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Pronunciation marking

Device
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Notation or orthographic cues indicating how words should be spoken

Detailed Definition
Pronunciation marking uses diacritics, respelling, or typographical cues to indicate non-standard or emphatic speech sounds, often to preserve dialect, accent, or performative nuance; this technique asserts linguistic identity and challenges normative phonetic assumptions in written poetry.
Example
Example in poetry:
Marking silent ‘e’: “lovèd”; Indicating archaic pronunciation: “windë” (to rhyme with “kind”); Showing elision: “th’expense”; Marking stress: “récord” (noun) vs. “recórd” (verb)
Additional Notes
Pronunciation marking uses diacritics, respelling, or layout to guide oral performance—common in dialect poetry, sound poetry, or works emphasizing orality.
Also Known As
Phonetic notation stress marking prosodic annotation articulation guide Accent transcription Phonetic spelling
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