Re: Pronunciation guides for non-linguists

Quoting Henrik Theiling <theiling@...>:

> Hi!
>
> Paul Bennett <paul-bennett@...> writes:
> > On Sun, 11 Dec 2005 14:07:53 -0500, Gary Shannon <fiziwig@...> wrote:
> >
> > > What I'd like is a table with columns across the top
> > > for various languages so that "A" might be described
> > > in the "English" column as "fAther", and in the
> > > "Deutsch" column as "vAter", and in the Espanol column
> > > as "pAdre", and so on.
> >
> > This is a good idea. You're headed for trouble if you don't specify
> > which  dialect(s) of English. "A" in "father" is usually /A/ but it
> > can be /V/,  /a/ or even /E/, plus or minus /:/. OTOH, having a set of
> > comparison  languages would help disambiguate a lot.
>
> Same for German: [A] is not used is many dialects.  It is tradition to
> write [A:] vs. [a],
It is? My textbooks have without exception written [a:] vs [a], and includes one
written by Germans for Germans.

> but most dialects I a aware of have a centralised
> [a_"] (+- length) for both.  Anyway, there's [A:] vs. [a] in northern
> dialect, and probably others.  So it'd not be clear what you mean from
> the German entry alone, either.
Well, the "official" pronunciation, as set out in Duden, has [a:]. In fact, my
copy of Duden takes the trouble to contrast the [a:] of "Bahn" with the [A:] of
English loans like "Hardware". Presumably this is what a guide like Gary's would
be refering to.

FWIW, my German teachers made a point of making us pronounce /a:/ as [a:]
instead of [A:] (the value of Swedish /a:/).

                                                        Andreas

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