 The most suitable backbone of an international phonetic alphabet is the Roman alphabet. It uses most well-known characters and is employed by the majority of the languages with a phonographic writing system. Such an alphabet has been developed by the International Phonetic Association. This unit looks at the general structure of the International Phonetic Alphabet, also discusses the principles of the International Phonetic Association and will then define transcription systems for present-day English. The International Phonetic Alphabet can be defined or can be subdivided into the following components. We have consonants, a set of consonants, we have a set of vowels and we have diacritics. Let's look at them in more detail. Now here you see the system of consonants as provided by the International Phonetic Association. They are grouped according to place and manner of articulation and the state of the glottis, that is, whether they are voiced or not. Let's look at an example. Now this is a voiceless retroflex, fricative and the symbol is on the chart. In addition to these pulmonic consonants, we also have non-pulmonic consonants and an additional set of symbols. For example, this one which is a click consonant that is produced with a velaric airstream. The system of vowels provided by the International Phonetic Association is defined by means of a reference system, the so-called cardinal vowel chart. Here you see the primary cardinal vowels, for example, and if you swap the criterion lip rounding, you get a secondary system. Here you are where you have and to take two examples. Now these 16 symbols are normally supplemented by central or centralized vowels. For example, the most well-known one is the central vowel schwa. Finally, we have diacritics. Diacritics are additional elements that define phonetic details that can be associated with each particular sound symbol. For example, we have the diacritic superscript H, which defines a plosive as aspirated. Now with this system, we can define the sound systems of the languages of the world. For example, we could transcribe something like, well, let's identify something. So here is a nonsense word. Well, this is supposed to be that one. And now we know how it is pronounced, namely, part-eng-shoth. From this phonetic alphabet, consonants, the vowels, and the diacritics, each language can now pick the subset of symbols that are required. For example, in present-day English, we have, in RP, we have 44 phonemes, that is 20 vowels and 24 consonants, and many more allophones. But how can we represent this sound system most adequately? Well, the International Phonetic Association provides some guidelines here. The IPA was inaugurated in 1886 under the title of the Phonetic Teachers Association. Among the first members, founding members were Paul Parcy, for example, a French teacher, phonetician. The editor of the first IPA's journal. And the Danish linguist Otto Jespersen was another founding member, was another linguist who was interested, and so was Henry Sweet. So these could be considered the founders of the International Phonetic Association. Among the primary goals of the IPA was the establishment of a phonetic alphabet, which should be applicable to all languages. The first version was published in 1888, so this is perhaps a date which we should remember. First publication of an International Phonetic Alphabet. And together with this publication, a number of rules were set up. For example, the first rule is quite simple. A transcription for a language should use one separate letter for each distinctive sound. So one symbol for one phoneme and not several. And then it should be consistent. Consistency means, well, you should use the same sign, the same symbol for sounds to be found across languages. And then of course, something we have already defined, you should use as many Roman characters as possible. And finally, diacritics should be avoided wherever possible. So this is then very important. Now, here you see the journal, the International Phonetic, the handbook of the International Phonetic Association, where the versions of the International Phonetic alphabet are published periodically. Since 1888, the IPA has maintained these principles and has worked constantly to remedy defects improving upon signs which proved unsatisfactory and extending the alphabet to provide more symbols for languages which had not received consideration at the outset in the 19th century. Now what about present day English? Now, we know present day English has to pick a subset of the International Alphabet for the transcription of its sound system. From the early days, and that was the days when Daniel Jones published his EPD, his English pronouncing dictionary, from these early days, three variants of transcription systems were developed. Some of them include a larger number of exotic symbols, others are more simple. Let's look at a narrow phonetic transcription first. Narrow phonetic transcriptions, first of all, are represented in these angular brackets, whereas phonemic transcriptions are always presented within slashes. So that's a significant difference. If more symbols and phonemes are used, the transcription is per se not a phonemic one because there is more information but a phonetic one. Alternatively, you can call it alophonic or narrow. Now, as I said, narrow transcriptions are represented in angular brackets. Let's take the word Paul as an example. Now, in a narrow transcription, we would mark that the plosive is aspirated and that the final alveolar lateral is velarized. So here you have diacritic symbols, which are added to the standard set of symbols, also the colon, which indicates length. In a broad or phonemic transcription, the principle is adhered to one symbol per phoneme. Yet, in order to allow more phonemes to be specified, such transcription systems use a number of additional symbols. This is a helpful method for the description of more specific values of particular phonemes. For example, in Paul, we need a special symbol for the R. We cannot use the normal O. But you see now we're transcribing in terms of phonemes and dispense with diacritic symbols. The most economical transcription systems are the so-called simplified phonemic transcriptions. If possible, they confine themselves to the set of symbols available on typewriters or computer keyboards. Thus aiming at a high degree of intelligibility for the foreign learner. Simplified phonemic transcriptions go back to Henry Swede's broad-romic system, which we discussed in another clip. And to Daniel Jones attempts to simplify his own E.P.D. system. So one possibility of converting Paul into a simplified phonemic transcription version could be this one here. Sometimes, however, such systems maybe can be misleading. In the Atlas of North American English system the word, or this, stands for my and not for may. Now what sort of systems do we use in present-day English today? Today we have two most popular transcription systems. On the one hand we have the transcription system for received pronunciation, the standard phonological dialect of British or more precisely English English, which has been published in the LPD, Longman's pronouncing dictionary. And the person responsible for this transcription system is the English phonologist and phonetician John Wells. In North America, a different transcription system is used in North American English. The Atlas of North American English system published in Bill Labov's monumental work about the phonological dialects of North America is some sort of standard. This system goes back not only to Labov himself but to American structuralists such as Leonard Bloomfield, Bloch, Traeger and Smith and some others.