How NOT to write a teach-yourself grammar

[Paul Johnston]

The big, unabridged dictionaries, which often do use the IPA or something like it.  Schoolbook dictionaries tend to use a system that isn't totally phonemic, but is partially tied to spelling.  For example, the words book, good, and wood get a vowel symbol, the digraph oo with a "short mark" over it; pull, bull, and put get a u with a dot over it.  Both represent the sound [U], the same sound, but with different symbols.  It's also designed to accommodate different dialects--or at least, New England ones (because of where Webster came from, I guess).
This can have repercussions in teaching--I remember my teacher in Hinsdale, IL *insisting* that we should use a different vowel in class, staff, path, ask than in cat, back, tap because our schoolbook dictionaries used a different symbol for it.  She was plugging [a] rather than [ae] (or a Northern Cities Vowel Shifted [eae], more likely) in that set of words.  This sounded like [A] to us, and in any case, was our vowel in sock, pot, top, so we all laughed at her wanting us to sound "like Englishmen" (who don't have sock=class anyhow, but we didn't know that).  She didn't use this vowel either--they don't have it in her home town of Sullivan, IL (down near Decatur).
This is why I foster the use of the IPA *early *in my classes.

Paul Johnston
On Sep 24, 2010, at 12:17 PM, Steve Kl. wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Steve Kl." <stevekl at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: How NOT to write a teach-yourself grammar
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>
> This is one of the reasons why most American dictionaries use a phonemic
> vowel-key approach to pronunciations rather than an absolute phonetic
> approach.
>
> I think it's safe to say I have nothing against the IPA vowel system. (You
> might say it's an integral part of me.) But, for most American laypeople,
> it's not the easiest approach to representing pronunciation.
>
> On Fri, Sep 24, 2010 at 11:44 AM, David Wake <dnwake at gmail.com> wrote:
>
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>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       David Wake <dnwake at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: How NOT to write a teach-yourself grammar
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> In English Received Pronunciation the vowel of DRESS (and of END which
>> is basically the same vowel, not raised or nasalized) is traditionally
>> transcribed as /e/.  This is arguably an anachronism today, but
>> traditions persist.
>>
>> David
>>
>>
>> On Sep 24, 2010, at 4:44, Randy Alexander <strangeguitars at GMAIL.COM>
>> wrote:
>>
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>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>> Poster:       Randy Alexander <strangeguitars at GMAIL.COM>
>>> Subject:      Re: How NOT to write a teach-yourself grammar
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>>> ---
>>> ---
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>>>
>>> On Fri, Sep 24, 2010 at 1:45 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> "The syllabic segment /e/, a front mid vowel, is pronounced similarly
>>>> to ,,, English _e_ as in _end_."
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> As in "*end*"?! So, it's a nasalized, lax, high front vowel. Probably
>>>> not really what the authors int[I]nd. And it's not possible to tell
>>>> whether they really have in mind "... as in _gate_ or "... as in
>>>> _get_." More likely the latter. But,
>>>
>>> The vowel in _gate_ (/ei/) and the vowel in _end_ (/E/) are not the
>>> same phoneme.  But _get_ and _end_ do share the same phoneme vowel
>>> /E/.
>>>
>>> Is this publication British (where there /E/ and /e/ are much closer
>>> than in the US)?
>>>
>>> --
>>> Randy Alexander
>>> Xiamen, China
>>> Blogs:
>>> Manchu studies: http://www.sinoglot.com/manchu
>>> Chinese characters: http://www.sinoglot.com/yuwen
>>> Language in China (group blog): http://www.sinoglot.com/blog
>>>
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>>
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