# VOA Pronunciation Guide

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{{Short description|Online pronunciation reference system}}
{{Infobox website
| name = VOA Pronunciation Guide
| logo = VOA Pronounce logo.png
| screenshot = VOA Pronunciation Guide (screenshot 2026-03-06 at 19-47-00).png
| caption = Homepage on March 6, 2026
| type = [Pronouncing dictionary](/source/Pronouncing_dictionary)
| language = American English
| owner = [Federal government of the United States](/source/Federal_government_of_the_United_States)
| url = {{url|https://pronounce.voanews.com/}}
| launch_date = {{start year and age|2000}}
| content_license = [Work of the United States government](/source/Work_of_the_United_States_government)
| oclc = 47225725
}}
The '''VOA Pronunciation Guide''' (or '''Voice of America Pronunciation Guide''') is an online pronunciation reference system by [Voice of America](/source/Voice_of_America) (VOA) which provides the [General American English](/source/General_American_English) pronunciations of names, places, and things found in international news reports,{{Sfn|Cowan|1995|p=36875}} especially [global political figures](/source/World_leaders). Entries of the guide each contain a phonetic pronunciation, its country of origin, and a link to an audio pronunciation.{{Sfn|Landesman|2002}} It is hosted as a website as part of the VOA network run by the [United States government](/source/United_States_government).{{Sfn|Griffith|2004}}

It emerged in 2000 as a digitization effort by VOA broadcaster Jim Tedder of the prior reference system of physical notecards, although the guide uses [pronunciation respellings](/source/Pronunciation_respelling_for_English) instead of the [International Phonetic Alphabet](/source/International_Phonetic_Alphabet) transcriptions of the notecards. Originally intended exclusively for newsreaders, the guide soon attracted usage by the general public.{{Sfn|Gimpel|2005}} ''[Reference Reviews](/source/Reference_Reviews)'' deemed the guide to be "a very useful service in providing authoritative pronunciations of names in the news",{{Sfn|Landesman|2002}} and it was endorsed by [NPR](/source/NPR) audio journalism trainer Jerome Socolovsky{{Sfn|Socolovsky|2019}} and NPR reference librarian [Kee Malesky](/source/Kee_Malesky).{{Sfn|Schumacher-Matos|2011}} [''Opinio Juris''](/source/Opinio_Juris_(blog)) remarked the website could make one "sound like a well-seasoned diplomat".{{Sfn|McGuinness|2009}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

=== Bibliography ===
{{Refbegin}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Cowan |first=Geoffrey |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RTjEYbu-EPQC |title=Voice of America; Development Office; VOA Computerized Pronunciation Guide Project Development  |journal=[Federal Register](/source/Federal_Register) |date=18 July 1995 |publisher=Office of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records Service, General Services Administration |language=en |volume=60 |issue=137 |pages=36875-36876}}
* {{Cite news |last=Gimpel |first=Lee |date=2005-09-30 |title=VOA Maps a World of Tricky Pronunciations |url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/29/AR2005092901959.html |access-date=2026-03-06 |language=en-US |issn=0190-8286 |work=[The Washington Post](/source/The_Washington_Post)}}
* {{Cite news |last=Griffith |first=Jackson |date=2004-06-03 |title=VOA Pronunciation Guide |url=https://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/content/voa-pronunciation-guide/29444/ |access-date=2026-03-10 |work=[Sacramento News & Review](/source/Sacramento_News_%26_Review) |language=en}}
* {{Cite journal |date=2002-07-01 |last=Landesman |first=Betty |title=Voice of America Pronunciation Guide |url=http://www.emerald.com/rr/article/16/7/16/455084 |journal=[Reference Reviews](/source/Reference_Reviews) |language=en |volume=16 |issue=7 |page=16 |doi=10.1108/rr.2002.16.7.16.340 |issn=0950-4125|url-access=subscription }}
* {{Cite web |last=McGuinness |first=Peggy |date=February 2, 2009 |title=You Too Can Sound Like a Radio Host: Or How Not to Humiliate Yourself in Front of Your Class |url=https://opiniojuris.org/2009/02/02/you-too-can-sound-like-a-radio-host-or-how-not-to-humiliate-yourself-in-front-of-your-class/ |access-date=March 6, 2026 |website=[Opinio Juris](/source/Opinio_Juris_(blog))}}
* {{Cite news |last=Schumacher-Matos |first=Edward |author-link=Edward Schumacher-Matos |date=2011-09-26 |title=You Say Tomato, I Say Tomahto |url=https://www.wbur.org/npr/140816220/you-say-tomato-i-say-tomahto |access-date=2026-03-10 |website=[WBUR](/source/WBUR) |language=en}}
* {{Cite news |last=Socolovsky |first=Jerome |date=2019-04-30 |title=Pronounce like a polyglot: saying foreign names on air |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/npr-training/2025/05/29/g-s1-65779/pronounce-like-a-polyglot-saying-foreign-names-on-air |access-date=2026-03-06 |work=[NPR](/source/NPR) |language=en}}
{{Refend}}

== External links ==
* [https://pronounce.voanews.com/ Official website]

{{Authority control|qid=Q138589976}}
Category:English pronouncing dictionaries
Category:Voice of America

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [VOA Pronunciation Guide](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VOA_Pronunciation_Guide) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VOA_Pronunciation_Guide?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.