Re: OT: Phonetics (IPA)

--- In conlang@yahoogroups.com, Nikhil Sinha <nsinha_in@H...> wrote:
 > I have a few questions relating to some sounds in English.
 >
 > 1. Why are the sounds 'ch' and 'j' transcribed as [tsh] and
 > [dzh] in phonetic alphabets, when neither of these sounds
 > are heard in pronunciation?

"Ch" [tS] and "j" [dZ] are pronounced exactly like that: a
stop followed by a fricative.  You can write them as
affricates [t_S d_Z] if you prefer, but there's not much
of a difference.  Do you pronounce "tsheese" differently
from "cheese"?



 > 2. The same 'ch' and 'j' sound is transcribed as [c] and
 > [inverted f] in Hindi, even though I find the English and
 > Hindi 'ch' and 'j' sounds undistinguishable.

The Hindi sounds are articulated at the palate, while the
English ones are postalveolar.  It's a small but (for me)
audible difference.  The j in "Panjabi" sounds more like
"dy" than "j" to me.



 > 3. Why does the IPA use the same letters for dental,
 > alveolar and post alveolar sounds? As a result the English
 > alveolar 't' and 'd' are written [t] [d] in IPA and the
 > French dentals 't' and 'd' are also written [t] [d] in IPA.
 > Both the sounds are pretty different.

French doesn't have dental [t] [d], they're alveodental as
in English.  The difference is that French doesn't aspire
the "t", so it's [t] as opposed to English [t_h].

Spanish, on the other hand, has dental [t_d] and [d_d].



-- Christian Thalmann