BLEPPO
The Bluelander English Phonetic Pronunciation Orthography, or BLEPPO, is a standardized set of graphemes (known as bleps) that can be used to phonetically transcribe spoken English words. I made it because I felt that there's no good standardized way to describe pronunciation in written English.
Most modern dictionaries and encyclopedias show pronunciation using the international phonetic alphabet, or IPA. IPA is a brilliant system that can accurately transcribe any sound that exists in human speech. As a tool for studying language and describing extremely granular differences between different sounds, it's indispensable.
However, IPA inaccessible for someone who just wants to explain to another English-speaker how a word is pronounced. Because the symbols are used to describe every possible sound in human speech, many of the symbols are unintuitive to someone who hasn't studied languages, which means most people won't learn it.
Additionally, the symbols are mostly ones that can't be quickly typed on a standard keyboard. When faced with the prospect of looking up all the right symbols and painstakingly copying and pasting each one, I usually opt for an awkward syllable comparison (i.e. the "augh" sounds like the "awe" in "awesome") or, more likely, I just don't bother. Thus, in accordance with my belief that the perfect shouldn't be the enemy of the good, the BLEPPO was born.
I'm not looking to replace the IPA or "do it better"; the BLEPPO fills a different niche. If you need to explain the difference in how people from Philadelphia and Cornwall pronounce "water", the IPA is still your friend. If someone asks "how the heck do you say Quetzalcoatl", the BLEPPO might be helpful.
Perspective and bias
The language I speak is US English. The dialect is usually called General American. It's considered the most "neutral" or "unaccented" dialect in the US. I tried to be as unbiased and international as possible. None of the examples are meant to be prescriptive: if I transcribe chowder as (CHOW-dir) and you say (CHOW-d'), it doesn't mean you're wrong, it means I picked a bad example. I intend to provide as many examples as necessary for any speaker of any English dialect to get a sense of what sound a blep represents.
Conventions
Stressed syllables appear in CAPITAL LETTERS. Single-syllable words can be either all caps or all lowercase as desired. When using BLEPPO in the middle of a sentence, you can enclose it parentheses to distinguish it from the rest of the text.
Syllables are separated with a dash or minus (-).
Some vowel combinations can give a "half-syllable" effect; in these instances, a plus sign (+) may be used instead, e.g. "fire" is (FII+'r), "sour" is (SOW+'r) and "Graham" (UK pronunciation) is (GRAA+'m)
Square brackets ([]) generally indicate a "softer" sound. Curly brackets ({}) generally indicate a "harder" sound.
In general, BLEPPO doesn't differentiate between sounds if there's no way to say it incorrectly. For example, the letters "ng" in words like "sing" and "running" are represented in IPA by this character: ŋ. Because this sound has many different forms in the world's languages, this makes sense; however, in English, the letters N and G together always produce the ŋ sound, except when they're separated by a syllable; thus the syllable placement is how you know the letters are pronounced differently in "singing" (SEENG-eeng) and "ungodly" (un-GOD-lee).
Basic set
Vowels
| Blep | IPA | Description | Example | BLEPPO |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | æ | Short A | cat tabulate | kat TAB-yu-laat |
| AA | eɪ | Long A | freight mesa | fraat MAAS-' |
| AH | ɑː | Wide Ah | bra father | brah FAH-th'r |
| E | ɛ | Short E | pen pleasure | pen PLE-[z]{ur} |
| EE | iː | Long E | freeze tincture | freez TEENK-ch{ur} |
