Tsimshian, known by its speakers as Sm'algya̱x , is a dialect of the Tsimshian language spoken in northwestern British Columbia and southeastern Alaska . Sm'algya̱x means literally "real or true language."
67-587: The linguist Tonya Stebbins estimated the number of speakers of Tsimshian in 2001 as around 400 and in 2003 as 200 or fewer (see references below). Whichever figure is more accurate, she added in 2003 that most speakers are over 70 in age and very few are under 50. About 50 of an ethnic population of 1,300 Tsimshian in Alaska speak the language. Next to transcriptions in the IPA are the conventional orthography in angle brackets. The unrounded mid back vowel can either be
134-584: A polysynthetic language , although it is less so than other Native North American languages. Tense, for instance, is not marked with the verb, but always appears as a separate pre-verbal word. The verb stands out as the most important word in the sentence—much of the information can be expressed by affixing onto it. Nouns, however, do have a number of clitics that may be attached. There are multiple connectors that are suffixed or prefixed onto adjacent words which can create long strings of lexical items. Tsimshian has an extensive system of reduplication , which
201-558: A cleft palate —an extended set of symbols may be used. Segments are transcribed by one or more IPA symbols of two basic types: letters and diacritics . For example, the sound of the English digraph ⟨ch⟩ may be transcribed in IPA with a single letter: [c] , or with multiple letters plus diacritics: [t̠̺͡ʃʰ] , depending on how precise one wishes to be. Slashes are used to signal phonemic transcription ; therefore, /tʃ/
268-483: A pitch trace on a musical scale . Beyond the letters themselves, there are a variety of secondary symbols which aid in transcription. Diacritic marks can be combined with the letters to add tone and phonetic detail such as secondary articulation . There are also special symbols for prosodic features such as stress and intonation. There are two principal types of brackets used to set off (delimit) IPA transcriptions: Less common conventions include: All three of
335-464: A chart; the chart displayed here is the official chart as posted at the website of the IPA. The letters chosen for the IPA are meant to harmonize with the Latin alphabet . For this reason, most letters are either Latin or Greek , or modifications thereof. Some letters are neither: for example, the letter denoting the glottal stop , ⟨ ʔ ⟩, originally had the form of a question mark with
402-483: A conflicting use to delimit prosodic transcription within the Voice Quality Symbols , which are an extension of IPA used in extIPA, but are not otherwise used in IPA proper. Other delimiters sometimes seen are pipes and double pipes taken from Americanist phonetic notation . However, these conflict with the pipes used in basic IPA prosodic transcription. Other delimiters are double slashes, –
469-524: A distributive. It is best translated as "each one his/her own". The words that take this prefix usually have a specific relation to an individual, such as body parts, clothing and kin. The word gyik 'again' may be prefixed to form some plurals, especially those referring to time. The word for 'very' luk'wil be shortened to lu- and pre- or infixed onto some words to form the plural. This process may result in extremely divergent forms, because of phonological processes. Finally, some plural forms are
536-452: A mix of IPA with Americanist phonetic notation or Sinological phonetic notation or otherwise use nonstandard symbols for various reasons. Authors who employ such nonstandard use are encouraged to include a chart or other explanation of their choices, which is good practice in general, as linguists differ in their understanding of the exact meaning of IPA symbols and common conventions change over time. Many British dictionaries, including
603-695: A row left out to save space. In the table below, a slightly different arrangement is made: All pulmonic consonants are included in the pulmonic-consonant table, and the vibrants and laterals are separated out so that the rows reflect the common lenition pathway of stop → fricative → approximant , as well as the fact that several letters pull double duty as both fricative and approximant; affricates may then be created by joining stops and fricatives from adjacent cells. Shaded cells represent articulations that are judged to be impossible or not distinctive. Vowel letters are also grouped in pairs—of unrounded and rounded vowel sounds—with these pairs also arranged from front on
