Re: Pronunciation keys

As I said in my 2nd message, I have no complaint with the standard
symbols used in English dictionaries; they have a long history and are
widely recognized by the general educated public, who have no
familiarity with the IPA.

We were taught that the "long" vowel sounds, represented by macrons,
match the names of the vowel letters: /ej/, /i/, /aj/, /o/, /ju/.
Note in particular that "long u" includes the onglide, which is all
that distinguishes it from /u/.  Bare vowels or vowels with a breve
represent the "short" sounds /æ/, /E/, /I/, /A/, /V/.  The other vowel
sounds are indicated by various diacritics: ä or â for /a/, ô for /O/,
û for /@`/ (always before r).

I learned ü for /u/ and u with overdot for /U/, but later encountered
"long and short 'oo'" for those respective sounds.

/T/, /tS/, /S/, /Z/ are represented by the usual  digraphs.  /dZ/ is
just "j" (/j/ being "y", of course).  /D/ is usually "th" with a slash
or underline or bolding or some other modification, rarely "dh".

On 1/29/07, Carsten Becker <carbeck@...> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...> schrieb:
>
> > You know, when you're used to CXS et sim, traditional
> > dictionary pronunciation keys, especially the ASCII
> > version, can take you aback:
> > Main Entry: *shun·pike*
> > <javascript:popWin('/cgi-bin/audio.pl?shunpi01.wav=shunpike')>
> > Pronunciation: 'sh&n-"pIk
> >
> > In my head I read that pronunciation transcription as
> > /,S&n'pIk/, sounds like "shanpick", but with the emPHAsis
> > on the seCOND sylLABle.  Only for a second, before I
> > decoded it and saw how it does convey the intended
> > /'SVn,pajk/ according to Webster's rules...
>
> Then this book will confuse you even more: Oxford Little
> Dictionary and Thesaurus, 978-0-19-860225-5 (used to be
> 0-19-860225-19):
>
>    peruse /pərṓṓz/ v. read carefully
>
> The above isn't completely right, in the book there's a
> single dash reaching over both o's, with only one acute on
> the top, in the middle of the dash. And yes, this book was
> published by OUP -- I wonder why they don't use proper
> IPA... you'd expect that from a publisher of scientific
> books, at least I would. Here are some more gems: warning
> /wáwrning/, gauge /gayj/, serious /séériəss/, time /tīm/
> (off-hand I'd expect that to be <team>), motion /mṓsh'n/.
> The system they use is not as random as it seems, but IPA
> would be easier. And you don't even need a specially
> customized font to typeset the pronunciations, except that
> the font must contain the IPA extensions.
>
> Regards,
> Carsten
>
> --
> "Miranayam kepauara naranoaris." (Kalvin nay Hobbes)
> Pinena, Kardaying 2, 2316 ya 11:17:01 pd
>
> (Monday, January 29, 2007 at 06:47:57 pm)
>

--
Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>

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