Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-vpsfw Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-17T02:39:20.664Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Revision of the IPA: Do you know the onion chart?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 February 2009

George L. Baurley
Affiliation:
Kleinring 44, Dessau 4500, D.D.R.

Extract

Quite rightly, the question is being posed: For whom is the IPA chart to be of service, (a) chiefly, (b) at all? Yet regardless of who the main beneficiaries may be, an issue on which I intend to imitate the (in)action of the mugwumps, I suggest that pedagogic principles are of the greatest importance in the creation of a chart to replace the existing amalgam. That is to say, a future chart must be so designed as to be not merely a statement of the situation but also a ‘guide, philosopher and friend’ for the user, from whatever walk of life. Users may be taking their first steps in acquiring proficiency in the use of a tool that has to be at the service of an increasingly varied range of people. Viewed thus, the chart must not be a simple systematised aggregation of facts, but also a methodical presentation of the same.

Type
Revision of the IPA: Notes
Copyright
Copyright © Journal of the International Phonetic Association 1987

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

INTERNATIONAL PHONETIC ASSOCIATION. (1949). The Principles of the International Phonetic Association. London: International Phonetic Association.Google Scholar
Henton, C. G. (1987). The IPA consonant chart: Mugwumps, holes and therapeutic suggestions. Journal of the International Phonetic Association 17:1, 1525.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ladefoged, P. (1987). Updating the theory. Journal of the International Phonetic Association 17:1, 1014.CrossRefGoogle Scholar