LinguisticsLesson 3 of 5 in the course Phonetics

International Phonetic Alphabet: Transcription, Chart, and Conventions

5 flashcards · 5 quiz questions · 5 match pairs · 5 fill-in sentences · English

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Summary

The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a shared system for writing down speech sounds. It helps readers understand pronunciation without relying on the often unpredictable spelling conventions of individual languages.

The IPA is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association to provide a standard written representation of speech sounds. Linguists, dictionary writers, language teachers and learners, speech-language pathologists, singers, actors, translators, and others use it to describe pronunciation.

All flashcards

International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)
A shared notation system for representing speech sounds and related features.
Phonemic transcription
A representation of the sound categories that distinguish words in a language, usually written between slashes.
Narrow phonetic transcription
A phonetic transcription that records relatively fine details of pronunciation.
Diacritic
A mark added to an IPA symbol to modify it or specify phonetic detail.
Suprasegmental
A feature, such as stress or tone, that applies over units larger than individual speech segments.

Quiz questions

  1. What distinguishes an affricate from a simple stop consonant?Answer: It combines a stop-like closure with a fricative release.
  2. In an IPA chart cell containing a pair of pulmonic consonant symbols, what does the right-hand symbol usually represent?Answer: The voiced consonant in the pair.
  3. What characterizes a co-articulated consonant?Answer: It uses two places of articulation simultaneously.
  4. Where is the primary stress mark [ˈ] placed in IPA transcription?Answer: Immediately before the stressed syllable.
  5. What is the main purpose of the extended IPA (extIPA)?Answer: To represent disordered speech and other details not conveniently covered by core IPA symbols.

Based on the Wikipedia article International Phonetic Alphabet, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Adapted into a summary, flashcards and quizzes.

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