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

spic

/ˈspɪk/ noun

Forms spics spick spik

  1. noun (US, offensive, derogatory, ethnic slur) Synonym of Latino, an inhabitant of Latin America or person of Latin American descent.
  2. noun (US, ethnic slur, uncommon) Synonym of Italian, an inhabitant of Italy or person of Italian descent.

Synonyms

spigotty spiggoty Latino Italian spik spick immaculate speckless spick-and-span spic-and-span spotless

Etymology

First attested in this spelling in the 1910s, from earlier spig, spiggoty, spikity, generally taken to derive from a (stereotype of a) Hispanic pronunciation of "(no) speak d(e) English" (especially as used by the laborers who dug the Panama Canal). There are also later (1960s) suggestions that the term referred instead to Italians and derives from spaghetti, but there is little to back this up.

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