Friday, February 17, 2012
How to use the IPA
How I Use the IPA (and how I don’t)
When I show the pronunciation of a place, I try to always show how someone from that place would actually pronounce it. However, occasionally even the natives can’t agree. For instance, apparently most Chicagoans say /shĭkôgō/ [ʃɪˈkʰɒˌɡo] or even /shĭkôgə/ [ʃɪˈkʰɒɡə], but there are also many who say /shĭkŏgō/ [ʃɪˈkʰaˌɡo], and the latter group may be growing. Keep in mind that all of these definitely have “cot”≠“caught”. I have always called it /shĭkŏgō/ [ʃɪˈkʰɑˌɡoʊ], with a couple of slight vowel differences, since I don’t have an Inland North accent!
I have noticed that many people who use the IPA to show the pronunciation of place names on Wikipedia do several things that I have chosen not to do.
For one thing, they often write both [ə] and [ɨ] in showing the pronunciation of the weak vowel /ə/ in American English. Now this is not incorrect, since for me the word “sofa” /sōfə/ would usually be phonetically [ˈsoʊfə], whereas the word “broken” /brōkən/ would be phonetically [ˈbɹoʊkɨn]. However, in actual practice I find I have a lot of variation: for instance, “sofa bed” /sōfə bĕd/ would usually come out [ˈsoʊfɨˌbɛd], and “sofas” /sōfəz/ could come out [ˈsoʊfəz] or [ˈsoʊfɨz] depending on how deliberately I am speaking, or its position in the sentence. And I find that others have the same problem: in the Appalachian Mountains article the pronunciation is given as “/ˌæpəˈleɪʃɨn/ or /ˌæpəˈlætʃɨn/”; for me the vowels shown as [ə] and [ɨ] in these pronunciations are exactly the same for me, probably both [ɨ]. So for strictly practical purposes I am writing both [ə] and [ɨ] as [ə].
Another thing I find people doing is using British phonetic transcription to show the pronunciation of American place names. For instance, in the Lafayette, Indiana article the pronunciation is given as “/ˌlɑːfiːˈɛt/”. Now, in British English there truly are phonetically long and short vowels: “beat” is phonetically [ˈbiːt], where the vowel [iː] is phonetically long, whereas “bit” is phonetically [ˈbɪt], where the vowel [ɪ] is phonetically short. However, in nearly all North American English dialects, this is not the case: both “beat” [ˈbit] and “bit” [ˈbɪt] have vowels which are phonetically the same length, in spite of the fact that the first has what is traditionally called a “long e”, while the second has what is tradtionally called a “short i”. Scottish English is like American English in this respect. In fact, the “/ˌlɑːfiːˈɛt/” pronunciation is wrong for both British and American English: in British it would usually be [ˌlɑːfɪˈɛt], the [ɪ] being short because it is unstressed, whereas in American English (at least in West Lafayette, Indiana) it would be [ˌlɑfiˈɛt].
second Video
When I show the pronunciation of a place, I try to always show how someone from that place would actually pronounce it. However, occasionally even the natives can’t agree. For instance, apparently most Chicagoans say /shĭkôgō/ [ʃɪˈkʰɒˌɡo] or even /shĭkôgə/ [ʃɪˈkʰɒɡə], but there are also many who say /shĭkŏgō/ [ʃɪˈkʰaˌɡo], and the latter group may be growing. Keep in mind that all of these definitely have “cot”≠“caught”. I have always called it /shĭkŏgō/ [ʃɪˈkʰɑˌɡoʊ], with a couple of slight vowel differences, since I don’t have an Inland North accent!
I have noticed that many people who use the IPA to show the pronunciation of place names on Wikipedia do several things that I have chosen not to do.
For one thing, they often write both [ə] and [ɨ] in showing the pronunciation of the weak vowel /ə/ in American English. Now this is not incorrect, since for me the word “sofa” /sōfə/ would usually be phonetically [ˈsoʊfə], whereas the word “broken” /brōkən/ would be phonetically [ˈbɹoʊkɨn]. However, in actual practice I find I have a lot of variation: for instance, “sofa bed” /sōfə bĕd/ would usually come out [ˈsoʊfɨˌbɛd], and “sofas” /sōfəz/ could come out [ˈsoʊfəz] or [ˈsoʊfɨz] depending on how deliberately I am speaking, or its position in the sentence. And I find that others have the same problem: in the Appalachian Mountains article the pronunciation is given as “/ˌæpəˈleɪʃɨn/ or /ˌæpəˈlætʃɨn/”; for me the vowels shown as [ə] and [ɨ] in these pronunciations are exactly the same for me, probably both [ɨ]. So for strictly practical purposes I am writing both [ə] and [ɨ] as [ə].
Another thing I find people doing is using British phonetic transcription to show the pronunciation of American place names. For instance, in the Lafayette, Indiana article the pronunciation is given as “/ˌlɑːfiːˈɛt/”. Now, in British English there truly are phonetically long and short vowels: “beat” is phonetically [ˈbiːt], where the vowel [iː] is phonetically long, whereas “bit” is phonetically [ˈbɪt], where the vowel [ɪ] is phonetically short. However, in nearly all North American English dialects, this is not the case: both “beat” [ˈbit] and “bit” [ˈbɪt] have vowels which are phonetically the same length, in spite of the fact that the first has what is traditionally called a “long e”, while the second has what is tradtionally called a “short i”. Scottish English is like American English in this respect. In fact, the “/ˌlɑːfiːˈɛt/” pronunciation is wrong for both British and American English: in British it would usually be [ˌlɑːfɪˈɛt], the [ɪ] being short because it is unstressed, whereas in American English (at least in West Lafayette, Indiana) it would be [ˌlɑfiˈɛt].
second Video
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