Entry #2: "read read lead lead" or /rid rɛd lid lɛd/

As early as the 20th century, linguists decided that they needed a uniform code with which to transcribe the world's languages. English spelling didn't work, because it is not uniform or patterned in any way. In order to have a cooperative, uniform, scientific process, some particularly inventive phoneticians came up with the International Phonetic Alphabet.

The IPA, as it is known, is a written code made up of mostly Latin characters, with a few Greek ones thrown in for kicks. Each symbol represents a sound. Each transcription is written with slashes or brackets around it, to differentiate the transcription from other written communication. For example, the English sentence "my name is Linguo, hear me roar" is transcribed as /maɪ nejm ɪz lɪŋgwow hir mi rɔr/. Notice a few points of interest: 1. each sound has its own symbol; 2. in this example, the number of characters needed does not differ terribly from English, but this is not always the case. "knowledge" is /nalɪʤ/; 3. phonetic transcription looks English-like, but is definitely not English.

Transcribing utterances (meaningful speech sounds) with a uniform alphabet is a fundamental part of Linguistics. In an effort to describe the world's languages as closely as possible, it is probably foremost important that we see which languages have which sounds, and which do not. For example, the sound /ɸ/ is absent from English, but not Spanish (it begins the words vaca:cow and vez:iteration). As you can see, if we used a nonuniform system, these two sounds would be identically written, and thus treated the same.

There are disadvantages to phonetic transcription, however. It represents speech as disparate, like a sequence of independent sounds. Analysis using computer programs (like Praat) has shown us that speech is a continuous, flowing phenomenon; there is no silence when one speaks (other than deliberate pauses). Transcription ignores this fact, and abstracts to an approximation of the different sounds heard. Indeed, hearing is the operative word: ought we to transcribe what I hear, what you hear, or what the speaker thinks he is saying? Even with sophisticated computer programs, experienced phoneticians still disagree about just what sound they heard.

Resources:

1. A clickable audio representation of all the IPA sounds http://www.ling.hf.ntnu.no/ipa/full/ipachart_cons_pulm_fbmp3.html

2. official IPA website:
http://www2.arts.gla.ac.uk/IPA/ipa.html

3. a full-size chart of the sounds of the world's languages: