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

dago

/ˈdeɪɡəʊ/ noun

Forms dagoes dagos

  1. noun (US, Australia, ethnic slur) A person of Italian descent.
  2. noun (obsolete, naval slang, often derogatory, originally US) A crewman who speaks Spanish, Portuguese, or Italian.
  3. noun (US, England, ethnic slur, somewhat dated) A person of Southern European descent.
  4. noun (US, rare, derogatory) A Catholic.

Synonyms

Eyetie goombah greaseball guido guinea wog wop ginzo

Etymology

Alteration of diego (“Spaniard”), from Spanish Diego (common Spanish name) by law of Hobson-Jobson.
The term originated among sailors from the Northern United States, first attested in Boston in 1838. "Diego" is the Portuguese nickname for any deckhand.
After transforming into "dago" in English, the word gradually came to denote any Southern European in a derogatory manner. From there, the word spread to England by the 1890s, and to Australia following WW1. In Australia, it has undergone a narrowing in scope, now chiefly meaning "Italian", following a mass migration of Italians to Australia post-WW2.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun A nickname given to a person of Spanish (or, by extension, Portuguese or Italian) descent. [U. S.]

Etymology [Cf. Sp. Diego, E. James.]

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