14
votes
How can I learn IPA?
Getting fluent in the full range of IPA is overkill for the most practical purposes (essentially, you only need it for phonetic transcription or documentation of unwritten languages/dialects).
...
- 753
10
votes
What advantages, if any, are there for learning the IPA when studying a language with phonetic spelling?
Learning IPA is useful if you want to learn the pronunciation of words from a dictionary.
However, IPA is less useful in the following cases (non-exhaustive list):
You are using dictionaries that ...
- 19.7k
10
votes
How can I learn IPA?
As with most subjects, taking a class or receiving private tutoring is probably best. A course in phonetics will teach you not only the International Phonetic Alphabet itself but enough information to ...
- 203
9
votes
Pros and cons of using IPA over other phonetic alphabets
The only phonetic alphabet I know of that is comparable to IPA in universality and language coverage is X-SAMPA. The advantage of X-SAMPA compared to IPA, is that it contains only ASCII characters and ...
- 2,314
8
votes
What advantages, if any, are there for learning the IPA when studying a language with phonetic spelling?
While the IPA is an invaluable tool for English even if you're a native speaker, in languages spelled phonetically it's mostly useful for the initial stages and there's no reason to keep using IPA ...
- 316
5
votes
Standardized Phonemes and Pronunciation
IPA is a wonderful tool once you become familiar with it, but before that happens, it often feels like reading mathematical formulas or a different script. It is important for you to introduce IPA ...
- 748
5
votes
What advantages, if any, are there for learning the IPA when studying a language with phonetic spelling?
Few languages are 100% phonetic. Even Spanish has oddities in a few foreign words which retain their foreign spelling, words from indigenous American languages, etc.
Also letters have subtle ...
- 160
5
votes
Pros and cons of using IPA over other phonetic alphabets
IPA is the best choice for pronunciation transcription. IPA has a long history of development (since 1886) and represents best scientific practice. This means the system is concise, unambiguous and ...
- 824
3
votes
How can I learn IPA?
For those who know German, there is an unusual set of books by Vera F. Birkenbihl and Jan Müller:
Vera F. Birkenbihl & Jan Müller: Das Falschschreib-Spiel fonetix: Wir schreiben ohne Regeln frei ...
- 19.7k
3
votes
What advantages, if any, are there for learning the IPA when studying a language with phonetic spelling?
Learning IPA takes some time. If you plan to learn only one language that is mostly phonetic, it may be better to learn the sounds of the letter's combinations with examples from your source language, ...
- 481
3
votes
Accepted
Is there an online resource that transliterates from IPA into different writing systems?
After several attempts to find the type of online service you are looking for, I concluded that such a resources was unlikely to exist. (However, see the end of my response.) There are several reasons ...
- 19.7k
3
votes
IPA usage and the deaf
@Myridium already has some useful info there - I'd like to add that deaf or not, people can feel where there tongue is, and feel / see in a mirror the shape of there mouth, and the way air flow is ...
- 83
2
votes
How important is IPA to learn pronunciation for learners with non-roman alphabet
My experience with the Perso-Arabic (Arabic and Persian) and Hebrew alphabets tells me that you don't need IPA. Romanization/transliteration in a consistent way is perfectly good. The romanization ...
- 5,076
1
vote
How important is IPA to learn pronunciation for learners with non-roman alphabet
IPA is a relatively new tool, and historically many people successfully learned a foreign language without it. It's obviously very useful for linguists but not necessary for learners.
When I started ...
- 461
1
vote
How can you understand the pronunciation differences if you don't understand them even on minimal pairs training?
The fix is studying the IPA chart in depth. Once you do it, you'll be able to differentiate the sounds without doubts. "A practical introduction to phonetics" by John C. Catford is a very short and ...
1
vote
How can I make sure my pronunciation based on IPA is correct?
I'm assuming that you don't have a native speaker to assist you and you want to do this online. If that is the case, I have the following suggestion-
Find an internet sound file with the ...
- 264
1
vote
Is there a way to find out the IPA of words from different languages?
For IPA for English text, there is also online IPA transcription tool https://tophonetics.com/ (formerly Lingorado.com, and also available on smarttphone) which generates IPA transcripts in multiple ...
1
vote
Accepted
Is there a way to find out the IPA of words from different languages?
If you are looking for a tool that converts text into API, the open source speech synthesizer eSpeak does this for a number of languages. Of course, some languages are better supported than English. ...
- 19.7k
1
vote
Is using x-ray/MRI images of the vocal track to learn a foreign language recommended?
No, this would not work unless you can use such things both for the speaker and the learner(the learner would also have to be continuously x-rayed).
It's not practical and really offers not much of a ...
- 11
1
vote
Is using x-ray/MRI images of the vocal track to learn a foreign language recommended?
I am a bit sceptical about the use of MRI images in classrooms. It is true they can dispel some misconceptions about what the speech organs do; this seems to be the lesson from the images of ...
- 19.7k
1
vote
Is there an online resource that transliterates from IPA into different writing systems?
Hard work is seldom done easily.
I don't know of any commercially available computer program that will transliterate the IPA of one language into the IPA of another. However, that being said, there ...
- 416
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