Individuality

ˈɔːwɪz rɪˈmembə | ðəʧɔːr ˈæbsəˈluːtli juːˈniːk || ˈʤʌs laɪk ˈevriwʌn ˈels

Key at bottom of page.

Commentary

always: Certain high-frequency words have a variant without /l/ when the /l/ is preceded by /ɔː/ and followed by another consonant, e.g. always, almost, already, alright, etc.

The variants /-wɪz/ and /-weɪz/ appear to be roughly equally frequent in the General British (GB) accent.

remember: When a word begins with the unstressed prefix re-, it can be pronounced /rɪ/, /rə/ or /ri/. When dictionaries such as the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary (3^rd ed.) give these three alternatives, it isn’t made clear that the third variant is much less common than the first two variants in General British.

that: When unstressed, as it usually is, that as a conjunction or relative pronoun has the weak form /ðət/. Note that the other uses of that do not have weak forms and are always pronounced /ðæt/: pronoun, I know that. /aɪ ˈnəʊ ˈðæt/; determiner, I know that man. /aɪ ˈnəʊ ˈðæt ˈmæn/; adverb, It wasn’t that good. /ɪt ˈwɒzn̩t ˈðæt ˈɡʊd/.

When a word ends with /t/ and the immediately following word begins with /j/, the /t/ and the /j/ can combine to form /ʧ/. This is known as coalescent assimilation. It is most common with the high-frequency words you and your, especially when they occur with grammatical inversion, e.g. what you /ˈwɒʧu/, ɡot you /ˈɡɒʧu/, that your /ðəʧɔː/, etc.

When a word ends in /ɔː/ and is immediately followed (without a pause) by a word beginning with a vowel, the consonant /r/ is inserted between the vowels. This process is known as /r/-liaison and also occurs after /ɑː ɜː ə eə ɪə ʊə/.

just: When /t/ is at the end of a word (more specifically, in a syllable coda) and is immediately preceded by a consonant (except /l/ and /n/), it is commonly elided/deleted when another consonant immediately follows (i.e. without a pause) in another word or in a suffix.

everyone: When schwa /ə/ is followed by /r/ and then an unstressed syllable, the schwa /ə/ is often elided. Memory /ˈmeməri/ becomes /ˈmemri/, separate (adj.) /ˈsepərət/ becomes /ˈseprət/, etc. In the case of every, the word is so common that for most people /ˈevri/ is probably the form they have in their mental lexicon and the form /ˈevəri/, if they occasionally use it, is caused by the influence of the spelling.

The symbol i represents the same vowel phoneme as the symbol iː. We use i in unstressed syllables and iː in stressed syllables. This distinction isn't very helpful for TEFL purposes and learners should simply treat the two symbols as the same. Because we are using two different symbols for one phoneme, this means our transcription isn't truly phonemic (phonemic transcription = one symbol for each phoneme).

Always remember that you’re absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.