670-423: A small list is provided. Tsimshian is an ergative–absolutive language. Although nominal and verbal marking allows syntax to be freer than English, word order is still an important aspect of the phrase. The basic word order for transitive and intransitive sentences is: yagwa TEMP TEMP baas run VERB Meli Mary ABS yagwa baas Meli TEMP run Mary TEMP VERB ABS "Mary
737-434: A smaller portion can occur in the rime . Note that these clusters do not contain syllabic consonants, but are only either in the onset or the coda . Clusters at the ends of words often have an epenthetic vowel inserted, which is usually /a/ [ʌ] but can also be either /i/ [ɪ] or /ɯ/ [ɯ] . Examples (with other phonological changes): The long vowels of Tsimshian must be pronounced in one of three distinct ways: with
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#1732772833691804-436: A sustained pitch /eː/ → [eː] ; a "falling pitch and offglide" /eː/ → [êə] , or with the insertion of a glottal stop /eː/ → [eʔe] . In every day writing, the diacritical marks may be left out, so that the first two could be written ⟨ee⟩ , whereas it is common to represent [eʔe] . Examples: The primary stress generally falls on the last syllable of a word. In the case of a suffix or connective being added, then
871-452: A variety of foreign languages. They are also taught by vocal coaches to perfect diction and improve tone quality and tuning. Opera librettos are authoritatively transcribed in IPA, such as Nico Castel 's volumes and Timothy Cheek's book Singing in Czech . Opera singers' ability to read IPA was used by the site Visual Thesaurus , which employed several opera singers "to make recordings for
938-409: Is IPA , then the conventional orthography equivalent is given in brackets. The glottalization diacritic ⟨ ' ⟩ may be switched to the other side of a velar segment depending on whether it falls pre-, post- or intervocalically. In speech, glottalized segments before a vowel will result in simultaneous realization of both, [ kʼ ] . Glottalized segments that follow vowels produce
1005-524: Is attached. Below is a sample list of some of the many proclitics in Tsimshian. Attached to nouns and verbs, they may convey locative, aspectual, modal, case relational and lexical information. The following descriptions of the prefixes are intended to convey what sort of position the object or person is in. So lax- can be used to express the top of the foot, because it has the properties of being "above" and "parallel", and t'm- could be used for
1072-560: Is based on that developed by Tsimshianicists since the 1960s. It originally stems from Bruce Rigsby's work on the Gitksan language and includes John A. Dunn 's work on Tsimshian and Marie-Lucie Tarpent 's work on Nisga'a and Southern Tsimshian . Dunn, Tarpent, and Susan Marsden substantially revised it for School District No. 52 (Prince Rupert) when preparing the Suwilaay'msga Na Ga'niiyatgm, Teachings of Our Grandfathers book series in
1139-495: Is elected by the membership – for further discussion and a formal vote. Many users of the alphabet, including the leadership of the Association itself, deviate from its standardized usage. The Journal of the IPA finds it acceptable to mix IPA and extIPA symbols in consonant charts in their articles. (For instance, including the extIPA letter ⟨ 𝼆 ⟩ , rather than ⟨ ʎ̝̊ ⟩, in an illustration of
1206-531: Is more abstract than either [t̠̺͡ʃʰ] or [c] and might refer to either, depending on the context and language. Occasionally, letters or diacritics are added, removed, or modified by the International Phonetic Association. As of the most recent change in 2005, there are 107 segmental letters, an indefinitely large number of suprasegmental letters, 44 diacritics (not counting composites), and four extra-lexical prosodic marks in
1273-528: Is not always accessible to sight-impaired readers who rely on screen reader technology. Double angle brackets may occasionally be useful to distinguish original orthography from transliteration, or the idiosyncratic spelling of a manuscript from the normalized orthography of the language. Pipes are sometimes used instead of double angle brackets to denote the distinct allographs of a grapheme that are known as glyphs . For example, print | g | and script | ɡ | are two glyph variants of
1340-509: Is running." ɫadm TEMP TEMP ḵ'ag̲a open VERB 'yuuta International Phonetic Alphabet The International Phonetic Alphabet ( IPA ) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script . It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standard written representation for the sounds of speech . The IPA
1407-653: Is the southern dialect of the Tsimshian language , spoken by the Gitga'ata and Kitasoo Tsimshians in Klemtu , B.C. It became extinct with the death of the last remaining speaker, Violet Neasloss. Sgüüx̣s is close to Coast Tsimshian and has been described as a highly conservative dialect, however the two may not have been mutually intelligible with Coast Tsimshian. The name Sgüüx̣s means "the language beside." Specialist John Asher Dunn wrote several articles on
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#17327728336911474-503: Is used by lexicographers , foreign language students and teachers, linguists , speech–language pathologists , singers, actors, constructed language creators, and translators . The IPA is designed to represent those qualities of speech that are part of lexical (and, to a limited extent, prosodic ) sounds in oral language : phones , intonation and the separation of syllables . To represent additional qualities of speech—such as tooth gnashing , lisping , and sounds made with
1541-557: Is used in most cases to form the plural of both nouns and verbs. There is a complex set of phonological processes that affect both the vowel and the consonant in reduplication. Schulenberg records at least 12 different classes of reduplication but Dunn later condenses these to just five, depending on which part of the word is copied, and whether it is prefixed , suffixed or infixed . However, each class contains irregular forms. Besides reduplication, plurals can also be formed by adding lexical clitics . Prefixing or infixing g̲a acts as
1608-466: The Handbook recommended against their use, as cursive IPA is "harder for most people to decipher". A braille representation of the IPA for blind or visually impaired professionals and students has also been developed. The International Phonetic Alphabet is occasionally modified by the Association. After each modification, the Association provides an updated simplified presentation of the alphabet in
1675-460: The Hebrew alphabet for transcription of foreign words. Bilingual dictionaries that translate from foreign languages into Russian usually employ the IPA, but monolingual Russian dictionaries occasionally use pronunciation respelling for foreign words. The IPA is more common in bilingual dictionaries, but there are exceptions here too. Mass-market bilingual Czech dictionaries, for instance, tend to use
1742-522: The IPA extensions . In the IPA itself, however, only lower-case letters are used. The 1949 edition of the IPA handbook indicated that an asterisk ⟨*⟩ might be prefixed to indicate that a word was a proper name, but this convention was not included in the 1999 Handbook , which notes the contrary use of the asterisk as a placeholder for a sound or feature that does not have a symbol. The IPA has widespread use among classical singers during preparation as they are frequently required to sing in
1809-566: The International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association in 1994. They were substantially revised in 2015. The general principle of the IPA is to provide one letter for each distinctive sound ( speech segment ). This means that: The alphabet is designed for transcribing sounds (phones), not phonemes , though it is used for phonemic transcription as well. A few letters that did not indicate specific sounds have been retired (⟨ ˇ ⟩, once used for
1876-792: The Oxford English Dictionary and some learner's dictionaries such as the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary and the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary , now use the International Phonetic Alphabet to represent the pronunciation of words. However, most American (and some British) volumes use one of a variety of pronunciation respelling systems, intended to be more comfortable for readers of English and to be more acceptable across dialects, without
