• HOME
  • Publications
  • BLOG
  • English Phonetics and Phonology
  • The English Pronouncing Dictionary
  • RESOURCES
  Peter Roach

WP Transcriptions

21/12/2014

0 Comments

 
I was intending to start with something minor, but since at the moment there's a debate going on on a Wikipedia Talk Page that I think is fundamentally important, I'll mention it now. WP aims to give IPA-style transcriptions of English pronunciations of names and unfamiliar words to help readers with the pronunciation. However, they don't want the transcription tied to either an American or a British standard, so instead they have devised a "diaphonemic" transcription that in theory can represent the vowels and consonants of any variety of English. The resulting system can be seen here. The discussion I referred to above is mainly between one WP editor who supports this system and another who prefers a re-spelling system that doesn't involve learning the IPA-style symbols. The argument has become very long, but it's worth reading. You can find it here. (You may need to scroll down to the section of Talk called "Poorly Conceived"). My own view is that I support the use of transcriptions with IPA symbols, but I am doubtful about the validity of the diaphonemic framework. I'll go on about this at more length later. 
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    A blog that discusses problems in Wikipedia's coverage of Phonetics

    Peter Roach

    Emeritus Professor of Phonetics,
    ​University of Reading, UK

    uArchives

    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    September 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    March 2019
    April 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    July 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    September 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.