If you’re employed by the BBC, or work for an independent programme maker producing BBC programmes, then you are entitled to consult the BBC Pronunciation Unit for “professional advice about pronunciations in all languages”.
The staff of the Unit are all multilingual trained phoneticians, and do an excellent job.
Their advice covers anything from what, in a British context, might be called recherché and exotic…...through the not-quite-so-exotic......to names you’d think most educated BrE NSs would be familiar with (though presumably someone had asked). (That should, of course, be Oxford, not Cambridge.)
As you can see, their indications of pronunciation do not include IPA transcriptions, but do offer a choice of two respelling systems.
One, “BBC Modified Spelling”, has been in use for many years. Some of the symbols it uses have diacritics: ī for the vowel of PRICE, ō for the vowel of GOAT, and oo with a breve (not available in Unicode) for the vowel of FOOT; breves are also used on ă ĕ ĭ ŏ ŭ to represent schwa. The voiced dental fricative is shown by underlining, th, and underlining is also used for the digraphs zh (IPA ʒ) and hl (IPA ɬ). Stress is shown by a superscript acute mark.
The other scheme is a newer one. It avoids diacritics, but at the expense of being perhaps less transparent. The letter y is used in two different senses, representing in some cases the PRICE vowel and in others the palatal glide. PRICE can also be written igh. Schwa is written uh or uhr. Stress is shown by capitalization.
Symbols that might be open to interpretation are accompanied by a brief explanation.
Respelling systems based on orthographic conventions have one great advantage over IPA or IPA-style transcription systems. They are less phonetically explicit, more abstract. Instead of worrying about whether GOAT has a diphthong with a rounded first element (oʊ), a diphthong with an unrounded first element (əʊ) or a monophthong (oː), we just agree that ō (or oh) stands for whatever vowel you use in GOAT words.
However, respelling systems for English face particular difficulty in finding satisfactory symbols for
• the PRICE vowel, for which neither y nor igh is unambiguous, while ī has a diacritic
• the MOUTH vowel, for which both ou and ow are ambiguous (cf. soul, show)
• the GOAT vowel, for which oh may wrongly suggest a short vowel and oa, ou, ow are ambiguous (cf. broad, loud, now)
• schwa. If oh represents a long vowel, how can we make it clear that uh represents a short weak one?
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This blog will now be suspended for a week. (I may see some of you in Łódź.) Next posting: 19 December.
Ikiwa unaajiriwa na BBC, au unafanya kazi kwa mtengenezaji wa programu huru anayetengeneza programu za BBC, basi una haki ya kushauriana na Kitengo cha Matamshi cha BBC kwa "shauri la kitaaluma juu ya matamshi katika lugha zote". Wafanyakazi wa Kitengo wote ni multilingual mafunzo phoneticians, na kufanya kazi bora. Ushauri wao inashughulikia chochote kutoka nini, katika mazingira ya Uingereza, inaweza kuitwa recherché na exotic...... kupitia si-kwa-kwa-kwa-exotic...... kwa majina wewe'd kufikiri wengi elimu BrE NSs ingekuwa ukoo na (ingawa pengine mtu alikuwa aliuliza). (Hiyo inapaswa, bila shaka, kuwa Oxford, si Cambridge.) Kama unavyoona, viashiria vya matamshi hayajumuishi maandishi ya IPA, lakini hutoa chaguo la mifumo miwili ya respelling. Moja, <unk>BBC Modified Spelling<unk>, imekuwa ikitumiwa kwa miaka mingi. Baadhi ya alama zinazotumiwa zina diacritics: ī kwa vowel ya PRICE, ò kwa vowel ya GOAT, na oo na breve (haipatikani katika Unicode) kwa vowel ya FOOT; brews pia hutumiwa kwenye ă <unk> <unk> <unk> <unk> kuwakilisha schwa. Sauti ya meno fricative ni kuonyeshwa na underlining, th, na underlining pia hutumiwa kwa digraphs zh (IPA <unk>) na hl (IPA <unk>). Mkazo huonyeshwa na alama ya juu ya maandishi. Mpango mwingine ni mpya zaidi. Inepuka alama za diacritics, lakini kwa gharama ya kuwa labda chini ya uwazi. Herufi y hutumiwa katika maana mbili tofauti, ikiwakilisha katika baadhi ya kesi vowel PRICE na katika wengine glide palatal. PRICE pia inaweza kuandikwa igh. Schwa huandikwa uh au uhr. Mkazo huonyeshwa kwa herufi kubwa. Ishara ambazo zinaweza kutafsiriwa huambatana na ufafanuzi mfupi. Mifumo ya Respelling kulingana na mikataba ya orthographic ina faida moja kubwa juu ya IPA au IPA-style transcription mifumo. Wao ni chini ya phonetically wazi, zaidi abstract. Badala ya kuwa na wasiwasi kuhusu kama GOAT ina diphthong na rounded kwanza kipengele (o), diphthong na unrounded kwanza kipengele (a) au monophthong (o), sisi tu kukubaliana kwamba O (au oh) inasimama kwa chochote vowel wewe kutumia katika GOAT maneno. Hata hivyo, mfumo wa respelling kwa Kiingereza inakabiliwa na ugumu maalum katika kupata alama za kuridhisha kwa • vowel PRICE, ambayo wala y wala igh ni wazi, wakati ī ina diacritic; vowel MOUTH, ambayo wote ou na ow ni wazi (cf. "Kama vile ""goat"" vowel, ""oh"" inaweza kuwa vowel fupi na ""ou"" au ""ow"" ni vowels zisizoeleweka." pana, kubwa, sasa) • schwa. Kama oh inawakilisha vokali ndefu, jinsi gani tunaweza kufanya ni wazi kwamba uh inawakilisha moja fupi dhaifu? "Blog hii sasa itasimamishwa kwa wiki moja.""" (Naweza kuwaona baadhi yenu huko Łódź.) Ujumbe wa pili: Desemba 19.