1943-583: The "compound" tone of Swedish and Norwegian, and ⟨ ƞ ⟩, once used for the moraic nasal of Japanese), though one remains: ⟨ ɧ ⟩, used for the sj-sound of Swedish. When the IPA is used for broad phonetic or for phonemic transcription, the letter–sound correspondence can be rather loose. The IPA has recommended that more 'familiar' letters be used when that would not cause ambiguity. For example, ⟨ e ⟩ and ⟨ o ⟩ for [ɛ] and [ɔ] , ⟨ t ⟩ for [t̪] or [ʈ] , ⟨ f ⟩ for [ɸ] , etc. Indeed, in
2010-542: The 150,000 words and phrases in VT's lexical database ... for their vocal stamina, attention to the details of enunciation, and most of all, knowledge of IPA". The International Phonetic Association organizes the letters of the IPA into three categories: pulmonic consonants, non-pulmonic consonants, and vowels. Pulmonic consonant letters are arranged singly or in pairs of voiceless ( tenuis ) and voiced sounds, with these then grouped in columns from front (labial) sounds on
2077-733: The Greek alphabet, though their sound values may differ from Greek. For most Greek letters, subtly different glyph shapes have been devised for the IPA, specifically ⟨ ɑ ⟩, ⟨ ꞵ ⟩, ⟨ ɣ ⟩, ⟨ ɛ ⟩, ⟨ ɸ ⟩, ⟨ ꭓ ⟩ and ⟨ ʋ ⟩, which are encoded in Unicode separately from their parent Greek letters. One, however – ⟨ θ ⟩ – has only its Greek form, while for ⟨ ꞵ ~ β ⟩ and ⟨ ꭓ ~ χ ⟩, both Greek and Latin forms are in common use. The tone letters are not derived from an alphabet, but from
Coast Tsimshian dialect - Misplaced Pages Continue
2144-682: The IPA only for sounds not found in Czech . IPA letters have been incorporated into the alphabets of various languages, notably via the Africa Alphabet in many sub-Saharan languages such as Hausa , Fula , Akan , Gbe languages , Manding languages , Lingala , etc. Capital case variants have been created for use in these languages. For example, Kabiyè of northern Togo has Ɖ ɖ , Ŋ ŋ , Ɣ ɣ , Ɔ ɔ , Ɛ ɛ , Ʋ ʋ . These, and others, are supported by Unicode , but appear in Latin ranges other than
2211-630: The IPA so that the sound values of most letters would correspond to "international usage" (approximately Classical Latin ). Hence, the consonant letters ⟨ b ⟩, ⟨ d ⟩, ⟨ f ⟩, ⟨ ɡ ⟩, ⟨ h ⟩, ⟨ k ⟩, ⟨ l ⟩, ⟨ m ⟩, ⟨ n ⟩, ⟨ p ⟩, ⟨ s ⟩, ⟨ t ⟩, ⟨ v ⟩, ⟨ w ⟩, and ⟨ z ⟩ have more or less their word-initial values in English ( g as in gill , h as in hill , though p t k are unaspirated as in spill, still, skill ); and
2278-460: The IPA. These are illustrated in the current IPA chart , posted below in this article and on the International Phonetic Association's website. In 1886, a group of French and English language teachers, led by the French linguist Paul Passy , formed what would be known from 1897 onwards as the International Phonetic Association (in French, l'Association phonétique internationale ). The idea of
2345-532: The IPA.) Of more than 160 IPA symbols, relatively few will be used to transcribe speech in any one language, with various levels of precision. A precise phonetic transcription, in which sounds are specified in detail, is known as a narrow transcription . A coarser transcription with less detail is called a broad transcription. Both are relative terms, and both are generally enclosed in square brackets. Broad phonetic transcriptions may restrict themselves to easily heard details, or only to details that are relevant to
2412-485: The above are provided by the IPA Handbook . The following are not, but may be seen in IPA transcription or in associated material (especially angle brackets): Also commonly seen are the braces of set theory , especially when enclosing the set of phonemes that constitute the morphophoneme, e.g. {t d} or {t|d} or {/t/, /d/} for a conflated /t/ and /d/ . Braces have
2479-519: The alphabet had been suggested to Passy by Otto Jespersen . It was developed by Passy along with other members of the association, principally Daniel Jones . The original IPA alphabet was based on the Romic alphabet , an English spelling reform created by Henry Sweet that in turn was based on the Palaeotype alphabet of Alexander John Ellis , but to make it usable for other languages the values of
