Date:  Wed, 28 Jan 1998 08:44:37 +0100
From:  Jacob Thaisen <jactha[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]CPHLING.DK>
Subject: Re: Phonetic transcription--help

Hello,

This may not be relevant but I'm wondering if you are aware that IPA
fonts are available for wordprocessing packages like Word and WordPerfect.
The best one publicly available (to my knowledge) can be downloaded from
the homepage of the Summer Institute of Linguistics. The URL is :

http://www.sil.org

The advantage of using these particular fonts is that they can be used to
generate almost any IPA symbol you like as they have a built-in
mechanism for placing characters on top of one another. This means you can
use any number of diacritics with a given symbol.

Yours,

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Jacob Thaisen
Department of Linguistics
University of Copenhagen
Njalsgade 96
DK-2300 Copenhagen S
Denmark
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Unless you are a genius, it is best to aim at being intelligible

                - Anthony Hope, 'Dolly Dialogues'
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e-mail: jactha[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]cphling.dk
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On Tue, 27 Jan 1998, Alan Baragona wrote:

> X-posted to HEL-L and ADS-L
>
> As a medievalist with the usual peripheral training in linguistics,
> mostly historical, I'd like to ask the help of the real linguists and
> phoneticians on the list.
>
> The extent of my knowledge of phonetic transcription is the "broad"
> method used in textbooks like Pyles and Algeo, which is not always
> adequate for dialectical allophones. I have a student with a Texas
> accent who, like many Southerners and Westerners, simplifies the
> diphthong [ai] (among others). But I can't really transcribe her vowel
> as either [a] or [ae]. Her pronunciation of <like> is not a homophone
> of either <lock> [lak] or <lack> [laek] but is pretty much smack in the
> middle, as if she stops in the middle of the glide or rather sets her
> mouth to say the glide but holds the pure vowel. I don't really know how
> to transcribe her <like> without an approximation that doesn't do her
> justice and can potentially confuse the class. What do those of you who
> really know what you're doing use for this sound?
>
> Alan
>