Re: CHAT: XS vs. Kirshenbaum vs. Who-knows-what

On Sat, 31 Jan 2004 10:28:35 +1030, Morgan Palaeo Associates
<morganpalaeo@...> wrote:

>> The point is that parens are used conventionally in IPA transcriptions
>> to indicate a sound which may or may not be pronounced; thus "dance"
>> may or may not have a [t] in it -- for me it definitely does, YPMV.
>> If you pre-empt them for sounds, you have to find a substitute for
>> this usage.
>
>Are they? I don't recall seeing this usage in use on the list or
>elsewhere, and nor can I find it mentioned in any transcription
>charts, SAMPA or otherwise.
>
>I don't believe I've ever heard "dance" pronounced without a [t]. I
>generally hear it with [a:] rather than a [&:]. So for me, the two
>pronunciations are [da:nts] (most common) and [d&:nts} (some speakers).
>How would you indicate *these* alternatives? Would you put them
>together as [d(a:/&:)nts] ?
>
>I'm leaving this as-is for the time being.
I've never seen IPA transcriptions that used ( ) to indicate vocalic
alternations like [d(a:/&:)nts], but I have seen them used in the case
of omissible segments like the /t/ in [d&:n(t)s] - which is frequently
deleted in American speech, in my experience - though it also alternates
with [d&:\Nts] for some people. I believe (t) is also used if the stop
is very fleeting, but that's subject to individual transcriber's
preferences.

Might I suggest replacing vowels ( and ) with C+ and O+ ?
Otherwise I like much of this system, though I agree with Muke (?)
that pharyngeals would be better as h$ and H$.

Bfowol