What does " : " mean in IPA Transcription?

[zaneth]

When I went to London I was shocked by the variety of accents, none of which matched my image of how English people speak. Are you sure there aren't any British accents that omit the j before u, as in American? Are there any American accents that juse it?

[Stephen Jones]

Metal 56: I had misunderstood which two pronunciations you were saying were the same.

What you have lost is the 'h' in hedge.

[Maltezer]

Zaneth

I cannot be 100% re all British regional accents but the standard is /ju:/ and this is what is taught in the UK. Students should have the opportunity to listen to as many different variations of English as possible to give them an awareness of such variations.

Yes, "take off" (phrasal verb) means "imitate" where I used it.

[zaneth]

Yes, I really appreciate teaching materials that use different accents. Students hear me (west coast American with traces of a different accent from early childhood, highly modified from years of speaking to English learners) and British is the norm taught here (though many of the native teachers have American or local accents). I'd like to gather some more examples of taped speech from other varieties (Indian, Australian) but I haven't gotten around to it.

I came across one set of materials, however, that had a British person doing an American accent. Perhaps the students couldn't hear the difference but it really grated on my nerves. How hard could it be to get a real American to read a few lines?