Key to Pronunciation
Pronunciation of place names in The Columbia Gazetteer of the World appear in parentheses next to place names. Generally, it has been our aim to "sound out" pronunciations in a way that approaches that of newspapers, and we believe that in the vast majority of cases our pronunciations are phonetically self-evident. However, we decided to avoid the ambiguity involved in showing, to take one instance, the pronunciation of the long "i" in "fight" as "eye" to produce "feyet." Instead, we adopted the scheme, shown below, which was used in Kenneth Wilson's Columbia Guide to Standard American English, showing the pronunciation of "fight" as "feit," and that of "fate" as "fait." Hyphens are used to separate syllables, and capital letters are used to indicate stressed syllables.
The List of Symbols for the Pronunciations
Stressed Vowel Sounds
| EE | (FEET) | feet |
| I | (FIT) | fit |
| E | (BED) | bed |
| A | (KAT) | cat |
| (KAD) | cad | |
| AH | (FAH-thur) | father |
| (PAHR) | par | |
| AH | (HAHT) | hot |
| (TAH-dee) | toddy | |
| UH | (FUHJ) | fudge |
| (FLUHD) | flood | |
| UH | (CHUHRCH) | church |
| AW | (FAWN) | fawn |
| U | (FUL) | full |
| OO | (FOOD) | food |
| OU | (FOUND) | found |
| O | (FO) | foe |
| EI | (FEIT) | fight |
| AI | (FAIT) | fate |
| OI | (FOIL) | foil |
| YOO | (FYOOR-ee-uhs) | furious |
Unstressed Vowel Sounds
| uh | (SO-fuh) | sofa |
| (FING-guhr) | finger | |
| (SING-uhr) | singer |
Certain Vowel Sounds with R
| AHR | (PAHR) | par |
| ER | (PER) | pair |
| IR | (PIR) | peer |
| OR | (POR) | pour |
| OOR | (POOR) | poor |
| UHR | (PUHR) | purr |
Consonant Sounds
| B | (BED) | bed |
| D | (DET) | debt |
| F | (FED) | fed |
| G | (GET) | get |
| H | (HED) | head |
| HW | (HWICH) | which |
| J | (JUHG) | jug |
| K | (KAD) | cad |
| L | (LAIM) | lame |
| M | (MAT) | mat |
| N | (NET) | net |
| NG | (SING-uhr) | singer |
| P | (PET) | pet |
| R | (RED) | red |
| S | (SET) | set |
| T | (TEN) | ten |
| V | (VET) | vet |
| Y | (YET) | yet |
| W | (WICH) | witch |
| CH | (CHUHRCH) | church |
| SH | (SHEEP) | sheep |
| TS | (ITS) | its |
| (PITS-feeld) | Pittsfield | |
| TH | (THEI) | thigh |
| ZH | (A-zhuhr) | azure |
| (VI-zhuhn) | vision | |
| (mi-RAHZH) | mirage | |
| Z | (GOODZ) | goods |
| (HUH-buhz-tuhn) | Hubbardston |
