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ArchivesRough pronunciation UH vs. U
Many names contain UH in their pronunciation. It isn’t included as a digraph in the BtN Pronunciation Guide at http://www.behindthename.com/info/pronunciation – is it safe to assume it’s usually meant to be equivalent to just U as in ‘but’ and ‘sun’? (I wish IPA was used everywhere, U and UH would probably correspond to /ʌ/.) I’ve also encountered several cases of AH, e.g. in German pronunciations, where I’d expect /ʌ/ as well.
Rough IPA to BtN conversion guide
-----------------------------------
/tʃ/ CH cheek (tsh)
/ð/ DH then
/ɣ/–/ç/ GH Scottish laghail
/dʒ/ J jump (dzh)
/x/–/χ/ KH Scottish loch
/ŋ/ NG fling, sink
/ɹ/ etc. R right
/ʁ/ RH French riche (guttural R)
/r/ RR Spanish rojo (trilled R)
/ɾ/ Ṙ Spanish caro (tapped R)
/ʃ/ SH shine
/θ/ TH thin
/j/ Y yeti
/ʒ/ ZH azure, vision
/æ/–/ɛ/ A bat, can
/ɒ/–/ɑ/ AH pot, con
/ɔ(ː)/ AW bought, sawn (cot-caught merger: /ɑ/)
/eɪ/ AY bait, cane
/ɛ/–/e/ E bet, care
/i(ː)/ EE beet, keen
/ɪ/ I bit, kin
/aɪ/–/ʌi/ IE bite, kind
/əʊ/–/oʊ/ O boat, cone
/ɔɪ/ OI boy, coin
/u(ː)/ OO boot, soon
/aʊ/–/ʌʊ/ OW bout, gown
/ʌ/–/ɐ/ U but, sun
/œy/ UI Dutch huis
/ø/ UU French feu
/ʊ/ UW put, took
/y/ UY French rue
/ə/ ə about (schwa)
/ː/ : preceding vowel is long (drawn out)
/x,ɣ,χ,ʁ,ħ,ʕ,h,ɦ,ʜ,ʢ/? ‘ guttural fricative
/ʔ/ ’ glottal stop
/ʰ/ ^H preceding consonant is aspirated
/ ̃/ ^ N preceding vowel is nasalized
/ᵗ/ ^T epenthetic t
/ᵊ/ ^ə following consonant is syllabic
Rough IPA to BtN conversion guide
-----------------------------------
/tʃ/ CH cheek (tsh)
/ð/ DH then
/ɣ/–/ç/ GH Scottish laghail
/dʒ/ J jump (dzh)
/x/–/χ/ KH Scottish loch
/ŋ/ NG fling, sink
/ɹ/ etc. R right
/ʁ/ RH French riche (guttural R)
/r/ RR Spanish rojo (trilled R)
/ɾ/ Ṙ Spanish caro (tapped R)
/ʃ/ SH shine
/θ/ TH thin
/j/ Y yeti
/ʒ/ ZH azure, vision
/æ/–/ɛ/ A bat, can
/ɒ/–/ɑ/ AH pot, con
/ɔ(ː)/ AW bought, sawn (cot-caught merger: /ɑ/)
/eɪ/ AY bait, cane
/ɛ/–/e/ E bet, care
/i(ː)/ EE beet, keen
/ɪ/ I bit, kin
/aɪ/–/ʌi/ IE bite, kind
/əʊ/–/oʊ/ O boat, cone
/ɔɪ/ OI boy, coin
/u(ː)/ OO boot, soon
/aʊ/–/ʌʊ/ OW bout, gown
/ʌ/–/ɐ/ U but, sun
/œy/ UI Dutch huis
/ø/ UU French feu
/ʊ/ UW put, took
/y/ UY French rue
/ə/ ə about (schwa)
/ː/ : preceding vowel is long (drawn out)
/x,ɣ,χ,ʁ,ħ,ʕ,h,ɦ,ʜ,ʢ/? ‘ guttural fricative
/ʔ/ ’ glottal stop
/ʰ/ ^H preceding consonant is aspirated
/ ̃/ ^ N preceding vowel is nasalized
/ᵗ/ ^T epenthetic t
/ᵊ/ ^ə following consonant is syllabic
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Replies
The rough BtN guide works well for recording the sounds of English names, but it definitely lacks when recording the pronunciations for other languages. IPA would be ideal, and it is on the todo list. It's a matter of me making a few software changes and then compiling the data.
