Teacher Discussion Forums

[fluffyhamster]

What do you make of the substitution of the first dipthong with the second? (That is, imagine a pronunciation guide that gave only the latter and no longer the former).

Sorry for the non-IPA font, but I'm sure it will do.

[Lorikeet]

It didn't do for me Can you give examples for those of us who didn't figure it out?

[fluffyhamster]

The change applies like this: my > m^i ; fire > f^i* (*=schwa symbol, upended e).

I suppose I might as well say (now that I've got a reply - thanks, Lori!) that this is about the only thing that raised my eyebrow in the New Oxford Dictionary of English (now called just the Oxford Dictionary of English in later editions, both as opposed to the more "historical" OED) - it otherwise appears to be an excellent resource. (You might be interested to know that they use it on the Countdown game show nowadays).

Just in case there's still any doubt, the short vowel ^ at least by itself is as in 'run' (i.e. has in the NODE's pronunciation guide its usual value, the same as it is in most other dictionaries).

BTW ai does appear, but only in the section of symbols for and representing foreign pronunciations e.g. ai (German) Gleichschaltung.

I guess Oxford are trying to get away from RP and/or fudge the issue of a correct/standard pronunciation for the "benefit" of the more critical among international users or something (even though the NODE then only indicates pronunciation for "hard" words i.e. those that would give a (British) native speaker pause).

[Metamorfose]

Fluffy I'd tentatively say that it is just a matter of choosing symbols to representing phonemes. The IPA or any other set of symbols for phonetics/phonology are just there to guide us, just think, as a Briton, how many different ways people will pronounce five in England.

And also, This symbol /^/ can stand for many different vowel qualities throughout the English speaking universe. For Brazilian speakers of English it's not a difficult segment as it does mach, for example, the unstressed vowel in Brazilian Portuguese like in casa (house).

About the RP conundrum, Daniel Jones's English Pronuncing Dictionary in its 15th edition proposes that "The time has come to abandon the archaic name Received Pronunciation. The model used for British English (in the dictionary) is what is referred to as BBC English; this is the pronunciation of professional speakers employed by the BBCs newsreaders and announcers..." (page V).

But surely I'd raise an eyebrow if I came across something like my /m^I/ but again, linguists kind of select their symbols on a rather caprichious way, like Sapir using /U/ for schwa.

José

[fluffyhamster]

I think I've stumbled across the answer to this puzzle. Take a look at the chart in the final section ('7. Upton's scheme') at the bottom of the following webpage:
http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/wells/ipa-english.htm