2546-617: The alphabet or the chart is to propose the change in the Journal of the IPA . (See, for example, December 2008 on an open central unrounded vowel and August 2011 on central approximants.) Reactions to the proposal may be published in the same or subsequent issues of the Journal (as in August 2009 on the open central vowel). A formal proposal is then put to the Council of the IPA – which
2613-405: The backbone, because it has the properties of being "above" and "perpendicular". "Tangent" indicates that the object or action is taking place next to, or alongside of something. "Efferent" refers to going away from the action. Like the lexical suffixes, these proclitics derive from existing morphemes and can alter the stem meaning in various ways. Proclitics are much more common than suffixes; only
2680-403: The conceptual counterparts of spoken sounds, are usually enclosed in slashes (/ /) and tend to use simpler letters with few diacritics. The choice of IPA letters may reflect theoretical claims of how speakers conceptualize sounds as phonemes or they may be merely a convenience for typesetting. Phonemic approximations between slashes do not have absolute sound values. For instance, in English, either
2747-641: The consonant is produced. The main chart includes only consonants with a single place of articulation. Notes Non-pulmonic consonants are sounds whose airflow is not dependent on the lungs. These include clicks (found in the Khoisan languages and some neighboring Bantu languages of Africa), implosives (found in languages such as Sindhi , Hausa , Swahili and Vietnamese ), and ejectives (found in many Amerindian and Caucasian languages ). Southern Tsimshian language Southern Tsimshian , Sgüüx̣s (pronounced: /skiːxs/ ) or Sgüümk ,
Coast Tsimshian dialect - Misplaced Pages Continue
2814-731: The discussion at hand, and may differ little if at all from phonemic transcriptions, but they make no theoretical claim that all the distinctions transcribed are necessarily meaningful in the language. For example, the English word little may be transcribed broadly as [ˈlɪtəl] , approximately describing many pronunciations. A narrower transcription may focus on individual or dialectical details: [ˈɫɪɾɫ] in General American , [ˈlɪʔo] in Cockney , or [ˈɫɪːɫ] in Southern US English . Phonemic transcriptions, which express
2881-476: The dot removed. A few letters, such as that of the voiced pharyngeal fricative , ⟨ ʕ ⟩, were inspired by other writing systems (in this case, the Arabic letter ⟨ ﻉ ⟩, ʿayn , via the reversed apostrophe). Some letter forms derive from existing letters: The International Phonetic Alphabet is based on the Latin script , and uses as few non-Latin letters as possible. The Association created
2948-489: The early 1990s, with the blessing of the Tsimshian hereditary chiefs. Since then, the orthography and the recording of the language have largely been conducted by the Tsimshian Sm'algyax Authority. The Living Legacy Talking Dictionary provides both written and spoken samples of the language. Another orthography, used only in Alaska, is taught by a private organization called Dum Baal-dum. Tsimshian can be classified as
3015-608: The end of words. the alternations /f/ – /v/ in plural formation in one class of nouns, as in knife /naɪf/ – knives /naɪvz/ , which can be represented morphophonemically as {naɪV } – {naɪV+z }. The morphophoneme {V } stands for the phoneme set {/f/, /v/ }. [ˈf\faɪnəlz ˈhɛld ɪn (.) ⸨knock on door⸩ bɑɹsə{ 𝑝 ˈloʊnə and ˈmədɹɪd 𝑝 }] — f-finals held in Barcelona and Madrid. IPA letters have cursive forms designed for use in manuscripts and when taking field notes, but
3082-403: The form of a chart. (See History of the IPA .) Not all aspects of the alphabet can be accommodated in a chart of the size published by the IPA. The alveolo-palatal and epiglottal consonants, for example, are not included in the consonant chart for reasons of space rather than of theory (two additional columns would be required, one between the retroflex and palatal columns and the other between
3149-409: The glottalization first, then the consonant closure, [ʼk] . Intervocalically, the glottalization depends on where the stress falls. [ʼk] is pronounced after a stressed syllable, and [kʼ] is pronounced before a stress. Tsimshian utilizes (C)CV or (C)CVC(C) syllable structures in which the vowels can occur long or short . Syllabic consonants are common and can technically occur anywhere within
