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

Niger

UK /ˈnaɪ.d͡ʒə(ɹ)/ · US /ˈnaɪ.d͡ʒɚ/ proper noun, noun

Forms the Niger

  1. proper noun A country in West Africa, situated to the north of Nigeria. Official name: Republic of the Niger.
  2. proper noun A major river in West Africa that flows into the Gulf of Guinea in Nigeria.
  3. proper noun A state of Nigeria in the North Central geopolitical zone. Capital and largest city: Minna.
  4. noun An Ethiopian herb (Guizotia abyssinica), grown for its seed and edible oil.

Synonyms

noog noug nug Niger River Republic of Niger

Etymology

Borrowed from French Niger. For further etymology, commonly linked by folk etymology to Latin niger (“black”), which likely influenced the modern spelling.
Some sources give the term to Tuareg roots, deriving it from a claimed gher n-gheren or egereou n-igereouen (“river of rivers”). Compare Tarifit iɣzar-n-iɣezran.
Older sources derive Niger, via a series of mistranslations and geographic misplacements by Greek, Roman and Arab geographers, from Ptolemy's descriptions of the wadi Gir (in modern Algeria) and the "Lower Gir" (or "Ni-Gir") to the south.

From the name of the Niger River, from Latin Nigris. See further etymology at Niger.

Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “Niger”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details