fix: British English pronunciation corrections (NURSE vowel, stress, yod, French loanwords)#15
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yocontra wants to merge 2 commits intohans00:mainfrom
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fix: British English pronunciation corrections (NURSE vowel, stress, yod, French loanwords)#15yocontra wants to merge 2 commits intohans00:mainfrom
yocontra wants to merge 2 commits intohans00:mainfrom
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When ipa-dict provides multiple pronunciation variants for a word (e.g. "caught" → /ˈkɑt/, /ˈkɔt/), prefer the variant containing ɔ (THOUGHT vowel) over ɑ (LOT vowel). This better represents standard American English pronunciation for THOUGHT-class words like caught, bought, law, fall, walk, want, etc.
…yod, French loanwords) Add fixBritishDict() post-processing function to build-dict.ts that applies RP pronunciation fixes when building the en-gb dictionary: 1. NURSE vowel: əː → ɜː (not a real English phoneme) 2. French -age loanwords: final ʤ → ʒ (garage, massage, etc.) 3. -arily adverb stress: add secondary stress on penultimate -ɛɹ- 4. -ormation derivatives: preserve /ɔː/ in -form- syllable 5. Yod insertion after /s/: suː → sjuː (suit, super, etc.) Also adds a GB dictionary build step that derives en-gb/dict.json from the same en_US IPA source with these fixes applied.
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Merges the following PRs into a single combined branch: - hans00#11: fix: prefer THOUGHT vowel (ɔ) variant in dictionary - hans00#12: fix: use STRUT vowel (ʌ) instead of schwa (ə) in stressed syllables - hans00#13: fix: distinguish NURSE vowel (ɜː) from unstressed ɚ, add linking ɹ - hans00#14: feat: add vowel length marks (ː) to IPA output - hans00#15: fix: British English pronunciation corrections
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Summary
Adds a
fixBritishDict()post-processing function toscripts/build-dict.tsthat corrects systematic RP (Received Pronunciation) errors when building the British English dictionary. Also adds a build step that producesdata/en-gb/dict.jsonfrom the sameen_USIPA source with these fixes applied.Pronunciation Fixes
əːused in dictionary entriesəː→ɜː/nəːs/→/nɜːs//dʒ/usedʤ→ʒfor French borrowings/ɡæɹɑːʤ/→/ɡæɹɑːʒ/ˌon penultimate-ɛɹ-/pɹaɪmɛɹɪli/→/pɹaɪˌmɛɹɪli/-form-vowel reduced to/ə//ɔː/in-form-syllable/ɪnfəɹmeɪʃən/→/ɪnfɔːɹmeɪʃən//suː/)/j/before/uː/after/s//suːt/→/sjuːt/Rationale
1. NURSE vowel (
əː→ɜː)əːis not a recognized phoneme in any English dialect. The NURSE vowel is universally transcribed as/ɜː/in IPA — the open-mid central unrounded vowel. The source dictionary's use ofəːappears to be an error.2. French -age loanwords (final
ʤ→ʒ)RP consistently uses the fricative
/ʒ/(not the affricate/dʒ/) for French borrowings ending in -age: garage, massage, barrage, camouflage, sabotage, espionage, reportage, decoupage, persiflage, badinage. This is one of the most recognizable BrE/AmE pronunciation differences.3. -arily adverb stress
BrE places secondary stress on the penultimate syllable of -arily adverbs (e.g. primarily, necessarily), whereas AmE stresses the first syllable. The fix adds a secondary stress marker
ˌbefore theɛɹsequence for the 10 most common words in this class.4. -ormation derivatives (
/ə/→/ɔː/)BrE preserves the full
/ɔː/vowel in the -form- syllable of words like information, transformation, confirmation, rather than reducing it to schwa as in casual AmE.5. Yod insertion after /s/ (
/suː/→/sjuː/)BrE retains the palatal glide
/j/before/uː/after/s/in words like sue, suit, super, superb, superior. This is part of the broader BrE yod-retention pattern.Changes
scripts/build-dict.ts: AddedfixBritishDict(dict)function (with detailed comments) and a new build block that producesdata/en-gb/dict.json