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From: misrael@scripps.edu (Mark Israel)
Subject: colons in phonemic transcription
Message-ID: <misraelE0p37v.Dr1@netcom.com>
Summary: was Re: words that are already AS
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Organization: The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California, USA
References: <9611100812381867@mogur.com> <5668g2$kfs@news4.digex.net>
Date: Mon, 11 Nov 1996 07:23:55 GMT
Lines: 27

In article <5668g2$kfs@news4.digex.net>, kcivey@cpcug.org (Keith C. Ivey) writes:

> What is the point of using colons in phonemic notation?  
> Is vowel length phonemic in your dialect?

   In phonemic transcription, each phoneme is represented by its 
most common allophone.

   Collins English Dictionary uses length marks in the phonemes
/A:/ (as in "father"), /i:/ (as in "see"), /O:/ (as in "thaw"), 
/u:/ (as in "zoo"), and /V":/ (as in RP "fern").

   The Concise Oxford Dictionary, 9th ed., uses length marks in
the first four of those, and uses /E:/ instead of /E@/ (as in
RP "hair") and /@:/ insetad of /V":/.  It gives the pronunciation
of "bijou" as "/'bi:Zu:, French biZu/".

   Keith, you're not the first person not to see the point of this.
I remember Aaron Dinkin's reproving someone for using colons.  I 
myself have been inconsistent about this; but I am now trying to
follow the Collins scheme exactly, on the grounds that this is a
question where any standard is better than chaos.

   (Posted and e-mailed.)

--
misrael@scripps.edu			Mark Israel
