Pronunciations of letters 'ai' in the word 'pair' and short /e/.

[TaiwanPofLee]

Is the pronunciation of the letters 'ai' in the word 'pair' the same as that of the letter 'e' in the word 'pen'?

 

[emsr2d2]

No.

 

[Rover_KE]

No.

 

[BobK]

This is very like your 'oy' question. Just because a dipthong s transcribed as one phoneme followed by another, it doesn't mean you can just take those phonemes out of their context.

b

 

[Tdol]

I agree- if you separate the transcription into individual sounds, you will not be pronouncing the dipthong.

 

[TaiwanPofLee]

Thank you for your reply, emsr2d2, Rover_KE, BobK, and Tdol.

Looking forward to guys, especially American English-speaking people, who will give a reply in the affirmative.

 

[SoothingDave]

No, it's nothing like "pen."

 

[TaiwanPofLee]

No, it's nothing like "pen."

Thank you for your reply, SoothingDave.

 

[TaiwanPofLee]

pen[SUP]1[/SUP] (pɛn

)
http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/american/pen?showCookiePolicy=true

[h=2]pair (pɛr

)
http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/american/pair?showCookiePolicy=true

• The Collins American English Dictionary
  Pioneers in dictionary publishing since 1819

[/h]

[h=2][/h]
[h=2][/h]

 

[Roman55]

I clicked on the links to see for myself, and you're right, they do show the pronunciation for both words as /pɛn.
If, on the other hand, you click on the speaker symbol to listen to the words being pronounced (by the very unnatural sounding artificial voice) you'll notice that there is a distinct difference between the two. I think the phonetic transcription is a mistake.

 

[konungursvia]

Clearly, they are very different in BrE, where non-rhotic regions use the final R as a semi-vowel, which almost adds an additional vowel quality to the word.

In AmE, the vowel quality during first half of the vowel in each of the two words is definitely [ɛ] in both cases (often written [e] in English-only dictionaries; half a moment later, just before the rhotic r, the tongue in AmE has to move to another position, which necessarily changes the vowel quality. So the dictionary can keep the transcription, since anyone who tries to pronounce the word using the transcription will end up on the right track. However, no one is completely wrong in this debate, as there are strong similarities in the vowel early on, and there are unavoidable differences near its end -- in AmE.

 

[TaiwanPofLee]

I clicked on the links to see for myself, and you're right, they do show the pronunciation for both words as /pɛn.
If, on the other hand, you click on the speaker symbol to listen to the words being pronounced (by the very unnatural sounding artificial voice) you'll notice that there is a distinct difference between the two. I think the phonetic transcription is a mistake.

Thank you, Roman55.

Oxford English Dictionary (US):
[h=1]pair[/h] Syllabification: pairPronunciation: /per

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/american_english/pair
[h=1]pen[/h] Syllabification: penPronunciation: /pen

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/american_english/pen

 

[TaiwanPofLee]

Clearly, they are very different in BrE, where non-rhotic regions use the final R as a semi-vowel, which almost adds an additional vowel quality to the word.

In AmE, the vowel quality during first half of the vowel in each of the two words is definitely [ɛ] in both cases (often written [e] in English-only dictionaries; half a moment later, just before the rhotic r, the tongue in AmE has to move to another position, which necessarily changes the vowel quality. So the dictionary can keep the transcription, since anyone who tries to pronounce the word using the transcription will end up on the right track. However, no one is completely wrong in this debate, as there are strong similarities in the vowel early on, and there are unavoidable differences near its end -- in AmE.

Thank you, konungursvia.

Cambridge English Dictionary:
[h=2]pair[/h]noun [C] uk /peər/ us /per/
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/pair
[h=2]pen[/h]noun [C] uk /pen/ us
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/pen