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2.8: Describing Speech Sounds- the IPA

  • Page ID
    9633
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    This unit introduces the International Phonetic Alphabet, a system for accurately transcribing speech sounds. The IPA is useful because it is unambiguous: each symbol always represents the same sound, and each sound is always represented by the same symbol.
    Thumbnail for the embedded element "2.3 International Phonetic Alphabet"

    A YouTube element has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view it online here: ecampusontario.pressbooks.pu...guistics/?p=42

    Check Yourself

    1. The vowel sounds in the words neat and spread are both spelled “ea”. Do the vowels in the two words sound the same as each other or different?

    • Same.
    • Different.

    2. Are the final sounds in the words face and mess the same as each other or different?

    • Same.
    • Different.

    3. Are the first sounds in the two words gym and gum the same as each other or different?

    • Same.
    • Different.
    Answers

    This page titled 2.8: Describing Speech Sounds- the IPA is shared under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Catherine Anderson (eCampusOntario) via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform; a detailed edit history is available upon request.