Vase. Arkansas. Featherstonehaugh. Dunedin. Ghoti. Apologies to non-native speakers, but English pronunciation is a mess. Dictionaries only go so far -- in a polycultural information economy it gets even messier. LHOOQ. Tchicherine. !Kung.
Like Linus' "Linux" pronunciation example, RP.com is a website where you can post pronunciation queries as text, and answers as sound files, so that anyone can submit their particular pronunciation of a given word. Netizens will naturally want to pontificate, so multiple answers must be supported. A voting function will let the "tomayto" crew duke it out with the "tomahto" gang. Moderation may be a problem, not to mention multiple spellings. With enough entries, this system could be used to train speech recognition systems, or provide the nearest thing to lexicographical certainty.
P.S. Please don't bother with fonetik spelling suggestions: we've been through that elsewhere.
P.P.S. Don't try pronunciation.com. Dang those pornmeisters.-- rmutt, Oct 16 2000 American Heritage Dictionary http://www.bartleby.com/61/This one has audio pronunciation links that work. [beauxeault, Oct 16 2000] A propos of talking dictionaries... http://dictionaraoke.mirrors.gweep.net/...dictionary karaoke [DrCurry, Jul 24 2002] Urban Dictionary http://www.urbandictionary.com/So that's how you pronounce "fhqwgads" [rmutt, Feb 22 2005] After Latin studies, listening to radio for entertainment for most of my life, learning to relax around a mismatch of urban dialects, and medical work as a career, I'm not sure that appropriate pronunciation would be a blessing or a curse. Tell a skell.-- reensure, Oct 17 2000 PeterSealy, try the American Heritage Dictionary link.-- beauxeault, Oct 17 2000 When you register with this site, it would be easy to specify your locale, which would then affect the dialect of the 'speaking dictionary'. This could also be useful if you're about to travel to e.g. Houston, Texas, or Wigan, England and want to brush up on how to say certain words and phrases in the local accent.-- hippo, Oct 17 2000 The CMU Pronunciation Dictionary (which as I understand it offers textual pronunciation guides, not audio) will be back in service earliest in Nov '2000; there's a dbm compatibility problem that's currently messing things up.-- jutta, Oct 17 2000 There should be a reverse dictionary to take into account physiognomy as well as culture. You'd find language divided into groups of words that can be mouthed successfully by a person having a particular mouth type or facial type. Not like the biblical 'Sibboleth' <did I say that right?> but more along the lines of, "Words that work for you when you have no teeth." or "Words that work for you when you're tongue-tied" Also possible, indentification of words that work for mouth breathers as opposed to nose breathers, dichotomized for clavicular vs. diaphragmatic inspiration.-- reensure, Oct 17 2000 Why "received", incidentally?-- jutta, Oct 17 2000 What he said. Also because the site "receives" pronunciations rather than being authoritative, in contrast to pronouncing dictionaries or BBC boot camp. ("... those in what is called society" -- no one does snooty better than the British.)-- rmutt, Nov 16 2000 "You" say VASE rhymes with claws,and floors, and shores. .
"I" say VASE rhymes with craze, and says, and praise and weighs.
"They" say VASE rhymes with jars and bazaars, and reservoirs
Who cares [rhymes with theirs and hairs, and pears] So long as for the world's future, it rhymes with ... "shares" !-- rayfo, Nov 17 2000 <only slightly off topic> See link </only slightly off topic>-- DrCurry, Jul 24 2002 random, halfbakery