seeking advice

[Marc Picard]

"Robert R. Ratcliffe" wrote:

> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> >  The second recommendation is about the phonetic symbols used, and is
> > probably subject to even stronger feelings:  some suggest that the
> > book perhaps should be changed from the IPA symbols used to represent
> > examples in the first edition to American phonetic usage.  What do you
> > think?  What is your opinion here?
>
> Sorry, maybe I'm a bit of an
> IPA-fundamentalist. But I've never heard a rational argument against it,
> just pure academic inertia.
>

How about sheer volume of usage? Here's a quote from Hitch's review of The
World's Writing Systems (Daniels & Bright, eds., OUP. 1996) in IJAL 64:
"The International Phonetic Alphabet . . . is claimed to be 'the main
phonetic alphabet in use today throughout the world' (p. 821). There
certainly are no formalized, or officialized, alphabets in greater use, but
one wonders if the traditional Americanist symbols . . . are not more used
among linguists who are describing languages" (1998: 289). Note that I have
no strong feelings one way or another. I only want to suggest that
arguments in favor of the IPA are not that cut and dried.

Marc Picard
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