Wikipedia:Manual of Style (pronunciation)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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This guideline is a part of the English Wikipedia's Manual of Style. Use common sense in applying it; it will have occasional exceptions. Please ensure that any edits to this page reflect consensus. |
English pronunciation in Wikipedia should be transcribed in such a way that its interpretation does not depend on the reader's accent. For this end, broad transcriptions of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) should be used, as outlined at Help:IPA for English, and the first instance should include a link to that page: pronunciation /prɵˌnʌnsiˈeɪʃən/. Other systems may be used in addition to the IPA.
For foreign pronunciations, a phonetic transcription is normally used, with a link to Help:IPA or to various language-specific IPA keys. Phonemic transcriptions require a link to the phonology of the language in question, as otherwise such language-specific use of IPA symbols is undefined.
Other options are to link to the corresponding entry in Wiktionary, or to include an audio file.
See also:
- Help:IPA for English — a generic phonemic convention for transcribing English
- Help:IPA — a non-technical introduction to the symbols used in the IPA for languages other than English
- The more detailed International Phonetic Alphabet for English — a good place for English-speakers to start learning IPA
- Pronunciation respelling for English — this compares the IPA with in-house transcriptions found in various English dictionaries
- International Phonetic Alphabet#Types of transcription — explains the difference between phonemic, phonetic, and morphological transcriptions, and broad vs narrow transcriptions
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[edit] Other transcription systems
If a language is not usually written in the Latin alphabet, an official romanisation may exist for it. For example, pinyin for Mandarin Chinese or 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 proh-NUN-see-AY-shən may be used, as may US dictionary-style transcriptions such as prō·nŭn′·sē·ā′·shən, but only in addition to the IPA. All of these should link to an explanation of the symbols, which are not likely to be universally understood. For other languages, only the IPA should be used, as respellings are inadequate to convey them.
Some articles have in the past used SAMPA (or X-SAMPA), which is a way of indicating IPA without using the special IPA characters. The need for SAMPA has essentially disappeared since the introduction of Template:IPA (see below), which works around the broken display of IPA characters in Internet Explorer. Readers are generally not familiar with SAMPA, and Wikipedia's current practice is to replace it with IPA.
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 accents, so caution is advised and they should not be used alone.
[edit] IPA style
Whenever the IPA appears in an article, it should be contained within the {{IPA}} template. This ensures that the symbols display properly in browsers such as Internet Explorer, which do not support the IPA natively. Note that 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:
(pronounced {{IPA-en|ˌaɪ ˌpiː ˈeɪ|}})
This yields:
- (pronounced /ˌaɪ ˌpiː ˈeɪ/)
The shortcut:
({{pron-en|ˌaɪ ˌpiː ˈeɪ}})
yields the same:
- (pronounced /ˌaɪ ˌpiː ˈeɪ/)
{{IPA-en}} is customized specifically to English, and links to a dedicated Help:IPA for English key. For other languages, {{IPA-all}} should be used, which links to a generic Help:IPA key, or else one of a growing number of other dedicated IPA templates, such as {{IPA-fr}} for French.
With the IPA-en and IPA-fr etc. templates, various codes may be entered after the IPA, separated by a pipe, to change the default introductory text. A simple pipe cancels the lede text, as above.
Audio samples may be included in the IPA template. In the case of {{pronounced}} (generic) and {{pron-en}} (for English), the name of the sound file appears after the IPA, separated by a pipe. In the case of the various IPA-xx templates, it appears after the text code. Alternatively, the {{Audio-IPA}} template will apply the IPA class to any IPA text that is included.
When a specific phonetic pronunciation is indicated, as in foreign names, this is marked by square brackets. Normally a reader won't 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.
[edit] Distinction between British, American and Australian pronunciation
It is often possible to transcribe a word in a generic way that is not specific to any one accent, for example observation as /ɒbsərˈveɪʃən/. Speakers of non-rhotic accents, as in much of the UK, will pronounce this [ɒbsəˈveɪʃən], and those who merge /ɒ/ and /ɑː/, as in much of the US, will pronounce it [ɑːbsərˈveɪʃən], but since such variation on the part of the speaker is automatic, it does not need to be spelled out, at least not in the case of a simple pronunciation guide to a key word in an article. Indeed, the Help:IPA for English key, designed for readers who are unfamiliar with the IPA, simply defines the sequence /ər/ as the sound at the end of runner, and warns that it may not be distinct from /ə/ for some people. That is, there is normally little point in explicitly transcribing observation as "[ɒbsərˈveɪʃən], [ɒbsəˈveɪʃən], [ɑːbsərˈveɪʃən], or [ɑːbsəˈveɪʃən], depending on accent".
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.
[edit] Foreign names
When a foreign name has a set English pronunciation (or pronunciations), include both the English and foreign-language 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''' ({{IPA-en|ˌvɛnəˈzwelə}};
{{lang-es|República Bolivariana de Venezuela}},
{{IPA-es|reˈpuβlika βoliβaˈɾjana ðe βeneˈθwela|pron}})
which gives:
Venezuela (English pronunciation: /ˌvɛnəˈzwelə/; Spanish: República Bolivariana de Venezuela, pronounced [reˈpuβlika βoliβaˈɾjana ðe βeneˈθwela])
Similarly,
'''Nikita Khrushchev''' ({{pron-en|nɪˈkiːtə ˈkrʊʃtʃɛv}};
{{IPA-ru|nʲɪˈkʲitə xruˈɕːof|lang}})
gives:
Nikita Khrushchev (pronounced /nɪˈkiːtə ˈkrʊʃtʃɛv/; Russian: [nʲɪˈkʲitə xruˈɕːof])
Transcriptions should always have a label identifying which language they are transcribing. 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 for Spanish key uses Castilian Spanish as its standard, for Venezuela [beneˈθwela], but the local American pronunciation of [beneˈswela] may be considered more relevant. If a local pronunciation is transcribed, it should be marked as such:
'''Venezuela''' ({{IPA-all|beneˈswela|local}})
- Venezuela (local pronunciation: [beneˈswela])
Language-specific templates should not be used for local pronunciations, unless the keys they link to cover the IPA symbols that are used. (In this case, either IPA-es or IPA-all would work.)
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 foreign word phonemically in a non-linguistic article, a link should be provided to the phonology of the language in question.
[edit] 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.
[edit] Technical issues
Microsoft Internet Explorer for Windows doesn't automatically use a font that contains specialized IPA characters. All passages of IPA text should be placed within the template {{IPA}}, or one of the other IPA templates such as {{pron-en}}, which force Explorer to choose the correct font. Although Firefox will automatically use a font that includes an appropriate character, not using an IPA template will result in different characters within the same word being rendered in differing fonts. Compare:
-
/prɵˌnʌnsiˈeɪʃən/
with the IPA template and:
-
/prɵˌnʌnsiˈeɪʃən/
without.
[edit] Entering IPA characters
Many IPA characters cannot be typed with a regular keyboard layout, but there are various ways to enter them.
- Beneath the edit box on Wikipedia is a character map.
- Just click the one you want, and it’ll be added at the insertion point in the edit box.
- Copy and paste them from elsewhere (other articles or websites, for example)
- Many of the familiar Latin letters can be typed with a normal English keyboard layout. However,
-
- ( ɡ ) note the open tail g
- ( ː ) note the length mark is a different character from a colon
- ( ˈ ) note the primary stress mark is a different character from a typewriter apostrophe
- On Mac English keyboard layouts, a few special characters can be typed:
- option-c for ç
- option-o for ø
- option-q for œ
- option-' for æ
- Enter them using a special character utility
- On Mac OS X, use the Character Palette: choose the "Phonetic Symbols" category and double-click on a character to enter it
- Type them with a custom keyboard layout
- For Mac OS X, download the IPA-SIL keyboard layout
[edit] Numeric entry
The following methods require you to know the Unicode code point of the character you wish to enter: for example, the IPA symbol [ɒ] is represented by the hexadecimal value U+0252. See the resources links below for reference charts.
- Enter them using a numeric keyboard input method
- On most Windows keyboard layouts, type alt-0-2-5-2 for ɒ
- On Mac OS X, use the Unicode Hex Input keyboard layout, type option-0-2-5-2 for ɒ
- Enter them into wikitext as HTML character entities
- Character entity reference (list): enter æ for æ
- Numeric character reference (decimal): enter ɒ for ɒ
- Numeric character reference (hexadecimal): enter ɒ for ɒ
[edit] Resources
- Complete guide for using IPA on computers, Windows, MacOS and Linux
- SIL: Some tools and resources for character input
- UCL: The International Phonetic Alphabet in Unicode
- Unicode chart for IPA extensions
- Unicode chart for IPA spacing modifier letters
- Unicode chart including IPA combining diacritical marks
- Unicode-HTML codes for IPA symbols: Tables of symbol names and HTML codes at PennState.
- IPA Unicode "keyboard" for point-and-click entry of IPA characters
[edit] Related templates
- {{IPA}} allows proper display of IPA characters.
- {{IPA-all}} has square brackets and a link to Help:IPA; it is useful for foreign languages and specific accents of English.
- {{IPA-en}} has slashes and a link to Help:IPA for English; it is useful for general English pronunciations.
- {{pronounced}} and {{pron-en}} are similar but display the link as "pronounced" rather than "IPA".
- {{IPA notice}} is a message that warns the reader of the presence of IPA characters
- {{Cleanup-IPA}} is an article message box requesting article-wide or section-wide inclusion of IPA phonetic transcription.
- {{Need-IPA}} is an inline template noting need for a single instance of transcription.
Specific templates for foreign languages include:
- {{IPA-de}} for German
- {{IPA-es}} for Spanish
- {{IPA-fr}} for French
- {{IPA-ga}} for Irish
- {{IPA-pl}} for Polish (accepts either Polish orthography or IPA)
- {{IPA-pt}} for Portuguese
- {{IPA-ru}} for Russian
(See the documentation on any of these templates for other supported languages.)
