Re: question on sampa representation

On Sun, 23 Mar 2003, David Barrow wrote:

> The IPA symbol the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English uses for
> vowel in the above words in RP can be rendered as /Q/ in SAMPA; it
> uses the same symbol for the GA but followed by a colon, so should I
> render the GA vowel as /Q:/ ?
<snip>
> doesn't show colons, so should this vowel be /A/ or /A:/ ?
In GA, length is not phonemic, so in phonemic representations (i.e. the
ones in slashes), you don't need to include length symbols. So both
/pQm/ and /pQ:m/ are accurate for (certain forms of) GA 'palm'* (of
course, both sound like 'Pom' (slang for 'English') to me so when an
American was talking of palms the other day, it did confuse me :) ).

* Of course, some people would deign to pronouncing the L in 'palm';
such people should be shot immediately. Everyone knows mine is the one
true pronunciation. :P

Tristan

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