3216-420: The grammatical function. The names for the types listed below are shortened descriptions of those provided by Dunn. There are five lexically derived morphemes that can be attached to words to alter the meaning. The affixed morphemes can be extremely altered from their original forms, sometimes according to phonological rules, sometimes arbitrarily. Usually the suffix root is shortened to one syllable before it
3283-412: The grapheme ⟨ g ⟩ of Latin script. Some examples of contrasting brackets in the literature: In some English accents, the phoneme /l/ , which is usually spelled as ⟨l⟩ or ⟨ll⟩ , is articulated as two distinct allophones: the clear [l] occurs before vowels and the consonant /j/ , whereas the dark [ɫ] / [lˠ] occurs before consonants, except /j/ , and at
3350-401: The illustration of Hindi in the IPA Handbook , the letters ⟨ c ⟩ and ⟨ ɟ ⟩ are used for /t͡ʃ/ and /d͡ʒ/ . Among the symbols of the IPA, 107 letters represent consonants and vowels , 31 diacritics are used to modify these, and 17 additional signs indicate suprasegmental qualities such as length , tone , stress , and intonation . These are organized into
3417-438: The implication of a preferred pronunciation that the IPA might convey. For example, the respelling systems in many American dictionaries (such as Merriam-Webster ) use ⟨y⟩ for IPA [ j] and ⟨sh⟩ for IPA [ ʃ ] , reflecting the usual spelling of those sounds in English. (In IPA, [y] represents the sound of the French ⟨u⟩ , as in tu , and [sh] represents
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#17327728336913484-454: The left to back (glottal) sounds on the right. In official publications by the IPA, two columns are omitted to save space, with the letters listed among "other symbols" even though theoretically they belong in the main chart. They are arranged in rows from full closure (occlusives: stops and nasals) at top, to brief closure (vibrants: trills and taps), to partial closure (fricatives), and finally minimal closure (approximants) at bottom, again with
3551-428: The left to back on the right, and from maximal closure at top to minimal closure at bottom. No vowel letters are omitted from the chart, though in the past some of the mid central vowels were listed among the "other symbols". A pulmonic consonant is a consonant made by obstructing the glottis (the space between the vocal folds) or oral cavity (the mouth) and either simultaneously or subsequently letting out air from
3618-446: The long [ a ] or the short and slightly raised [ ʌ ] depending on context. John Asher Dunn assumes this vowel as the schwa [ ə ] . Underlining /a/ is optional for indicating the back long vowel, and fluent speakers will usually omit it. Dunn's representation of the high back vowel seems to be slightly more forward than the IPA equivalent, since he uses the phonetic symbols [ɨ̈] or [ɪ̈] . First symbol
3685-408: The lungs. Pulmonic consonants make up the majority of consonants in the IPA, as well as in human language. All consonants in English fall into this category. The pulmonic consonant table, which includes most consonants, is arranged in rows that designate manner of articulation , meaning how the consonant is produced, and columns that designate place of articulation , meaning where in the vocal tract
3752-469: The pharyngeal and glottal columns), and the lateral flap would require an additional row for that single consonant, so they are listed instead under the catchall block of "other symbols". The indefinitely large number of tone letters would make a full accounting impractical even on a larger page, and only a few examples are shown, and even the tone diacritics are not complete; the reversed tone letters are not illustrated at all. The procedure for modifying
3819-554: The resurrection of letters for mid central vowels and the retirement of letters for voiceless implosives . The alphabet was last revised in May 2005 with the addition of a letter for a labiodental flap . Apart from the addition and removal of symbols, changes to the IPA have consisted largely of renaming symbols and categories and in modifying typefaces . Extensions to the International Phonetic Alphabet for speech pathology (extIPA) were created in 1990 and were officially adopted by
