Page 70 - DENG504_LINGUISTICS

Linguistics

Notes record of the sounds that speak ers make.’ By looking at an English word in its written form one
cannot be sure of its pronunciation, whereas by looking at it in phonetic transcription one can be.
Most of our phonetic transcriptions are phonemic transcriptions, that is, each symbol represents
a phoneme, a distinct sound unit in language. A pair of square brackets [ ] indicates a phonetic
transcription. Phonemic transcriptions are enclosed within slant bars/ /.
5.4.1 The Narrow and Broad Transcription
A broad phonetic transcription, that is the phonemic transcription is the transcription of the
phonemes of a language, e.g., the English words peak and speak can be transcribed as /pi: k/
and/spi: k/ respectively, although there occurs the aspirated variety of phoneme /p/ in the first
word (peak) and the unaspirated variety in the second. But the narrow transcription, also called
the allophonic transcription, indicates the precise phonetic quality of each segment. In this type
of transcription the aspirated variety of /p/ as in the word peak can be indicated by transcribing
the words [p i: k]
h
5.4.2 The Usefulness of the International Phonetic Alphabet
the I P A gives us a uniform international medium of studying and transcribing the sounds of all
the languages of the world. Many languages in the world have no orthographic (written) form at
all. It has been made possible to study such languages with this alphabet. In other words, the I P
A is ‘a precise and universal’ means (i.e. valid for all languages) of writing down the spoken forms
of utterances as they are spoken without reference to their orthographic representation, grammatical
status, or meaning.
As regards English, the I P A helps us in establishing and maintaining international intelligibility
and uniformity in the pronunciation of English. With the help of the IPA we can easily teach the
pronunciation of English or of any other language. The IPA has contributed a lot in the teaching
and description of language. The teachers and learners of English can improve, and standardize
their pronunciation and can overcome the confusion created by the spellings with the help of the
international phonetic alphabet.

Dental,
Bilabial Labiodental Alveolar, or Retroflex
Post-alveolar
C O N S O N A N T S
Nasal p m m t n t n
(pulmonic air-stream mechanism) (Median) Φ β f ν v θ ðs I z I s z J
b
d
d
Plosive
Fricative
(Median)
Approximant
Lateral
I
Fricative
Lateral
(Approximant)
Trill r I J

Top or Flap p’ t’ J t
(non-pulmonic air-stream) Implosive o 9 t t d
Ejective

(Median) Click
Lateral Click

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