Moby Pronunciation List

A massive pronunciation dictionary compiled for the Moby Pronunciator II DOS software, containing over 180,000 words transcribed in IPA and ASCII phonetics. Originally published in the late 1980s, this was one of the most comprehensive machine-readable pronunciation resources available, designed to give early text-to-speech systems a voice. Ward includes detailed conventions for English pronunciation, stress patterns, foreign name adaptations, and context-sensitive variations based on whether a word functions as noun, verb, or adjective. The list draws from multiple linguistic sources and remains a foundational resource for anyone building speech technology, analyzing phonetics, or assembling pronunciation databases. It captures the ambitious spirit of early computing: making language machine-readable at scale.