phonate

English

See https://github.com/eobrain/spehl For an example of a project that uses this library.

Have you ever wondered what English would look like if its spelling was actually phonetic. This is an attempt to do so by mapping each phoneme of English to a fixed set of letters, according to the following mapping.

Phoneme	Spelling	Example, standard	Example, phonetic	Type
AE /æ/	a	TRAP, BATH, cat, fast, pass, as, that, at, has, an	TRAP, BATH, kat, fast, pas, az, that, at, haz, an	short vowel
AA /ɑ/~/ɒ/	aa	PALM, START, car, was, are	PAAM, STAART, kaar, waaz, aar	long vowel
AO /ɔ/	aw	THOUGHT, NORTH, water, four, also, all	THAWT, NAWRTH, wawter, fawr, awlsoe, awl	long vowel
EY /eɪ/	ay	FACE, say, stain, freight, they, became	FAYS, say, stayn, frayt, thay, bikaym	diphthong vowel
B /b/	b	baboon	buboon	stop
CH /tʃ/	ch	cheetah, century	cheetu, sencheree	afrukut
D /d/	d	deer	dir	stop
EH /ɛ/	e	DRESS, bread, many, friend, their	DRES, bred, menee, frend, ther	short vowel
IY /i/	ee	FLEECE, sea, people, police, he	FLEES, see, peepul, pulees, hee
ER /ɝ/	er	urchin, first	erchun, ferst
F /f/	f	flamingo	fluminggoe	fricative
G /ɡ/	g	gazelle	guzel	stop
HH /h/	h	hippopotamus	hipupaatumus	aspirate
IH /ɪ/	i	KIT, myth, pretty, women, is, his, career	KIT, mith, pritee, wimun, iz, hiz, kerir	short vowel
AY /aɪ/	iy	PRICE, try, night, height, by, time	PRIYS, triy, niyt, hiyt, biy, tiym	vowel
JH /dʒ/	j	jackal, college	jakul, kaalij	affricate
K /k/	k	cat	kat	stop
L /l/	l	lion	liyun	liquid
M /m/	m	monkey	mungkee	nasal
N /n/	n	gnat	nat	nasal
NG /ŋ/	ng	anchor, long, among, doing	angker, lawng, umung, dooing	nasal
OW /oʊ/	oe	GOAT, slow, toe, also, only	GOET, sloe, toe, awlsoe, oenlee	diphthong vowel
OY /ɔɪ/	oi	CHOICE, noise, loiter, boy	CHOIS, noiz, loiter, boi	diphthong vowel
UW /u/	oo	GOOSE, new, due, tuna, to, use	GOOS, noo, doo, toonu, too, yoos	long vowel
AW /aʊ/	ou	MOUTH, noun, cow, shower	MOUTH, noun, kou, shouer	diphthong vowel
P /p/	p	penguin	penggwun	stop
R /ɹ/	r	rhinoceros	riynaaserus	liquid
S /s/	s	sloth, century	sloeth, sencheree	fricative
SH /ʃ/	sh	sheep	sheep	fricative
ZH /ʒ/	si	genre, adhesion, allusion, asia, casual, decision	siaanru, adheesiun, uloosiun, aysiu, kasiuwul, disisiun	fricative
T /t/	t	tiger	tiyger	stop
DH /ð/	th	this, the, that	this, thu, that	fricative
TH /θ/	th	thrush	thrush	fricative
AH /ʌ/	u	STRUT, son, blood, the, of, a, one, from	STRUT, sun, blud, thu, uv, u, wun, frum	short vowel
UH /ʊ/	uh	FOOT, took, good, put, would	FUHT, tuhk, guhd, puht, wuhd	short vowel
V /v/	v	vulture, of	vulcher, uv	fricative
W /w/	w	walrus	wawlrus	semi-vowel
HH W	wh	wheat	wheet
Y /j/	y	yak	yak	semi-vowel
Z /z/	z	zebra, as, was, is	zeebru, az, waaz, iz, hiz	fricative

Using the library

In a JavaScript module loaded from a web page use

import { convert } from 'https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/phonate/phonate.js'

In a NodeJS JavaScript module use

import {convert} from "phonate"

Running the Software

Generate phonetic dictionary.

To execute

1. cd to the directory containing this README.md file.
2. Install node (for example by installing nvm and executing nvm use )
3. Install dependencies

   npm install

4. In this directory execute

   npx bajel

5. This will generate a file called phonetic.js with a mapping frem standard Inglish spelling tp phonetic spelling. It then runs an evaluation to see how close the two spellings are to each other, measured by Levenshtein distance weighted by how often the word occurs in English.

Uses The CMU Pronouncing Dictionary.