IPA to English

[DavidShan]

Hi guys,

I am beginner of phonetics and learnt IPA few days ago. Now I'm having some trouble translating IPA into normal English words. The following are English words written in a broad phonetic transcription
(thus omitting details such as nasalisation and aspiration).

[læɪt] - I was guessing 'later', 'lit', 'lad' and 'larch' but none of the attempt is correct.
[tɑeə] - I was guessing 'target' but unfortunately it's wrong.
[he:] - I was guessing 'hey' and 'hea' but but none of the attempt is correct.

I tried to find IPA to English translator in Google but got nothing so I have no idea how do I get the correct answer apart from just guessing it. If someone could kindly let me know the answer (or the hints to get the answer) it is appreciated.

Thanks, David

[MalFet]

Are you sure you're copying them down right?

[DavidShan]

Yes I'm sure I'm copying them down right. As the topic says, they are English words written in a broad phonetic transcription (thus omitting details such as nasalisation and aspiration). That's why it feels strange at the first glimpse I guess.

[MalFet]

Broad or narrow, a few of these are weird. What dialect of English are we talking about here?

"Hey" is correct for the last one. It could be "hay" I suppose.

The first one is something between (how I pronounce) "light" and "late", though it's an odd pronunciation.

The second one is particularly strange. "Tire" in a non-rhotic dialect of some sort, perhaps?

[Daniel]

Those are not English words in my dialect (General American) or in anything reasonably close to my dialect. I also don't recognize them as anything else.

I am suspicious that they are incorrect-- the first is probably "late", the second may be "tear" [meaning 'rip'] or as MalFet said "tire" in British or another dialect without final -r, and the last may be "he"?

The only one that is a word for me would be "hay" (or "hey"), which just seems like an odd answer for an assignment.

Is this a dialect very unlike American English? Maybe it's from New Zealand or Scotland or something?

[læɪt] - I was guessing 'later', 'lit', 'lad' and 'larch' but none of the attempt is correct.

Why would you guess "rch" or "ter" as the ending of this word? The ending is very clearly a [t], which is almost always written <t>, maybe sometimes <d>. Unless this transcription is incorrect, it's very clear that this word is l_t, with some vowel(s) in the middle.

[DavidShan]

I have done other questions (all seem to have an answer of British dialect) and these 3 are the only questions that I can't solve. Probably the answer is "late" for the first one, and "hey" for the third one. I study in an Australian university but I don't think Australian dialect is the only way out, because the question does not require you to apply Australian English (while for some other questions it does).

[læɪt] - I was guessing 'later', 'lit', 'lad' and 'larch' but none of the attempt is correct.

Why would you guess "rch" or "ter" as the ending of this word? The ending is very clearly a [t], which is almost always written <t>, maybe sometimes <d>. Unless this transcription is incorrect, it's very clear that this word is l_t, with some vowel(s) in the middle.

I searched 'later' in Cambridge dictionary and its IPA looks very similar to the one in the question so I was guessing it could be. 'larch' was just a random attempt. As I'm a beginner in IPA, I'm not too confident in my answers so I'm just guessing everything. :S

[MalFet]

Even in non-rhotic dialects (dialects that don't pronounce [r] in some contexts), you'd usually get a vowel release after the [t]. In other words, I don't think it can be 'later'. The word does need to end in a [t] sound.

[Daniel]

I'm a beginner in IPA, I'm not too confident in my answers so I'm just guessing everything. :S

I understand, but "guessing" isn't going to get you far. The best strategy is to identify reliable clues, such as the [l] and [t] and work out what the word might be from that. On average, consonants are a bit easier to identify than vowels, especially with dialectal variation.


If it might be influenced by Australian:
The first could be "light" or "late"-- I don't have an Australian speaker to ask at the moment which one is closer.
The second one is definitely missing some diacritics, because I don't know of any English words with two tense vowels followed by a lax vowel. That seems odd for any dialect. If that's supposed to be a triphthong, then I'd imagine it would have a short vowel in the middle.

The last one may very well be "hey", if that's what you're instructor wrote

[jkpate]

I'm fairly certain these pronunciations are Australia-specific (and I'm a yankee in Sydney). Have you looked at the distribution of long and short vowels in Australian English, for example? I.e., what are the different ways to spell long vowels compared to short vowels?

[freknu]

Looking at Australian English phonology I'd say:

[SPOILER]

/læit/ → late
/tɑeə/ → tire (vb), tyre (nn)
/heː(ɹ)/ → hear

[jkpate]

haha, ok then, we can just give him the answer outright I guess :p

[freknu]

lol, sorry ... I'm not used to "teaching"

[DavidShan]

Thanks guys.