Introduction to Phonetics and Phonology
International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)
Origin: International phonetic association
In 1886, a group of
French and English linguistics and
teachers namely Paul Passy, Henry Sweet, Daniel Jonesand A.J Ellis establish an
association; International phonetic association (IPA). The idea was first given
by Otto Jespersen to PaulPassy in a letter and was later implemented upon in
late 19th century.
The purpose of this
association was to design universal symbols to study sounds. The first phonetic
script of English language was developed in 1847 by Isaac Pitman and Henry
Ellis which was a model for the later IPA.
What is IPA(International Phonetic Alphabet)?
In 1888, the
association made a chart consisting of symbols to study sounds which is termed
as IPA “International Phonetic Alphabet”. The IPA provided a unique symbol to
each speech sound in a language (i.e. phoneme) in order to separate it from
other speech sounds. These symbols are used in phonetic transcription of
dictionaries.
The chart is revised
from time to time and latest revision was made in 2005
Uses of IPA:
IPA is used to point
out the pronunciation of words. It serves as a standard pronunciation of speech
sounds.
IPA is also used as a
reference to create writing systems for languages that might have been
previously unwritten.
IPA is used by non
native English speakers to learn speaking English properly.
IPA chart (revised
2005)
The chart consists of
following
1.
Pulmonic
Consonants
2.
Non
Pulmonic Consonants
3.
Co
articulated consonants
4.
Vowels
5.
Diacritics
6.
Suprasegmentals
Pulmonic Consonants:
All sounds are
initiated with the action of airflow from lungs going outwards. Pulmonic just
means that these sounds are created by the lungs.
Non Pulmonic
Consonants:
Non-plumonic use
additional airstream mechanisms for their production. In many other languages
there are clicks, ejectives and implosives that require additional air
mechanisms.
Vowels: Sounds that
are produced without closure of articulators, blockage of air and friction are
vowels.
Diacritics:
Diacritic is a sign
that is placed over any letter or character to show voiced or voiceless and so
on. There are 31 diacritics in the IPA. When a diacritic is added over an
alphabet it is called a glyph.
Supra Segmental:
The supra segmental
are a group of symbols for stress, length, intonation (rise and fall),
syllabification(dividing words in syllables) and tone and affect the musical
aspects of pronunciation. The revised version of IPA chart consists of 19 supra
segmental.
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