I see now that, while Merriam-Webster has "here" with the vowel of "bin" and "lean" with the vowel of "bean", If you're talking about Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, this used to be the case

The Chambers Dictionary (1993 edition) has a pronunciation symbol that they say corresponds to the vowels in "lean, keel, ... query". Is there anyone in the English speaking world who pronounces "here" and "lean" with

How would Bob have reacted if I'd proposed using Chambers' system? Boo! The Chambers Dictionary (1993 edition) has a pronunciation symbol that they say corresponds to the vowels in ... query". Is there anyone in the English speaking

(about the pronunciation guide at m-w.com) ( . . . ) If they used phonetic transcriptions, they'd need a lot more symbols. They'd also reject every accent but one and it's not yours or mine. I think that's a common misconception. A

( . . . ) How would Bob have reacted if I'd proposed using Chambers' system? Boo! The Chambers Dictionary (1993 edition) has a pronunciation symbol that they say corresponds to the vowels in "lean, keel, dene, chief, seize, gear,

As long as the speech of the speaker in question ... "wuz" and "lissen," we're talking about anotherexample of phonetic spelling. Whoa. "Was" is pronounced by me and presumably by you like "wuz", but

As long as the speech of the speaker in question is not represented with such spellings as "wuz" and "lissen," we're talking about another example of phonetic spelling. Whoa. "Was" is pronounced by me and