Discussion Groups / ESL Teaching / April 2004

.......

Thanks a lot for your comment... I just searched for the IPA site and
I got the complete chart and a lot more information.

BTW, for those who are intrested in the site... here is the link :-)

http://www2.arts.gla.ac.uk/IPA/ipa.html

Have a nice day!
Irma.

And that turned out gibberish over here. A different representation is
currently required on usenet.

http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Evan_Kirshenbaum/IPA/

#begin quote
In August of 1992, some of the readers of the Usenet newsgroups sci.lang
and alt.usage.english got fed up with common in which posters tried to
describe how words were pronounced (by them or in dialects under
discussion) by reference to how other words were pronounced (by the
author). Since individuals pronounce different words differently, this
tended to lead to (occasionally interesting, but often merely) long,
fruitless threads.
There already was a scheme occasionally used for noting transcription,
but it suffered from (among other things) the fact that it was highly
skewed toward describing English. This made it less than useful for the
denizens of sci.lang.

Since there already existed a notation (the International Phonetic
Alphabet, or IPA) for precisely specifying phonemic and phonetic values,
several of us decided that it couldn't be too hard to put together a
reasonable transcription scheme of IPA into 7-bit ASCII characters. We
naturally had to allow some of the IPA symbols to map onto multiple
characters (since there are more IPA symbols than ASCII characters), but
we finally settled on a scheme in which each segment is represented by a
single character, potentially followed by some number of "diacritics",
which can either be single characters or delimited tokens. [We also came
up with a very narrow feature-based representation for use when
precision is needed or when no symbol completely fits the bill.] Unlike
some other such attempts, we took it as a given that this transcription
had to be directly readable, so each character needed to be at least
somewhat evocative of its IPA value.

It is expected that when the Unicode/ISO 10646 character set becomes
commonly used for mail, news, and web pages, this transcription will no
longer be needed, as the IPA characters will be able to be used
directly.

Included in this archive are the specification itself and the
"Pronunciation Symbols" page of Merriam-Webster's New Collegiate
Dictionary", done over in this transcription. This latter should be of
use for American English speakers who are not used to the IPA symbols.
#end quote

This is English using the system:
http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Evan_Kirshenbaum/IPA/english.html
#begin quote
To aid English speakers in using the phonetic transcription, this
document describes the mapping onto a standard American dictionary
transcription system for sounds that commonly occur in the English
language. When it differs from the symbol used, I've also included a
description of the IPA symbol for the benefit of non-Americans.

The table is taken from the 'Pronunciation Symbols' page of
Merriam-Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary. In the examples, the
letters which spell the sound are bracketed by '<...>'.

Note that this only describes a small subset of the transcription
system. There are far more sounds (used in other languages) and nuances
of sound that can be captured. See the document describing the full
standard for complete details.

Phonemic (broad) transcriptions are bracketed by '/.../'. Phonetic
(narrow) transcriptions are bracketed by '[...]'. Syllables that carry
primary stress are preceded by "'". Syllables that carry secondary
stress are preceded by ",". When giving the transcription of a single
word, spaces are generally inserted between syllables (often omitted
before syllables that have stress marks). When giving the transcription
of a multi-word utterance, it is common to put spaces between words and
omit them between syllables.

/@/:
schwa (upside-down 'e').
Used in both unaccented ('b<a>nan<a>', 'c<o>llide', '<a>but'), and
accented ('h<u>mdr<u>m', 'ab<u>t') contexts.
The IPA symbol is a schwa.

[British speakers often have different vowels in these two contexts. The
accented one is further back and is written /V/. Its IPA symbol is a
'wedge' or upside-down 'v'.]

/l-/, /n-/, /m-/, /N-/:
Superscript schwa preceding consonant.
As in 'batt<le>', 'mitt<en>', 'eat<en>'. Signifies that the consonant is
pronounced as a syllable by itself.
The IPA symbol is a vertical bar below the consonant.

/R/:
shwa followed by 'r'.
'op<er>ation', 'f<ur>th<er>', '<ur>g<er>'.
The IPA symbol is a schwa with a hook.

/&/:
short a.
'm<a>t', 'm<a>p', 'm<a>d', 'g<a>g, 'sn<a>p', 'p<a>tch'.
The IPA symbol is an 'a-e' digraph.

/eI/:
long a ('a' with bar above).
'd<ay>', 'f<a>de', 'd<a>te', '<a>orta', 'dr<a>pe', 'c<a>pe'.
/A/:
a with diaeresis (two dots) above.
'b<o>ther', 'c<o>t', and, with most American speakers, 'f<a>ther',
'c<a>rt'.
The IPA symbol is a script 'a'.

/a/:
a with dot above.
'f<a>ther' as pronounced by speakers who do not rhyme it with bother.
/AU/:
a followed by u with dot.
'n<ow>', 'l<ou>d', '<ou>t'.
/b/:
'<b>a<b>y', 'ri<b>'.

