Slashes vs Square Brackets (was: Thorn vs Eth)

Thomas Leigh scripsit:

> What's the difference between // and []?
Square brackets represent a more or less accurate transcription of what
is actually said expressed in IPA (or one of the equivalent systems
we use hereabouts).  Slashes represent a phonemic transcription in which
there is one character to represent each phoneme of the language; the
symbols used in phonemic transcription are in principle arbitrary, but
usually borrow the IPA representation for the most common allophone.
Thus in my daughter's version of American (Northern Cities Chain Shift),
the name "Ann" is phonemically /&n/ (as also for me), but whereas I
actually say [&n], she says something more like [I@n].

--
One art / There is                      John Cowan <jcowan@...>
No less / No more                       http://www.reutershealth.com
All things / To do                      http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
With sparks / Galore                     -- Douglas Hofstadter