Re: Pronunciation guides for non-linguists

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], 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.

**Henrik

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