/tS/:
ch. The dictionary notes "(actually, this sound is \t\ + \sh\)"
'<ch>in', 'na<tu>re' (/'neI tSR/). In IPA transcription, this is
sometimes spelled as 'c with hacek'.
/d/:
'<d>i<d>', 'a<dd>er'.

/E/:
short e.
'b<e>t', 'b<e>d', 'p<e>ck'.
The IPA symbol is a lower-case epsilon. It is sometimes spelled with a
small capital E.

/i/:
long e ('e' with bar above).
'b<ea>t', 'nosebl<ee>d', '<e>venl<y>', '<ea>s<y>'.
/f/:
'<f>i<f>ty', 'cu<ff>'

/g/:
'<g>o', 'bi<g>', '<g>ift'.

/h/:
'<h>at', 'a<h>ead'.

/hw/:
'<wh>ale' as pronounced by those who do not have the same
pronunciation for both 'whale' and 'wail'.
/I/:
short i.
't<i>p', 'ban<i>sh', 'act<i>ve'.
The IPA symbol is a small capital I or a lower-case iota.

/aI/:
long i ('i' with bar above).
's<i>te', 's<i>de', 'b<uy>', 'tr<i>pe'.
/dZ/:
j. The dictionary notes "(actually, this sound is \d\ + \zh\)"
'<j>ob', '<g>em', 'e<dge>', '<j>oin', '<j>u<dge'.
/k/:
'<k>in', '<c>oo<k>', 'a<che>'.

/x/:
k with bar below. (Same as /C/.)
German 'Bu<ch>'.
/C/:
k with bar below. (Same as /x/.)
German 'i<ch>'.
/l/:
'<l>i<l>y', 'poo<l>'.

/m/:
'<m>ur<m>ur', 'di<m>', 'ny<m>ph'.

/n/:
'<n>o', 'ow<n>'.

/<vowel>~/:
superscript 'n'.
"indicates that a preceeding vowel or diphthong is pronounced with the
nasal passages open as in French 'un bon vin blanc' /W~ bo~ va~ blA~/"
The IPA diacritic is a tilde above the vowel.

/N/:
eng ('n' with a tail).
'si<ng>' /sIN/, 'si<ng>er' /'sIN R/, 'fi<ng>er' /'fIN gR/, 'i<n>k' /iNk/
The IPA symbol is an eng.

/oU/:
long o ('o' with bar above).
'b<o>ne', 'kn<ow>', 'b<eau>'.
/O/:
'o' with dot above.
's<aw>', '<a>ll', 'gn<aw>'.
The IPA symbol is a small open 'o' or upside-down 'c'.

/W/:
o-e digraph
French 'b<oeu>f', german 'H<o:>lle.
The IPA symbol is an o-e digraph.

/Oi/:
'o' with dot above followed by 'i'.
'c<oi>n', 'destr<oy>'. [The dictionary also lists 's<awi>ng', but I
pronounce that as two separate syllables /'sO IN/.]
/p/:
'<p>e<pp>er', 'li<p>'.

/r/:
'<r>ed', 'ca<r>', '<r>a<r>ity'.

/s/:
'<s>our<ce>', 'le<ss>'.

/S/:
sh.
'<sh>y', 'mi<ssi>on', 'ma<ch>ine', 'spe<ci>al'.
The IPA symbol is an esh: a tall, pulled 's' or long, barless 'f'.

/t/:
'<t>ie', 'a<tt>ack'.

/T/:
th.
'<th>in'. 'e<th>er'.
The IPA symbol as a lower-case theta.

/D/:
'th' with bar below.
'<th>en', 'ei<th>er', '<th>is'.
The IPA symbol is an eth, sort of a script 'd' with the bar crossed.

/u/:
'u' with diaeresis (two dots) above.
'r<u>le', 'y<ou>th', 'union' /'jun j@n/, 'few' /fju/.
/U/:
'u' with dot above.
'p<u>ll', 'w<oo>d', 'b<oo>k', 'curable' /'kjUr @ b@l/.
The IPA symbol is a small letter upsilon. A small capital U or closed
lower-case omega is also used.

/y/:
u-e digraph.
German 'f<u:>llen', 'h<u:>bsch', French 'r<ue>'.
/v/:
'<v>i<v>id', 'gi<ve>'.

/w/:
'<w>e', 'a<w>ay'.

/j/:
'<y>ard', '<y>oung', 'cue' /kju/, 'union' /'jun y@n/;

/<cons>;/:
superscript 'y' following consonant;
"indicates that during the articulation of the sound represented by the
preceding character, the front of the tongue has substantially the
position it has for the articulation of the first sound of 'yard', as in
French 'digne' /din;/."
The IPA diacritic is a superscript 'j' following or hook below the
consonant.

/ju/:
'<you>th', '<u>nion', 'c<ue>', 'f<ew>', 'm<u>te'.

/jU/:
'c<u>rable', 'f<u>ry'.

/z/:
'<z>one', 'rai<se>'.

/Z/:
zh.
'vi<si>on', 'azure' /'aZ R/.
The IPA symbol is a yogh: like a flat-topped '3' lowered so that the top
is the height of that of a 'z'.
#end quote

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