Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)/Key to Pronunciation

Key to Pronunciation

ā	as	in	pale, mate. Also see ĕ, below.
ā̇	as"	in"	chaotic, lend.
â	as"	in"	rare, care.
ă	as"	in"	lamb.
ä	as"	in"	farm.
á	as"	in"	pant, and final a in America, armada, etc.
a̤	as"	in"	tall.
ē	as"	in"	feel.
ē̇	as"	in"	emerge.
ĕ	as"	in"	rend. The characters ĕ, ā, and â are used for ä, ae in German, as in Baedeker, Gräfe, Händel. The sound of Swedish ä is also sometimes indicated by ĕ, sometimes by â or ă.
ẽ	as"	in"	learn, fern, her, and as i in stir.
e̱	as"	in"	lent, where it is of a neutral or obscure quality.
ī	as"	in"	mice.
ĭ	as"	in"	fill, ill, fit.
ō	as"	in"	told.
ō̇	as"	in"	sobriety.
ô	as"	in"	for.
ŏ	as"	in"	pot.
oi	as"	in"	toil, and for eu in German.
ōō	as"	in"	mood, food, fool, and as u in rule.
ou	as"	in"	mouse.
ū	as"	in"	rule.
ŭ	as"	in"	rut.
ụ	as"	in"	pull, put, or as oo in book. Also for ü in German, and u in French.
û	as"	in"	turn, urn, burn.
y	as"	in"	yield.
ch	as"	in"	choose.
g	as"	in"	gold.
hw	as"	wh in what.
ṉ	as"	in	monger.
ng	as"	in"	song.
sh	as"	in"	show.
th	as"	in"	thing.
zh	as"	z in azure, and s in pleasure.

Sometimes apostrophes are used to indicate a neutral or connecting vowel. Where the accent of a syllable indicates clearly its pronunciation, no attempt is made of respelling the word. This is true of most common English words and words which are plainly pronounced as they are spelled.