It is possible that AH should be A in some of the German names. You can submit corrections to pronunciations by using the "contribute" button on the name's page. I go through this submitted information when updating the database.
These are the notes I have for the vowels in the BTN guide (showing the IPA they correspond to, though the list might not be exhaustive).
A <--> æ, a
AY <--> eɪ, ej, ɛj
AH <--> ɒ, ɑ, ɑː, ä
AW <--> ɔ, ɔː
E <--> ɛ, e
EE <--> i, iː
I <--> ɪ
IE <--> aɪ, aj
O <--> o, o̞, oʊ, əʊ
OI <--> ɔɪ,
OO <--> u, uː, ʉ, ʉː
OW <--> aʊ
U <--> ʌ, ɐ, ɜː
UU <--> ø, ø̞, œ
UY <--> y
UW <--> ʊ
UI <--> œy
It is possible that AH should be A in some of the German names. You can submit corrections to pronunciations by using the "contribute" button on the name's page. I go through this submitted information when updating the database.
These are the notes I have for the vowels in the BTN guide (showing the IPA they correspond to, though the list might not be exhaustive).
A <--> æ, a
AY <--> eɪ, ej, ɛj
AH <--> ɒ, ɑ, ɑː, ä
AW <--> ɔ, ɔː
E <--> ɛ, e
EE <--> i, iː
I <--> ɪ
IE <--> aɪ, aj
O <--> o, o̞, oʊ, əʊ
OI <--> ɔɪ,
OO <--> u, uː, ʉ, ʉː
OW <--> aʊ
U <--> ʌ, ɐ, ɜː
UU <--> ø, ø̞, œ
UY <--> y
UW <--> ʊ
UI <--> œy
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Could you link some names in the BtN database that have "UH" in their pronunciation?
There may be some in the user-submitted names, or in the user-submitted pronunciations, but I can't find any in the database by searching.
I think yes, you can assume it's supposed to be the same as U or /ʌ/.
Or the same as /ə/, which is usually pronounced the same as /ʌ/ in my accent.
There may be some in the user-submitted names, or in the user-submitted pronunciations, but I can't find any in the database by searching.
I think yes, you can assume it's supposed to be the same as U or /ʌ/.
Or the same as /ə/, which is usually pronounced the same as /ʌ/ in my accent.
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That’s strange, using refined search I’m not finding any either. Perhaps it was in fact just in user-contributed names, for I’ve been looking at a lot of those lately.
Another oddity I can attest, however: ‘ah’ (/ɒ/–/ɑ/ in pot, con) is used on a regular basis for /a/ (which has no distinguished code in the Pronunciation Guide) or /ʌ/ (which should be U). See, for instance, the German (and related) pronunciations of Hannah, Barbara and Franziska. Maybe it’s just that the examples in the guide aren’t optimal.
Another oddity I can attest, however: ‘ah’ (/ɒ/–/ɑ/ in pot, con) is used on a regular basis for /a/ (which has no distinguished code in the Pronunciation Guide) or /ʌ/ (which should be U). See, for instance, the German (and related) pronunciations of Hannah, Barbara and Franziska. Maybe it’s just that the examples in the guide aren’t optimal.
This message was edited 4/6/2016, 12:23 PM
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Oh, alright. Yeah, the submitted pronunciations are often not edited if there is no reference available for correct pronunciation, they're just left as they were submitted, and submitters don't always use the BtN key properly.
Is Hannah in German really pronounced with an /ʌ/ at the end by German speakers, rather than sounding the same as the first a?
(I thought the "ah" endings given for non-English pronunciations reflected actual pronunciations, and that was why they were "u" or schwa for English but not other languages.)
Is Hannah in German really pronounced with an /ʌ/ at the end by German speakers, rather than sounding the same as the first a?
(I thought the "ah" endings given for non-English pronunciations reflected actual pronunciations, and that was why they were "u" or schwa for English but not other languages.)
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Indeed, all the ‘a’ in Hannah and Anna are basically equal (except for stress and length) and would be denoted by [a] or [ʌ] in IPA, not [ɑ] and certainly not [ɒ] which is almost [ɔ].
This message was edited 4/7/2016, 12:23 AM
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