The IPA

Introduction

Goals

At the end of this lesson, you will know about

• the International Phonetic Association (IPA
• the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)
• the consonant chart and kinds of consonant
• the vowel quadrilateral and kinds of vowel
• phonetic symbols for English consonants and vowels

What is the International Phonetic Association and what is the International Phonetic Alphabet?

The International Phonetic Association is a group of people who are interested in science of phonetics and in the practical applications of phonetics. It was founded in 1886 and it is still around!

The International Phonetic Association has developed a set of symbols and a notation system which is used to describe and write down all the sounds which occur in all the languages in the world. This system is known as the International Phonetic Alphabet. The symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet are summarised in the IPA chart, which makes the IPA chart a very important document for reference for phoneticians and phonologists. In that sense, you could say that for students of phonetics the IPA chart is as important as the periodic table of chemical elements is for students of chemistry.

It is very likely that you have already seen transcriptions in the Phonetic Alphabet, for example when the symbols are used to show the pronunciation of a word in a dictionary.

Exercises

English consonants

The IPA uses three features to characterise consonants:

• phonation - whether a consonant is voiced or not
• manner of articulation - how the consonant is produced
• place of articulation - where the consonant is produced

Now please click here to find a blank consonant table and a list of speech sounds and words in which the sounds occur. Try and find the right slot in the table for each of the consonants.
You can click on the link with the right mouse button and then select "Save link as" or "Ziel speichern unter" and then save the file in your own directory.

If you have time, find more words in which the consonants occur.

English vowels

The IPA uses three features to characterise vowels. These are:

• How high is the tongue? This describes the vertical position of the tongue, i.e. high, mid or low.
• What part of the tongue is involved, i.e. what part is raised or lowered? This describes the horizontal position of the tongue, i.e. front, central or back.
• What is the position of the lips? This describes lip rounding.

This is the vowel quadrilateral for English. The quadrilateral is meant to represent the position of the tongue for the pronunciation of the various vowels (use your imagination or check the Handbook of the IPA (1999, pp. 11) for better illustration).

For each of the following words, find the corresponding IPA symbol for the vowel. Also, find another word as an example for each English vowel.

The words are: cut, shoe, head, hard, bleed, the, saw, hid, put, hot, had, bird

Potential exam questions

At the end of each session, I would like you to sit back, change perspectives and think: If you were the teacher, what would you set as exam questions after this session?
This exercise will help me when I put together the exam and it will help you because you need to think about the class again in a very focused way and, last but not least, you will get an idea of what you can expect when you take the exam.

You can send your suggestions to hths@spectrum.uni-bielefeld.de. I will collect them and put them on this page for you.

Homework

1. Find the IPA homepage and print yourself a copy of the International Phonetic Alphabet chart for reference.
2. Transcribe the following sentences:
   • Anke is our tutor.
   • Sophie teaches phonetics.
   You will find the solution for this exercise on this page next week.
3. Include the terms that you have learned this session in your glossary. We will not check whether you have actually done this but the definitions will come in handy when you revise for the exam ... .
4. If you want to practice transcribing words and sentences have a look at Fromkin/Rodman's Introduction to Lingustics. Fromkin/Rodman use slightly different conventions for their phonetic symbols but the exercises are still very useful.