Jackson6612  +  520653 Thu, 29 May 08 08:57 PM 2sibilant a sibilant speech sound (as English \s\, \z\, \sh\, \zh\, \ch(=tsh)\, or \j(=dzh)\) [M-W's Col. Dic.] Why are these \  used to enclose the sound letters? Jackson6612 Joined on Wed, Dec 27 2006 Senior Member 3,688 It’s a difficult question for any man to answer… Whether to follow his dreams no matter what… Or to give in slowly and let life lead you where it will.

	CalifJim  +  520667 Thu, 29 May 08 10:45 PM  Merriam-Webster uses the convention of enclosing phonetic transcriptions in back slashes. It's to show that the letter symbols between the back slashes represent sounds; they are not the actual spellings of words that you see in normal writing. CJ  CalifJim Joined on Mon, Aug 2 2004 California Veteran Member 22,399 "There are no facts, only interpretations" - Nietzsche Phonetics