Klryz
Pronunciation guide: IPA symbols, stress and word endings

Vowels

iːseeɪsite / ɛbedæcat
ɑːfatherɒhot (UK)ɔːlawʊput
uːtooʌcupɜːbirdəabout
eɪdayaɪmyɔɪboyaʊnow
əʊ / oʊgo (UK / US)ɪəneareəhairʊətour

Consonants that look unusual

θthinðthisʃsheʒmeasure
tʃchurchdʒjudgeŋsingjyes

p b t d k g f v s z h m n l r w sound as in ordinary English spelling.

Marks

  • ˈ main stress, before the stressed syllable: /ˈwɔːtə/ water · ˌ lighter (secondary) stress: /ˌʌndəˈstænd/ understand
  • ː a long vowel · (r) an r said only in accents that pronounce it (most American, Scottish, Irish)

Common word endings

  • -s / -es (plurals; he/she form of verbs): /s/ after voiceless sounds (cats), /z/ after voiced (dogs), /ɪz/ after s, z, sh, ch, j sounds (buses, watches). Spelling: -es after s, x, z, ch, sh; consonant + y → -ies (city → cities).
  • -ed (past): /t/ after voiceless sounds (walked), /d/ after voiced (played), /ɪd/ after t or d (wanted). Spelling: love → loved, stop → stopped, carry → carried.
  • -ing: make → making, run → running, see → seeing.
  • Irregular: go, went, gone · be, was, been · see, saw, seen · man → men · child → children · mouse → mice.
  • Older (King James) forms: -eth = -s (he loveth = he loves) · -est with “thou” (thou lovest) · spake = spoke.

English Dictionary · 107,383 entries · Sources & licences

blather

/ˈblæðə(ɹ)/ verb, noun

Also a form of bladder

Forms blathers blathering blathered blether

  1. verb (intransitive, derogatory) To talk rapidly without making much sense.
  2. verb (transitive, derogatory) To say (something foolish or nonsensical); to say (something) in a foolish or overly verbose way.
  3. noun (derogatory) Foolish or nonsensical talk.

Synonyms

blither babble bavardage bibble-babble blab blabber blabbing blathering chatter chinwag chit-chat claver clepe gabble hot air mardle natter palaver prate prattle blatherskite smatter blether

Etymology

From Middle English bletheren, bloderen, from Old Norse blaðra (“to speak inarticulately, talk nonsense”). Cognate with Scots blether, bladder, bledder (“to blather”), dialectal German bladdern (“to talk nonsense, blather”), Norwegian bladra (“to babble, speak imperfectly”), Icelandic blaðra (“to twaddle”).

Webster’s 1913

  1. verb To talk foolishly, or nonsensically. G. Eliot.
  2. noun Voluble, foolish, or nonsensical talk; --often in the pl. Hall Caine.

Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “blather”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details