Re: IPA (Was: Re: Hello, I'm new too)

jesse stephen bangs wrote:

>> Remember that IPA is not meant to represent every *possible* distinction,
>> but only every *necessary* distinction in existent languages.  For example,
>> [j] represents both the approximant of English "yes" and the fricative
>> of (some kinds of) Spanish "yo", because no known language makes a phonemic
>> distinction between these sounds.  If one were found, a new symbol would
>> be introduced into IPA.
>
>Huh?  I've always thought that the curly-tailed [z] was the correct IPA
>symbol for the Spanish sound.  It's a voiced palatal fricative, just
>barely different from the voiced palatal approximant [j].  I care because
>my conlang has a phonemic difference between them!  Any more info on this?
No, a voiced palatal fricative is represented in the IPA by a
curly-tailed <j>. The curly tailed <z> represents a voiced
alveolo-palatal fricative.

-kristian- 8)