How NOT to write a teach-yourself grammar

Sat Sep 25 00:13:14 UTC 2010

There’s good reason why the IPA (once thought to be a training aid for reading learners) is not used for phonetics in USA.  It’s not English friendly, or keyboard friendly.  Reading teachers do not use it, nor newspapers or government publications (that I know of).  Yet “phonemic awareness” is a key correlate to reading success.  England has started using “synthetic phonics) for initial reading instruction that works a lot like phonetics.  The creation of a standard English-friendly phonetic notation would do well here, but there was none until I created truespel.

Truespel was created in 1986, the same year SAMPA was created.  But SAMPA continues English and keyboard unfriendly phonetics.  Instead, truespel phonetics is designed to be maximally English and keyboard friendly.  Truespel books One and Four test the reasonableness of the scheme in regard to tradspel (traditional spelling) of phonemes compared to phoneme frequency.  It’s a reasonable solution, also trying to minimize tradspel phoneme spelling conflicts.

So with a reasonable phoneme set I spent a couple years respelling English phonetically based on the pronunciation in talking dictionaries.  Talking dictionaries were the key.  My main one was the “American Heritage Talking Dictionary”.  I’ve also used m-w.com and thefreedictionary.com wonderfully free on the internet.  Of interest were differences between their pronunciation and their notation.  In those cases I went by the spoken word.  This enabled all schwas to be spelled out.  It resulted in a more accurate portrayal or USA English than any guide using schwas, IMHO.  See the free converter at truespel.com

Thus, English can easily be portrayed phonetically if phonetics are designed for the task.  Truespel book 3, now available as an ebook, gives the VOA simplified (1,500 broadcast words) dictionary a truespel pronunciation guide (where no guide was provided by the original).  It is the most accurate depiction available for USA accent, IMHO.  It spells out schwas and also shows glottal stops for “t” and “t” swaps to “d”, which are common but usually not expressed in dictionaries.

Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL7+
see truespel.com phonetic spelling

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: David Wake
> Subject: Re: How NOT to write a teach-yourself grammar
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> IPA can be used phonemically, or even diaphonemically, rather than phonetically.
>
> For example, Wikipedia's pronunciation scheme attempts to do this:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:IPA_for_English
>
> David
>
> On Fri, Sep 24, 2010 at 9:17 AM, Steve Kl. wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> > Sender: American Dialect Society
> > Poster: "Steve Kl."
> > Subject: Re: How NOT to write a teach-yourself grammar
> > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > 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 wrote:
> >
> >> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >> -----------------------
> >> Sender: American Dialect Society
> >> Poster: David Wake
> >> 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
> >> wrote:
> >>
> >> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >> > -----------------------
> >> > Sender: American Dialect Society
> >> > Poster: Randy Alexander
> >> > Subject: Re: How NOT to write a teach-yourself grammar
> >> > ---
> >> > ---
> >> > ---
> >> > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> >> >
> >> > On Fri, Sep 24, 2010 at 1:45 PM, Wilson Gray 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
> >> >
> >> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> >> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >>
> >> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >>
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org