<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">I am drafting my master's thesis, the subject of which is the sociolinguistics of Irish orthographic reform. Every scientific text on Modern Irish uses a phonemic transcription convention that many of us know from dictionaries such as Foclóir Póca, which is to use an apostrophe to mark palatalization and leave velarization unmarked. For example:
<div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>bean /b'an/ 'woman'</div><div>bán /ba:n/ 'white'</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>However, I.P.A. designates a superscript "j" and superscript lower-case "gamma" symbol to mark palatalization and velarization, respectively. Of course, I can't display this easily in email but the following link displays what I mean in the box labeled "diacritics," under "secondary articulation":</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"><a href="http://www.omniglot.com/writing/ipa.htm">http://www.omniglot.com/writing/ipa.htm</a> </font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica"><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica">The word processor that I am using to write my thesis can render I.P.A. So, my question is this:</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica"><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica">Which transcription method should I use for a scientific paper on Celtic linguistics? And why is it that no scholarly articles on Irish linguistics (at least not the ones I have found) use the I.P.A. convention?</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica"><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica">Le gach dea-ghuí,</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica">Brian Doyle</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica">M.A. Candidate, Linguistics</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica">Northeastern Illinois University</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica"><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></font></div></div></body></html>