3886-407: The same as the singular ( lak "fire" → lak "fires") and some words have suppletive plurals, where there is no morphological relationship between the two: ( waa "name" → uust "names"). There are ten suffixes that may be attached to words to derive words with meanings related in some way to the original morpheme . These suffixes can change either the grammatical relationship and/or
3953-427: The same notation as for morphophonology, – exclamation marks, and pipes. For example, ⟨ cot ⟩ would be used for the orthography of the English word cot , as opposed to its pronunciation /ˈkɒt/ . Italics are usual when words are written as themselves (as with cot in the previous sentence) rather than to specifically note their orthography. However, italics are sometimes ambiguous, and italic markup
4020-473: The sequence of consonants in gra ssh opper .) The IPA is also not universal among dictionaries in languages other than English. Monolingual dictionaries of languages with phonemic orthographies generally do not bother with indicating the pronunciation of most words, and tend to use respelling systems for words with unexpected pronunciations. Dictionaries produced in Israel use the IPA rarely and sometimes use
4087-452: The stress falls on the penultimate syllable. There are a number of complex phonological processes that affect segments. The following is just a sample of some of the changes that may occur. In the practical orthography, uvulars are indicated by underlining the velar letters, ⟨ḵ g̲⟩ , and the position of the apostrophe before or after the consonant letter distinguishes glottalization . The Tsimshian orthography in use today
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#17327728336914154-417: The symbols were allowed to vary from language to language. For example, the sound [ ʃ ] (the sh in shoe ) was originally represented with the letter ⟨c⟩ for English but with ⟨x⟩ for French and German; with German, ⟨c⟩ was used for the [ x ] sound of Bach . With a growing number of transcribed languages this proved impractical, and in 1888
4221-483: The values of the letters were made uniform across languages. This would provide the base for all future revisions. Since its creation, the IPA has undergone a number of revisions. After relatively frequent revisions and expansions from the 1890s to the 1940s, the IPA remained nearly static until the Kiel Convention in 1989, which substantially revamped the alphabet. A smaller revision took place in 1993 with
4288-457: The vowel letters ⟨ a ⟩, ⟨ e ⟩, ⟨ i ⟩, ⟨ o ⟩, ⟨ u ⟩ correspond to the (long) sound values of Latin: [i] is like the vowel in mach i ne , [u] is as in r u le , etc. Other Latin letters, particularly ⟨ j ⟩, ⟨ r ⟩ and ⟨ y ⟩, differ from English, but have their IPA values in Latin or other European languages. This basic Latin inventory
4355-463: The vowel of pick or the vowel of peak may be transcribed as /i/ , so that pick , peak would be transcribed as /ˈpik, ˈpiːk/ or as /ˈpɪk, ˈpik/ ; and neither is identical to the vowel of the French pique , which would also be transcribed /pik/ . By contrast, a narrow phonetic transcription of pick , peak , pique could be: [pʰɪk] , [pʰiːk] , [pikʲ] . IPA is popular for transcription by linguists. Some American linguists, however, use
4422-459: The word. The only consonants that qualify as syllabic (indicated optionally by underlining) are the sonorants /m/ , /n/ and /l/ (and their glottalized counterparts). (Some writers will follow the Gitksan orthographic practice of writing the syllabic sonorants as /im/ , /in/ and /il/ .) Examples: Consonant clusters are common. Schulenberg reports finding /pt, pts, ptl, kts, qp, qtk, qtsc, qsk, nts, tɟ/ among many others, though only
4489-446: Was extended by adding small-capital and cursive forms, diacritics and rotation. The sound values of these letters are related to those of the original letters, and their derivation may be iconic. For example, letters with a rightward-facing hook at the bottom represent retroflex equivalents of the source letters, and small capital letters usually represent uvular equivalents of their source letters. There are also several letters from
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