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Lecture 2

This lecture introduces the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) and phonetic transcription. The IPA was developed to have a unique symbol for each speech sound across all languages. It uses diacritics added to symbols to indicate variations in sound quality. There are two levels of transcription - broad uses basic symbols for phonemes, while narrow adds diacritics for finer phonetic details. The IPA aims to provide an objective system for representing all sounds of human speech.

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60 views4 pages

Lecture 2

This lecture introduces the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) and phonetic transcription. The IPA was developed to have a unique symbol for each speech sound across all languages. It uses diacritics added to symbols to indicate variations in sound quality. There are two levels of transcription - broad uses basic symbols for phonemes, while narrow adds diacritics for finer phonetic details. The IPA aims to provide an objective system for representing all sounds of human speech.

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Angel Mae Ramos
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LINGUISTICS 221 LECTURE #2

Introduction to Phonetics and Phonology

The International Phonetic Alphabet


Phonetic transcriptions

The International Phonetic Association was founded in 1886 by Paul Passy,


a French phonetician.

International Phonetic Alphabet: a symbol system based upon an alphabet


developed by the British phonetician Henry Sweet.

Why do we need the IPA?

Ideally, an orthographic (=spelling) system would have one written symbol


for each spoken sound.

The true alphabetic principle:

ONE SYMBOL -- ONE SOUND

Does English spelling conform to the true alphabetic principle?

No, it does not.

Arguments:

1. flea, flee, people, ski [i]


phone, fly [f]

one sound --more than one spelling

2. thought [†], though [∂], Thomas [t˙]

ate [ej], at [æ]

same spelling -- different sounds

1
3. meet [i]
differ [f]

the use of digraphs (=two letters) to represent one sound

4. listen, debt, know

silent letters (one letter -- no speech sound)

5. use, fuse [j]

missing letters (one sound -- no letter correspondence)

SPELLING IS NOT PRONUNCIATION! WE DO NOT PRONOUNCE


LETTERS BUT SPEECH SOUNDS.

THE OBJECTIVE OF THE IPA: There should be a different symbol for


each of the sounds of speech. The IPA should be capable of representing all
speech sounds for all languages.

In order to avoid the use of too many different symbols, DIACRITICS may
be employed.

written marks in conjunction with a symbol to


indicate the quality of the sound represented.

e.g., beat [i]

bean [ i~ ]

The diacritic [ ~ ] above the symbol indicates nasalization.

2
THE PRINCIPLES OF THE IPA FOR USING DIACRITICS

FIRST PRINCIPLE: It is permitted to use diacritics for representing


suprasegmentals (length, stress, pitch, intonation)

e.g., beat [i]


short vs. long
bee [i…]

SECOND PRINCIPLE: It is permitted to use diacritics to indicate non-


phonemic differences.

bean [ i~]

/i/

[i] [i~] ← predictable variant

allophone

THIRD PRINCIPLE: It is permitted to use diacritics if applying them


helps to avoid the use of new symbols.

Contradiction may arise between the SECOND and the THIRD principles.

e.g., French mais [´] ‘but’

main [´~ ] ‘hand’

Phonemic difference! (different meanings)

In case of contradictions, it is preferable to violate the SECOND PRINCIPLE.

3
There are two levels of transcription:

1. BROAD TRANSCRIPTION:

A simple set of IPA symbols to designate phonemes as they are


usually produced.

2. NARROW TRANSCRIPTION:

It shows more phonetic details; the use of diacritics indicates


something special about the way the sound was produced.

e.g., width

[wˆd†] broad transcription

[wˆd∞†] narrow transcription

[d∞] The sound was made with the tongue tip closing against the upper
front teeth.

Study Chapter 1, Sections 1.7 and 1.8

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