Re: The Most Common IPA Characters

From: John Cowan (cowan@locke.ccil.org)
Date: Tue Sep 08 1998 - 15:06:09 EDT


Markus Kuhn wrote:

> # Very small selection of IPA characters for common dictionary and
> # school book usage. We cover only the languages most commonly taught
> # in Europe as foreign European languages (English, French, Spanish,
> # German, Italian, Russian, etc.), and also only the non-combining
> # characters.

To represent General American English one needs:

        U+0279 turned r
        U+027A turned r with long leg
        U+027E r with fishhook (for intervocalic t/d)
        U+028D turned w (for wh, though not everyone uses it)
        U+0294 glottal stop (for some t's; also needed for German)

While not "standard" in the same sense as RP English, General American
is widely taught and has many dictionaries describing it. Unfortunately,
those dictionaries still tend to avoid IPA in favor of using ordinary
spelling with diacritical marks (and perhaps schwa).

-- 
John Cowan	http://www.ccil.org/~cowan		cowan@ccil.org
	You tollerday donsk?  N.  You tolkatiff scowegian?  Nn.
	You spigotty anglease?  Nnn.  You phonio saxo?  Nnnn.
		Clear all so!  'Tis a Jute.... (Finnegans Wake 16.5)



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