大始王皇

My primary activity here will be adding the Wu pronounciation for Chinese characters, in IPA, latin alphabet, and Zhuyin Fuhao. Also if i have time i might add Zhuyin Fuhao for mandarin too.

[i] - a sound between English eat ad it

AFAIK, eat is pronounced exactly as /iːt/ in RP.

[y] - a vowel not easy for English speakers

The “French ‘u’”, identical to the long pronunciation of the German Ü/ü (umlauted ‘u’), as in über-.

[ɪ] - as in English it

Agreed.

[ɥ] - I don't know this one

The labialised version of [j]; i.e., like the English consonant ‘y’ (as in yet: /jɛt/), but with the lips rounded as with ‘w’ ([w]).

Indeed. If it helps, i:j::u:w::y:ɥ replace : with ː, invalid IPA characters (:::::::). (It's the <u> in French (deprecated template usage) lui, (deprecated template usage) cuir.) —Ruakh_TALK 14:53, 6 December 2008 (UTC)

[e] - depending on English dialect as in bet, but English doesn't really distinguish between [e] and [ɛ].

The first vowel in the diphthong in late (pronounced /leɪt/); identical to the French É/é.

[ø] - a vowel not easy for English speakers

Per the Scandinavian Ø/ø and the German Ö/ö, as in Søren Kierkegaard and Möbius strip.

[ɛ] - depending on English dialect as in bet, but English doesn't really distinguish between [e] and [ɛ].

Hippietrail is right; the sound is identical to the French È/è.

[ə] - as in English the

That is somewhat ambiguous, because the can be pronounced as /ðə/ or /ði/. This is the sound of the wholly-unstressed forms of English’s ‘a’, ‘e’, and ‘u’ (though [ʌ] is also common for an unstressed ‘u’); e.g., about (/əˈbaʊt/), beaten (/ˈiːtən/), and but (/bət/).

[ɐ] - for English speakers, this would be hard to distiniguish from [ə].

This is the pronunciation of the German syllabic ‘r’, as in the final ‘-er’ of zeitgeister, poltergeister, and Zweihänder.

[a] - for English speakers, maybe hard to distingish from [ɑ].

In RP, the first vowel in the emboldened diphthongs of allow (/əˈlaʊ/) and light (/laɪt/). Many dialects pronounce and as /and/; however, it is pronounced as /ænd/ in RP. IMO, the confusion can arrise between <a> invalid IPA characters (<>) and <æ> invalid IPA characters (<>), but not between <a> invalid IPA characters (<>) and <ɑ> invalid IPA characters (<>).

[ɑ] - as in English father, but for English speakers, maybe hard to distingish from [a].

Correct, but the distinction should not be difficult for speakers of English.

[ɔ] - as in English bought, for British or Australian English speakers also as in English port

More like (deprecated template usage) bought; also, in RP, the first vowel of the emboldened diphthong of (deprecated template usage) boy (/bɔɪ/).

[ɤ] - a difficult sound for English speakers

If you look at the Vowels chart of this page, you’ll see that the <ɤ> invalid IPA characters (<>) sound is somewhere between <ʊ> invalid IPA characters (<>), <o> invalid IPA characters (<>), and <ʌ> invalid IPA characters (<>).

[o] - for American English speakers as in hot

I thought Americans pronounced (deprecated template usage) hot as /hɑt/… In American English, /o/ is the first vowel of the emboldened diphthongs of (deprecated template usage) boat (/boʊt/; RP: /bəʊt/) and (deprecated template usage) join (/ʤoɪn/ replace ʤ with d͡ʒ, invalid IPA characters (ʤ); RP: /ʤɔɪn/ replace ʤ with d͡ʒ, invalid IPA characters (ʤ)).

[ʊ] - as in English put, but American English speakers may pronounce this more like [ə].

In RP, (deprecated template usage) put is indeed pronounced as /pʊt/. This is the sound for the English “short ‘u’” (o͝o); contrast <u> obsolete or nonstandard characters (QQ), replace ' with ˈ, I with ɪ, N with ɴ and Q with ꞯ, invalid IPA characters ('"`UNIQ00000000QINU`"').

[u] - a shorter version of the sound in English news

(deprecated template usage) News is pronounced as /njuz/ in RP. Think of the o͞o sound of the word (deprecated template usage) shoot.

[b] - as in English

〃

[d] - as in English

〃

[g] replace g with ɡ, invalid IPA characters (g) - as in English

〃

[ɦ] - I don't know this sound.

Per the ‘h’ of the Czech pronunciation of the word (deprecated template usage) háček (/ˈɦaːʧɛk/ replace ʧ with t͡ʃ, invalid IPA characters (ʧ)). This is the murmured form of <h> invalid IPA characters (<>), kinda like the English ‘h’, but “breathier”… (Sorry to be vague!)

[z] - as in English

〃

[v] - as in English

〃

[ʥ] replace ʥ with d͡ʑ, invalid IPA characters (ʥ) - as in English jump

Not strictly correct (the sound of the ‘j’ in (deprecated template usage) jump is most accurately repræsented by <ʤ> replace ʤ with d͡ʒ, invalid IPA characters (<ʤ>): /ʤəmp/ replace ʤ with d͡ʒ, invalid IPA characters (ʤ)); see <ʑ> invalid IPA characters (<>).

[ʑ] - as in English measure

(deprecated template usage) Measure is, strictly speaking, pronounced as /ˈmɛʒəː/ (or as /ˈmɛzjʊə/, but the latter sounds very unnatural), but, nevertheless, it is the closest sound to [ʑ] in English; it’s meant to be pronounced as a co-articulation of [z] and [ʝ], but, as Hippietrail notes, that essentially renders [ʒ].

— hippietrail 00:22, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

† ﴾^(u):Raifʻhār ^(t):Doremítzwr ﴿ 19:29, 3 December 2008 (UTC)