r/EnglishLearning

A place for learning English. 英語の学びのスペースです。 Un lugar para aprender Inglés. مكان لتعلم اللغة الإنجليزية. Un lieu pour apprendre l'Anglais. Ein Ort zum Englisch lernen.

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ElectricBlue-

Help with the IPA Alphabet!

🟡 Pronunciation / Intonation

Hi guys! I'm doing the English professor career and this year we are learning how to use the IPA. This is totally new to me, they want us to use the British accent too, to perfection. Thing is: the IPA has a bunch of rules but also so many exceptions, and every class the teacher will pop out another rule (that of course has an exception) that isn' even in the material she sent us. I'm doing the best I can since I always wanted to know how to pronounce a word I didn't hear before, but seems to me that I should rather learn every word and IPA translation in the dictionary and try to memorize them, there are so many exceptions after all.

Any ideas? Yesterday I went to the chalkboard in front of the class and literally translated a sentence to the IPA randomly, doing just whatever sounded correct, and it was 80% right!!!! idk

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Q&A

TheMostLostViking

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I'd argue there are 0 exceptions. IPA is for transcribing speech, not text. and its for all languages, not just english.

So th can be either /θ/ or /ð/ or even /t/. I'd be happy to go more into it if you need help. I work with the IPA everyday and have a complete understanding of it. DM me if you want help :)

scotch1701

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• Edited

The exceptions that you're seeing are more than likely allophonic distinctions.

For example, the phoneme /t/ might be realized as [tʰ] word initially, or in a stressed syllable. Those are not exceptions, though I could see how you could classify them as exceptions. They are, however, predictable variants of a sound.

My only other thought is that you're learning grapheme/orthographic correpondences to IPA symbols, which would have what one might consider exceptions.

campmonster

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If you're learning 'exceptions' to the IPA, you're probably not learning it correctly.
There are two kinds of transcriptions: Loose and narrow. Loose transcription is what you'll find in most dictionaries (that use IPA and not some other phonetic system). Narrow transcription is used for more precise representation of speech. So you're probably starting with loose transcription and learning some variations, for example that English has three distinct L sounds: /l/, /ɫ/, and /l̩/, or that a a /t/ may be aspirated [tʰ] or unrleased [t̚]. These are not exceptions, but rather allophones, variations of the phonemes. Just get a good book on Phonetics. I recommend A Course in Phonetics by Ladefoged. Also, you transcribe IPA, not translate.

Although one possible 'exception' I can think of is the difference between /ə/ and /ʌ/, where there is disagreement among linguists as to whether these are two distinct sounds in English (the latter being used in a stressed syllable). I'm on the side that there is no natural difference, but this can be dialect-dependent.