Editing Help:Pronunciation respelling key (section)

==When to use and when not to==
{{shortcut|WP:RESPELLNOT}}

As designated in [[Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation]], the standard set of symbols used to show the pronunciation of English words on Wikipedia is the [[International Phonetic Alphabet]] (IPA). The IPA has significant advantages over this respelling system, as it can be used to accurately represent pronunciations from any language in the world, and (being an international standard) is often more familiar to those outside North America and non-native speakers of English. On the other hand, the IPA (being designed to represent sounds from any language in the world) is not as intuitive for those chiefly familiar with English orthography, for whom this respelling system is likely to be easier for English words and names. So, while the IPA is the required form of representing pronunciation, respelling remains optional. It should not be used for representing non-English words or an approximation thereof.

Sometimes another means of indicating a pronunciation is more desirable than this respelling system, such as when a name is intended to be a homonym of an existing English word or phrase, or in case of an [[initialism]] or a name composed of numbers or symbols. When citing a homonym, it should not be enclosed in the {{tl|respell}} template. In such cases, an IPA notation is usually nevertheless needed, but not necessarily so; see {{section link|Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation|Other transcription systems}} for further discussion.

Respelling should also be avoided when a respelled syllable would be the same as an existing word that is pronounced differently. For example, "Maui" {{IPAc-en|ˈ|m|aʊ|i|link=no}} respelled as {{!xt|{{respell|MOW|ee|link=no}}}}, "metonymy" {{IPAc-en|m|ɛ|ˈ|t|ɒ|n|ɪ|m|i}} as {{!xt|{{respell|meh|TON|im|ee|link=no}}}}, and "cobalt" {{IPAc-en|ˈ|k|oʊ|b|ɒ|l|t}} as {{!xt|{{respell|KOH|bolt|link=no}}}} are susceptible to being misinterpreted as {{IPAc-en|ˈ|m|oʊ|i|link=no}}, {{IPAc-en|m|ɛ|ˈ|t|ʌ|n|ɪ|m|i}}, and {{IPAc-en|ˈ|k|oʊ|b|oʊ|l|t}}, because of the words "mow", "ton", and "bolt", so only IPA should be provided for such words.

Particularly, respelling {{IPA|/aʊ/}} could prove problematic as there are a variety of monosyllabic words spelled with "ow" and pronounced with {{IPA|/oʊ/}}: ''blow'', ''blown'', ''bow'', ''bowl'', ''flow'', ''flown'', ''glow'', ''grow'', ''grown'', ''growth'', ''low'', ''mow'', ''mown'', ''own'', ''row'', ''show'', ''slow'', ''snow'', ''sow'', ''sown'', ''stow'', ''strow'', ''throw'', ''tow'', and ''trow''. There is no universal solution to this problem ("ou" also varies as in ''loud'', ''soup'', ''soul'', and ''touch''), so respelling a word including {{IPA|/aʊ/}} may be best avoided altogether; however, sometimes the benefit of respelling may outweigh the disadvantage, especially for longer words, so exercise discretion.