Re: Pronunciation guides for non-linguists

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.

> The sounds I need are shown in this table:
> http://fiziwig.com/bp0.html
>
> What I need is exemplar words for several other
> languages. At the very least Spanish, French, and
> German, but what other languages would be good to have
> in such a table?
I don't know much about the phonological uniqueness of the languages, but
to reach the maximum number of L1 and L2 speakers, assuming those speakers
have English as L1 or L2 (so they can read the rest of the page), you'd
want something like English (GA), English (RP), Spanish, French, German,
Russian and Hindi.

There is a selection of charts in Daniels & Bright that might help. I'm
feeling kind of inspired right now, so I might start compiling a page of
my own.





Paul

Replies