You can request an audio pronunciation. Alternatively, you may add your own by recording it in Lingua Libre and then linking here using Template:audio in accordance with our layout conventions.
Lingua Libre (alias LL or LiLi) is a web-based tool from Wikimédia France, built for easily recording words and phrases, at a pace of several hundreds per hour.
To get started recording pronunciations, create a Wikimedia account if you don't already have one, then log into Lingua Libre with your Wiktionary account. If you have a microphone and it's supported in your browser, then everything is pretty much intuitive and straightforward.
The words that you record will show up in https://commons.wikimedia.orghttps://dictious.com/en/Category:Lingua_Libre_pronunciation-eng (just replace "eng" with the 3-letter code of your language in this link). Or using another link, it's possible to see the recently added English audio files recorded in Lingua Libre.
If you are not a native speaker of a language, you should not record audio in that language to avoid subtle mistakes. Exceptions exist for constructed languages like Esperanto and dead languages with active speaking communities like Latin.
There's a bot, which automatically tracks the list of words still missing pronunciation audio across all Wiktionaries: https://lingualibre.orghttps://dictious.com/en/List:Eng/Lemmas-without-audio-sorted-by-number-of-wiktionaries ("Eng" can be changed to the 3-letter code of your native language). This list is accessible from the Lingua Libre UI.
You are also free to assemble your own lists of words.
Now to use a recorded pronunciation audio, just add something like this line to the appropriate Pronunciation section of the appropriate Wiktionary article:
* {{audio|en|LL-Q1860 (eng)-Username-{{subst:PAGENAME}}.wav|a=Southern England}}
Lingua Libre uses its own naming convention for the audio files, which includes the author's name and the language code. The user's profile can be inspected to confirm that the self-reported language skill is "native" and also note the geographic location, hinting a possible native speaker's dialect. The "place of learning" is probably more relevant than the "place of residence".
Other Wiktionaries are running bots, which add Lingua Libre pronunciation automatically, check this and this. But Lingua Libre Bot isn't active in the English Wiktionary yet.
Lingua Libre is capable of recording a really huge number of pronunciation audios very fast. But quality is more important than quantity. Please discard anything with any barely audible clicking noises or if the word came out sounding a bit weird. Discarding even 20-25 out of a batch of 30 recorded words is fine, as long as the remaining 5-10 are top quality. Then try recording another batch of words again.
Pick an optimal distance to the microphone. If it's too far, then the audio may sound muffled. If it's too close, then the audio may sound noisy. Tune the microphone input volume settings.
Try to pay attention to how you breathe during recording. The sounds of inhaling or exhaling are audible. They may be typically spotted in the beginning or in the end of the audio file.
Click here for video instructions.
Instead of using Lingua Libre, you may prefer to do audio recording locally on your computer via any software of your choice. And then upload it to Commons yourself as an additional separate step. This is much less convenient in practice, but such option still exists.
Generally speaking, the more common a word, the more likely it is that it has an audio file. If you're looking for audios to add, a good place to start would be Category:Requests for audio pronunciation in English entries.
If you are not a native speaker of a language, you should not record audio in that language to avoid subtle mistakes. Exceptions exist for constructed languages like Esperanto and dead languages with active speaking communities like Latin.
To create audio files, you will need a microphone. A headset style is best. You will also need recording software. The audio format of choice is Ogg Vorbis, because it is a free format. We recommend that you download Audacity for free.
Now, record a word. At first, just experiment with the software. Try it a few times and listen to the results. Turn the microphone input volume up. The biggest waves should take up 50–70% of the height of the graphical window. If it is too quiet, it will be hard to hear. If it is too loud, that is, visually going off the edge of the graphical window, the sound will distort.
Move the microphone around. Place it close enough to your mouth to pick up the sound well, but off to the side, so that you don't blow air directly into it when you speak. (Blowing air at a microphone causes a distracting popping sound in your recordings). If you can say "Peter Piper" without hearing puff-puff-puff, then it's in the right place.
Besides that, listen for clarity of your recordings. Put some inflection in your voice and enunciate, maybe a bit more than usual, but do not alter your pronunciation. Make sure nothing is chopped off at the beginning or end. Use the trim and silence buttons to remove extra noise at either end. Leave a bit of empty space, but not too much.
Once you can consistently create clean sound files, you'll need a routine to upload them. The following is Dvortygirl's well-honed routine. With practice, it takes less than one minute per word.
] Pronunciation of the term in US English, recorded by ], 14 March 2017
* {{audio|en|en-us-{{subst:PAGENAME}}.ogg|a=US}}
If you are doing batch audio, keep this template in your paste buffer.
* {{audio|en|en-us-associate-noun.ogg|a=US}}
The following is User:Neitrāls vārds' workflow for creating pronunciation audio files for anyone looking for inspiration on how to set up their workflow and of course for NV's own future reference.
There exist programs like Shtooka that allow to automate recording audio files but in NV's opinion external devices like smartphone voice recording options will often be superior to microphones to be connected to your computer or built in microphones in laptops (likely of questionable quality.) The following workflow also allows for extensive post-processing.
The following makes use of four pieces of software (all of them completely free) – 3 apps (i.e., they do not need installing, they work by clicking them) – AWB, Ant Renamer and Vicuña Uploader – and one program – Audacity – that needs installing. If Notepad++ is included then it's a total of 5 apps/programs.
The following should allow for approximately 100 recordings per hour (this is "from A to Z" – from saving your list of terms to be read to having audio files in the relevant entries.) The actual reading out of the terms takes up bulk of the time. Thus, e.g., 5 hours = 500 files (and smoke breaks are included in that calculation, I think.)
{{rfap}} to the entries lacking audio pron. which are then neatly listed in a category "Requests for audio pronunciation (X language)." Benefits of this is two-fold. If not consider quickly going through the entries you want to create pronunciation files for and adding "Pronunciation" header with rfap using Wiktionary:AWB.lv-riga- and many French files fr-paris-, etc..ogg.^ in Find what, enter your lang (and city) in Replace with, hit Replace all.{{audio||--{{subst:PAGENAME}}.ogg}}. (Note there are bots that automatically insert available audio files where they are missing so you can focus on recording and uploading instead)