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Shouldn't /mj/ be on the list?

I am nothing but a casual observer. I've never studied phonetics, language, speech, etc., so I have no idea if this is stupid to even bring up. If so, I offer my deepest apologies for wasting anyone's time. That being said, I saw entries for several other "letters followed by the (as I was taught in grade school) long 'U' sound," e.g., /dj/ dew, /lj/ lute, /nj/ newt, etc. Shouldn't there also be an entry for /mj/ as in music, mew, munificent? I have no clue if this is something valid that has been overlooked, or if I just don't know enough about my native language (all of which I'm sure could fill several VERY LARGE tomes) in this instance. Thank you for your time. Brutus6844 (talk) 18:46, 25 August 2024 (UTC)

@Brutus6844: It's because there is considerable varation in the realization of /dj/, /lj/ etc. in major varieties of English (see yod-dropping and yod-coalescence). In contrast, /mj/ stays /mj/ in all supra-regional varieties and only has yod-dropping in some traditional dialects of England (e.g. stereotypically in Norfolk), which is beyond the scope of variation that we try to capture in this pronunciation key. –Austronesier (talk) 19:56, 25 August 2024 (UTC)

/ɜːr/in British place names

I just came here as I noticed the IPA transcription for Herne Hill is given as /hɜːrn/. I checked a few other English place names and noticed the same use of /ɜːr/. The problem is that nobody says that, whether their accent is rhotic or not, in rhotic accents it is /hɜrn/ and non-rhotic it is /hɜːn/. Is there something I'm missing> Boynamedsue (talk) 07:13, 12 September 2024 (UTC)

@Boynamedsue: The article is correct. If you look at the IPA explanation at Help:IPA/English you'll see a footnote in the entry for /ɜːr/:

In Received Pronunciation, /ɜːr/ is pronounced as a lengthened schwa, [əː]. In General American, it is phonetically identical to /ər/. Some dictionaries therefore use ⟨əː, ər⟩ instead of the conventional notations ⟨ɜː, ɜr⟩. When ⟨ər⟩ is used for /ɜːr/, it is distinguished from /ər/ by marking the syllable as stressed.

Bazza 7 (talk) 08:09, 12 September 2024 (UTC)

I have seen that text, but it doesn't answer the point. In General American the pronunciation is different to /ɜːr/, and though I have never seen [əː] given for the NURSE vowel in RP (in as much as it exists), we can definitely agree it is not pronounced as /ɜːr/. As you allude to, the standard notation used for the NURSE vowel in the UK is /ɜː/. So why are we using a phonetic transcription which is not used by anybody?Boynamedsue (talk) 16:58, 12 September 2024 (UTC)

It's not a phonetic transcription, it's a diaphonemic abstraction that encodes how it is pronounced in the major accents of natively-spoken English. The choice of /ɜːr/ is a blend of the traditional way of transcribing the corresponding RP and GA sounds, viz. /ɜː/ and /ər/. We could also have chosen /☎/, but that's less intuitive than the more realistic /ɜːr/. –Austronesier (talk) 19:18, 12 September 2024 (UTC)

@Austronesier: Thanks. That looks like a more professional way of saying what I took four paragraphs to explain below. Bazza 7 (talk) 19:21, 12 September 2024 (UTC)

(edit conflict) @Boynamedsue: I think you are mistakenly assuming that /r/ always means "pronounce it as in 'rye'". When combined with other symbols, such as /ɜː/, it can be pronounced differently or not at all, as shown in the tables and notes at Help:IPA/English.

Take a look at Collins dictionary on-line, which uses /nɜːʳs/ for the pronunciation of "nurse". Its [https://blog.collinsdictionary.com/ipa-pronunciation-guide-cobuild/ guide states that /ɜːʳ/ is pronounced as in "turn" or "third", with a note that the /ʳ/ superscript shows that in Received Pronunciation the /r/ is pronounced only when it is followed by a vowel, while in General American it is always pronounced. Apart from using a superscript, this is the same as the notation Wikipedia uses, so your assertion that this is not used by anybody is not correct.

Other publications use different symbols: Cambridge and [dictionary.com https://www.dictionary.com/browse/nurse] use the notation you used above for what they call the "UK" pronunciation of "nurse" (although people in Lancashire and Norfolk may argue that is wrong). They use a different notation for the "US" pronunciation: /nɝːs/ and /nɜrs/ respectively.

Wikipedia has chose to use the symbols and symbol combinations defined Help:IPA/English. So for "Herne", /hɜːrn/ means "h" as in "hi", "ur" as in "fur" and "n" as in "nigh" (which you will see as tooltips if your device supports hovering over the IPA), regardless of which variation of English you speak. In my southern English version of British English, I do not pronounce the "r" in "fur", so Wikipedia's IPA definition for /ɜːr/ ("ur" as in "fur") is correct for me. Bazza 7 (talk) 19:18, 12 September 2024 (UTC)

Thanks to Austronesier for explaining the fact it is not actually intended to accurately reflect ANY pronunciation. I think that it probably should, but I would imagine the debate about whether to use local standard pronunciations in English-language place names was lost long ago. I am also a little worried that people who know the phonetic alphabet might take these transcriptions at face value, and it seems strange that this aspect of WP:IPA is in effect WP:OR.

Still, I doubt it's going to change, so there we have it.Boynamedsue (talk) 22:17, 12 September 2024 (UTC)

FWIW ⟨ɜːr⟩ is phonetically representative of RP when prevocalic, as in furry, occurring. It's also phonemically representative even when not prevocalic of some accents without the hurry–furry merger, e.g. Hiberno and West Country. Nardog (talk) 22:50, 12 September 2024 (UTC)

I think that probably makes it worse to a degree! We might be better off with the telephone symbol suggested by Austrioneser. If even linguistically trained people need to click on the link and read Help:IPA/English to make use of our transcription system (and there is nothing to advise anybody they meed to do this) I don't think it is benefitting anybody.Boynamedsue (talk) 06:42, 13 September 2024 (UTC)