User:CsBlastoise/Vowel reference word chart

This page is a work in progress. I (CsBlastoise) am trying to neaten things up a bit, but it's practically finished.

This is a chart of vowel sounds represented by sample words rather than just IPA symbols to help place them in context. Most of them are based on the Wells Standard Lexical Set for General American English, which is what I speak, though some have to draw from other languages I'm familiar with.

IPA: Vowels

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	Front	Central	Back
Close	fleece i y (KO 위)	ɨ ʉ RP goose	JP う (rep) ɯ u goose
Near-close	kit ɪ ʏ		ʊ foot
Close-mid	face (to ɪ), RP dress (rep) e ø (KO 외)	ɘ ɵ	ɤ o goat (to ʊ), RP thought
Mid	RP dress e̞ ø̞	comma ə	ɤ̞ o̞
Open-mid	dress, IT lui è ɛ œ	ɜ ɞ	strut (rep) ʌ ɔ choice to ɪ, cloth, thought
Near-open	trap, bath æ	strut, KO 말 ɐ
Open	price to ɪ, mouth to ʊ a ɶ	IT a, KO 수박 ä	palm, lot, RP bath ɑ ɒ RP lot, cloth (rep)

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Vowels beside dots are: unrounded • rounded

Note, the "lot" and "thought" vowels are the subjects of the cot-caught merger, where both vowels generally tend toward the "lot" vowel [ɑ].

Italian ⟨a⟩ is usually broadly represented as [a] in IPA rather than narrowly as ⟦ä⟧.

Further details about Italian ⟨e⟩:

The above chart shows the pronunciation of the Italian translation of "is", which is "è" [ɛ]; the accent in this word is not optional.
This word is not to be confused with the Italian word "e" [e] (accent optional: "é"), which is the translation of "and".
Open-mid [ɛ] is also used in the word "pesca" in the sense where it means "peach", and pronunciation of ⟨e⟩ in northern Italian speech generally tends toward [ɛ].
Close-mid [e] is used in the word "pesca" in the sense where it means "catch of fish", and pronunciation of ⟨e⟩ in southern Italian speech generally tends toward [e].