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

siam

/sjɑm˦˨/ verb, interjection, proper noun

  1. verb To move aside; to get out of the way.
  2. verb To leave hastily, to run off.
  3. verb To dodge or evade (an unwanted situation or responsibility).
  4. interjection (Singapore, Singlish) Out of the way!; get lost!
  5. proper noun (historical) Former name of Thailand: a country in Southeast Asia.

Synonyms

Thailand Kingdom of Thailand

Etymology

From Hokkien 閃 /闪 (siám, “to dodge”).

Borrowed from Portuguese Sciam (“Thailand”), from Thai สยาม (sà-yǎam, “Siam, historical name”) (see there for more hypotheses), the same root as Shan and probably Assam.

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