Re: OT: Foreign Language Books using IPA

Arthaey Angosii wrote:


>Today I got to thinking, why don't foreign language textbooks use the IPA
>as a pronunciation guide? The usual system that I've seen, where the book
>will spell the words using English spelling rules, is unreliable because
>sometimes a native English speaker can't even pronounce a new English word
>correctly without consulting a friend or a dictionary.
Ah yes:  Teach Yourself Portuguese:  bongsh diersh (boms dias) (it was aimed
at British speakers)...
>
>Okay, so I probably already know the answer why they don't have such
>textbooks -- students would complain of having to learn a new system of
>transcribing in addition to a new language. But after the first time, they
>could confidently pronounce new words in any other foreign language
>textbooks. ... Ah well. </rant>

You answered your own question.  Nor do teachers, probably, want to take the
extra time to teach the IPA, even though it would be a good idea.  My idea
would be:  in a _good_ school, with active foreign language programs, devote
a week or two to introducing the idea of IPA to all language students, and
instruction on how to produce some of the non-Engl. sounds (French u, German
umlauted vowels, unaspirated stops etc.)-- then turn them loose on the
individual languages.......

(I emphasize _good_, because in a run of the mill school, both students and
teachers would whine "Why do we have to bother with this stuff....?")

I recall in high school, getting an Old Engl. grammar from the library-- it
used IPA, which didn't help at all, since I didn't know IPA then...

>But my real question is this: Does anyone know of a textbook on learning a
>foreign language (any will do, really) that uses the IPA rather than
>pseudo-English?

Well, I had (may still have) a Catalan grammar (vintage 1960s)  that uses
IPA, at least in the discussion of pronunciation.  And an old (vintage
1920s) French grammar that does so quite liberally in the first few
chapters.  After that, dammit, you're supposed to have learned the
pronunciation.