English Phonetics
Post date: Aug 06, 2012 4:43:30 PM
While it is not necessary to emulate any given native accent, it is useful to practice a neutral accent. Dictionaries specify the pronunciation for each word. The English language has only 26 letters in the alphabet. However there are 44 sounds and these are not mapped uniquely to a standard set of letters from the alphabet . So, phonetic alphabet is used in the dictionary to specify pronunciation. University of Iowa hosts an interactive site where you can see the vocalization of phonetic alphabet and also hear few words in American accent.