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

African

/ˈæf.ɹɪ.kən/ adjective, noun

Forms Africans Afrikan Afric

  1. adjective Of or pertaining to Africa.
  2. adjective Black; (dated, offensive) synonym of negroid. “The truth is that I know the guy had African skin and a shirt of some sort.”
  3. noun A native of Africa; also one ethnologically belonging to an African race.

Synonyms

Aethiopian Afro- Ethiop Ethiope Ethiopian Libyan Nubian

Etymology

Attested as a noun in early New English Aphricane, Africans (plural), Middle English as Affrican, Aufrican and Old English as Africanas (“Africans”) (only plural). From Latin āfricānae, from āfricānus, from Āfricus.
The adjective appears in the 16th century, as Affricane, Africane, African.
Latin Āfricus is from Āfri (singular Āfer), the name of an ancient people of North Africa (near Carthage, in Tunisia), with the suffix -icus. āfricānus is formed by addition of the -ānus suffix.
By surface analysis, Africa + -an.

Webster’s 1913

  1. adjective Of or pertaining to Africa. African hemp, a fiber prerared from the leaves of the Sanseviera Guineensis, a plant found in Africa and India.
  2. noun A native of Africa; also one ethnologically belonging to an African race.

Etymology [L. Africus, Africanus, fr. Afer African.]

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