Ialways thought that the IPA had a different symbol for every sound,but I see that the same symbol is used for

Question

the 'u' in words like 'gun' and 'gut'(like a sort of upsidedown 'a'). Does this mean that the same symbol is used for more than one sound,or does it mean that people who speak 'RP' pronounce the 'u' in both words the same way?

Answer 1

I think they are talking about the Wedge, the symbol is /ʌ/.

The thing is, accents change for each individual. That is the sound in my dialect. (Btw, I don't like to use the wedge, I prefer the schwa /ə/, regardless of stress, length, or tense/laxness). As for an upside down a there is /ɐ/ and there is /ɒ/, slightly different in where the tongue is. The former is a bit lower in the Mid-open range, and the latter is rounded, back and low. (I think you mean the first one.)

The /ɐ/ only means that whoever heard this might think the vowel was more mid-low, then mid-central.

Different dialects pronounce the same thing differently. For example, the word might be pronounced by Americans as /ləjk/, and RP might be /lajk/, and Cockney/Australian might be /lojk/.



It can be kind of interesting phonetic and phonology rules.

Answer 2

Gun and gut in American English have the same vowel sound, symbolized by an upside-down 'V' (which I suspect was derived from a capital A since it is close to an 'ah' sound). The upside-down 'e' (not 'a') is called a schwa and represents the most neutral kind of vowel sound there is, with the tongue just laying flat in the mouth and the speaker making a very short vocalization that serves only as a syllabic place-holder. It is the 'e' in 'picket' (to distinguish it from 'picked'), whereas the fuller 'uh' sound is the 'u' in 'cut' or 'gut.'

Answer 3

I cannot think of any dialect where the vowel sound in in "gun" and "gut" is not the same; in RP the sound is certainly the one represented by what you call an upsidedown "v" (but which is actually an "A" without the crossbar!!), but even in most accents where this is not the case, the sound of "u" is constant in these 2 words. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Answer 4

IPA has a different symbol for every sound. The 'u' in gun and gut is the same. Vowels tend to get 'colored' when they are next to 'r'...as in bird. RP and other English dialects will have different vowel sounds from American English.

Answer 5

The 'u' in gun and gut is pronounced the same.

IPA stands for International Phonetic Alphabet and is not fool-proof.

I learnt it on the night before one of my French exams at Uni and forgot it about half an hour after I came out of the exam.

Useful if you're trying to cope with languages written in a different alphabet.

Can be embarrassing. For a couple of days I stared at a man who came into my local supermarket wearing the same t-shirt. He eventually stopped me and asked me what I was staring at. 'It's OK, I was trying to figure out what alphabet was written on your t-shirt. I've figured it out, it's IPA. Sorry about that.'

Answer 6

It's actually an upside down 'V'.



How do YOU pronounce the 'u' in those two words?

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