word or phrase, as is the case with many brand names and entertainers' names, giving that word or phrase may be all that is needed:
The '''Motorola Razr''' (styled '''RAZR''', pronounced "razor") produces: The Motorola Razr (styled RAZR, pronounced "razor")
Nonetheless, even here some cases may be ambiguous. For example:
'''Kioti Tractor''' ({{IPAc-en|k|aɪ|'|oʊ|t|i}} "coyote") produces: Kioti Tractor (/kaɪˈoʊti/ "coyote")
If the IPA was omitted, it would not be clear which of the pronunciations of coyote is intended. In such cases, combining the IPA with the intended homonym may be needed. These should not be formatted with the {{respell}} template, as they do not follow that format. For example:
'''Peter John Coke''' ({{IPAc-en|'|k|ʊ|k}} "cook") produces: Peter John Coke (/ˈkʊk/ "cook")
There, the "cook" should not be formatted with the {{respell}} template, because then it would need to be {{respell|KUUK}} (giving KUUK) to match the key it is linked to.
Places where other systems without the IPA are often appropriate are initialisms and names composed of numbers or symbols. This is because the names of the letters, numbers, and symbols can be spelled out in normal English orthography in a way that makes the pronunciation unambiguous across dialects. For example, Dead on arrival (DOA) may be better explained as "(an initialism: D-O-A)" rather than as the equally correct but less accessible /ˌdiːˌoʊˈeɪ/. Similarly:
'''C++''' ({{IPAc-en|ˌ|s|iː|ˌ|p|l|ʌ|s|ˈ|p|l|ʌ|s}} "cee plus plus"<!-- "cee" is the name of letter "c" -->)
produces: C++ (/ˌsiːˌplʌsˈplʌs/ "cee plus plus")
Rather than solely using the less accessible /ˌsiːˌplʌsˈplʌs/. Similarly:
'''javac''' (pronounced "java-cee") produces: javac (pronounced "java-cee")
See English alphabet#Letters for how the names of the letters of the alphabet are spelled.
Similarly, the dispute over how to pronounce the X in Mac OS X may be better described as ten versus ex rather than as /ˈtɛn/ versus /ˈɛks/. In the case of Z, spelling out the letter as zee or zed is sufficient, if only one is considered correct.
Respelling should also be avoided when a respelled syllable would be the same as an existing word that is pronounced differently. "Maui" /ˈmaʊi/ respelled as MOW-ee, "metonymy" /mɛˈtɒnɪmi/ as meh-TON-im-ee, and "cobalt" /ˈkoʊbɒlt/ as KOH-bolt are susceptible to being misinterpreted as /ˈmoʊi/, /mɛˈtʌnɪmi/, and /ˈkoʊboʊlt/, because of the existing words "mow", "ton", and "bolt", so only IPA should be provided for such words, if any.
