Optional Sounds
When a certain sound is pronounced by some speakers but not by others, the sound is put inside parentheses (round brackets). It is correct to say the word either with or without the sound. For example, the respelled pronunciation of the word fuchsia is "FEW-sh(i)ə". It can either be pronounced "FEW-shi-ə" or "FEW-shə".
Read more about this topic: Pronunciation Respelling Key
Famous quotes containing the words optional and/or sounds:
“Our father presents an optional set of rhythms and responses for us to connect to. As a second home base, he makes it safer to roam. With him as an ally—a love—it is safer, too, to show that we’re mad when we’re mad at our mother. We can hate and not be abandoned, hate and still love.”
—Judith Viorst (20th century)
“These were the sounds that issued from the wigwams of this country before Columbus was born; they have not yet died away; and, with remarkably few exceptions, the language of their forefathers is still copious enough for them. I felt that I stood, or rather lay, as near to the primitive man of America, that night, as any of its discoverers ever did.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)