From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Kenyon and Knott
Kenyon and Knott
Kenyon and Knott is the informal name for A Pronouncing • The colon [:] is used in place of IPA [ː] to indicate
Dictionary of American English, first published by the G. & length, although length is rarely marked in KK.
C. Merriam Company in 1944, and written by John Sa- • In foreign words, a barred g (ǥ) is used instead of [ɣ]
muel Kenyon and Thomas A. Knott. It provides a phone- to indicate a voiced velar fricative.
mic transcription of General American pronunciations of One principal application of Kenyon and Knott’s system
words, using symbols largely corresponding to those of is to teach American English pronunciation to non-native
the IPA. speakers of English. It is commonly used for this purpose
Kenyon and Knott use a broad transcription rather in Taiwan, where it is commonly known as "KK."
than a narrow one. For example, the long o vowel of Many of the pronunciations in Kenyon and Knott
"toe", which is a diphthong in open syllables in most seem antiquated today and dictionaries such as Longman
American accents, is represented by the single symbol Pronunciation Dictionary, ed. John C. Wells, Longman
[o], rather than [oʊ] as it would be represented in a nar- Group Ltd. 1990, ISBN 0-582-05383-8, have replaced it,
row transcription. providing more contemporary pronunciations.
Deviations from the IPA found in Kenyon and Knott
are mostly made for typographical convenience:
• The symbol [ᴜ] (a small capital U) is used instead of
References
[ʊ] for the vowel of foot and the second part of the • Kenyon, John S.; Thomas A. Knott (1944/1953). A
diphthong of mouth. Pronouncing Dictionary of American English. Springfield,
• The "looptail g" is used instead of the "opentail g" Mass.: Merriam-Webster. ISBN 0-87779-047-7.
of the IPA.
• The symbol [r] is used instead of [ɹ]/[ɻ] to denote the External links
alveolar/retroflex approximant of American English.
• A Pronouncing Dictionary of American English at
• The markers for primary and secondary stress tilt
Archive.org
slightly toward the center rather than being
absolutely vertical. In other words, they look more
like \ and / than like | and |.
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Categories:
• 1944 books
• English dictionaries
• English phonology
• Language education
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