| ' | ə | Schwa | comma bottle | KOM-' BOT-'l |
| I | ɪ | Short I | ribs busy tickle | ribz BIZ-ee TIK-'l |
| II | aɪ | Long I | ice frighten | iis FRIIT-'n |
| O | ɒ | Short O | stop father bottle | stop FOTH-'r BOT-'l |
| OH | oʊ | Long O | post Ohio ogre | pohst oh-HII-oh OH-g'r |
| % | ʊ | Wide U or narrow O | put book crooked sugar | p%t b%k KR%K-'d SH%-g'r |
| U | ʌ | Short U | blunt underwear | blunt UN-d'r-wer |
| UU | uː | Long U | boot tuna bluelander | buut TUUN-' BLUU-lan-d'r |
Combination Vowels
| Blep | IPA | Description | Example | BLEPPO |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AR | ɑːr | Pirate Ar | bar parsley guitar | bar PARS-lee gi-TAR |
| ER | ær | Breezy Er | beware very daring pterodactyl | bee-WER VER-ee DER-eeng ter-'-DAK-t'l |
| EER | ɪr | Audible Eer | ear spirit | eer SPEER-'t |
| 'R | ər | Awkward 'r | bummer ignorance | BUM-'r IG-n'r-'ns |
| IR | ɜːr | Furry Ir | curt virtual indirect | kirt VIR-chuu-'l in-dir-EKT |
| OR | ɔːr | Indecisive Or | store horror horse | stor HOR-'r hors |
| {UR} | ʊər | Furious Ur | pure failure | p{ur} FAAL-{ur} |
| UR | ʌr | Hurried Ur | hurry turret | HUR-ee TUR-it |
| AW | ɔː | Adorable Aw | law awful | law AW-f%l |
| OW | aʊ | Painful Ow | plow sour | plow SOW+'r |
| OI | ɔɪ | Annoyed Oi | boy oil | boi OI+'l |
Consonants
| Blep | IPA | Description | Example | BLEPPO |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| B | b | - | banana billow | b'-NA-n' BIL-loh |
| D | d | - | dog danger | dog DAAN-j'r |
| F | f | - | frog physics | frog FIZ-'ks |
| G | g | Hard G | god aggravate | god AG-r'-vaat |
| H | h | Hard H | hurt vehicular | hirt vee-HIK-y'-l'r |
| [H] | - | Soft H | where vehicle | w[h]er VEE-[h]ik-'l |
| J | dʒ | J or soft G | jail garbage | jaal GAR-b'j |
| K | k | K or hard C | kill chaos cicada | kil KAA-os si-KAA-d' |
| L | l | - | love relationship | luv re-LAA-sh'n-ship |
| M | m | - | move marriage | muuv MER-r'j |
| N | n | - | nice never | niis NEV-'r |
| P | p | - | price perfect | priis PIR-f'kt |
| R | r | - | race reptile | raas REP-tiil |
| S | s | S or soft C | soup soccer | suup SOK-'r |
| T | t | - | tooth terror | tuu[th] TER-'r |
| V | v | - | nerve virtue | nirv VIR-chuu |
| W | w | - | water unwise | WOT-'r un-WIIZ |
| Y | j | - | yes yeti hallelujah | yes YE-tee hal-le-LUU-y' |
| Z | z | - | zoo laser Beelzebub | zuu LAA-z'r bee-EL-z'-bub |
| [Z] | ʒ | Soft Z | vision treasure | VI[Z]-un TRE[Z]-{ur} |
Combination Consonants
| Blep | Description | Example | BLEPPO |
|---|---|---|---|
| KW | Queen Kw | quiz question | kwiz KWESH-t'n |
| TH | Hard Th | the blather this'll | th' BLATH-'r THIS-'l |
| [TH] | Soft Th | truth thistle | truu[th] [TH]IS-'l |
| SH | Quiet Sh | shut bushel | shut B%SH-'l |
| CH | Soft Ch | change recharge | chaanj ree-CHARJ |
| NG | King Ng | fang avuncular | fang '-V'NG-ky'-l'r |
Extended set
Sounds beyond the 44-ish common English phonemes, used in some dialects or with extrinsic loanwords. This list is incomplete.
| Blep | Description | Example | BLEPPO |
|---|---|---|---|
| {CH} | Powerful Ch | loch Hanukkah | lo{ch} {CH}ON-'-k' |
| {-} | Glottal stop | uh-oh Hawaiʻi didn't | u{-}oh h'-WII{-}ee di{-}nt |
| RR | Rolled R | Zorro roja | ZORR-oh RROH-{ch}ah |
| NY | Enye | nya La Niña | nyah lah NEE-nyah |
More examples
| Ecclesiastic | 'k-lee-zee-AS-t'c |
| hors d'oeuvre | or-DIRV |
| onomatopoeia | on-'-mot-'-PEE-' |
| kindergarten | KIN-dir-gar-d'n |
| Antidisestablishmentarianism | an-tee-dis-'s-tab-l'sh-m'nt-ER-ee-'n-is+'m |
| asterisk | AS-tir-r'sk |
| defibrillator | dee-FIB-r'-laa-t'r |
| exponentially | eks-poh-NIN-ch'-lee |
| February | FEB-ruu-er-ee |
| library | LII-brer-ee |
| Massachusettes | mas-'-CHUU-s'ts |
| schadenfreude | SHAH-d'n-froid+' |
| synechdoche | sin-EK-d'-kee |