The Initial Teaching Alphabet ( I.T.A. or i.t.a. ) is a variant of the Latin alphabet developed by Sir James Pitman (the grandson of Sir Isaac Pitman , inventor of a system of shorthand) in the early 1960s. It was not intended to be a strictly phonetic transcription of English sounds, or a spelling reform for English as such, but instead a practical simplified writing system which could be used to teach English-speaking children to read more easily than can be done with traditional orthography . After children had learned to read using I.T.A., they would then eventually move on to learn standard English spelling. Although it achieved a certain degree of popularity in the 1960s, it has fallen out of use since the 1970s.
30-490: The I.T.A. originally had 43 symbols, which was expanded to 44, then 45. Each symbol predominantly represented a single English sound (including affricates and diphthongs ), but there were complications due to the desire to avoid making the I.T.A. needlessly different from standard English spelling (which would make the transition from the I.T.A. to standard spelling more difficult), and in order to neutrally represent several English pronunciations or dialects. In particular, there
60-530: A chroneme , as in Italian and Karelian . In phonology, affricates tend to behave similarly to stops, taking part in phonological patterns that fricatives do not. Kehrein (2002) analyzes phonetic affricates as phonological stops. A sibilant or lateral (and presumably trilled) stop can be realized phonetically only as an affricate and so might be analyzed phonemically as a sibilant or lateral stop. In that analysis, affricates other than sibilants and laterals are
90-465: A syllable boundary between the two segments, but not necessarily. In English, /ts/ and /dz/ ( nuts , nods ) are considered phonemically stop–fricative sequences. They often contain a morpheme boundary (for example, nuts = nut + s ). The English affricate phonemes /t͡ʃ/ and /d͡ʒ/ do not contain morpheme boundaries. The phonemic distinction in English between the affricate /t͡ʃ/ and
120-481: A "round a" or "one-storey a" (ɑ) for the sound in "father" (lexical set PALM). But lexical set BATH (words such as "rather", "dance", and "half") patterns with PALM in some accents including Received Pronunciation, but with TRAP in others including General American. So a new character, the "half-hook a", was devised, to avoid the necessity of producing separate instructional materials for speakers of different accents. A series of international I.T.A. conferences were held,
150-507: A fricative–stop contour may occur. This is the case in dialects of Scottish Gaelic that have velar frication [ˣ] where other dialects have pre-aspiration . For example, in the Harris dialect there is seachd [ʃaˣkʰ] 'seven' and ochd [ɔˣkʰ] 'eight' (or [ʃax͜kʰ] , [ɔx͜kʰ] ). Richard Wiese argues this is the case for word-initial fricative-plosive sequences in German, and coined
180-419: A language has only one type of affricate, it is usually a sibilant; this is the case in e.g. Arabic ( [d̠ʒ] ), most dialects of Spanish ( [t̠ʃ] ), and Thai ( [tɕ] ). Pirahã and Wari' have a dental stop with bilabial trilled release [t̪ʙ̥] . Although most affricates are homorganic , Navajo and Chiricahua Apache have a heterorganic alveolar-velar affricate [tx] . Wari' and Pirahã have
210-484: A non-sibilant, non-lateral affricate with a stop at the same place of articulation and with the same phonation and airstream mechanism, such as /t̪/ and /t̪θ/ or /k/ and /kx/ . In feature-based phonology , affricates are distinguished from stops by the feature [+delayed release]. Affrication (sometimes called affricatization ) is a sound change by which a consonant, usually a stop or fricative , changes into an affricate. Examples include: In rare instances,
240-472: A phonetic mechanism for distinguishing stops at similar places of articulation (like more than one labial, coronal, or dorsal place). For example, Chipewyan has laminal dental [t̪͡θ] vs. apical alveolar [t] ; other languages may contrast velar [k] with palatal [c͡ç] and uvular [q͡χ] . Affricates may also be a strategy to increase the phonetic contrast between aspirated or ejective and tenuis consonants. According to Kehrein (2002) , no language contrasts
270-1078: A voiceless dental bilabially trilled affricate [t̪ʙ̥] (see #Trilled affricates ), Blackfoot has [ks] . Other heterorganic affricates are reported for Northern Sotho and other Bantu languages such as Phuthi , which has alveolar–labiodental affricates [tf] and [dv] , and Sesotho , which has bilabial–palatoalveolar affricates [pʃ] and [bʒ] . Djeoromitxi has [ps] and [bz] . The coronal and dorsal places of articulation attested as ejectives as well: [tθʼ, tsʼ, tɬʼ, tʃʼ, tɕʼ, tʂʼ, c𝼆ʼ, kxʼ, k𝼄ʼ, qχʼ] . Several Khoisan languages such as Taa are reported to have voiced ejective affricates, but these are actually pre -voiced: [dtsʼ, dtʃʼ] . Affricates are also commonly aspirated : [ɱp̪fʰ, tθʰ, tsʰ, tɬʰ, tʃʰ, tɕʰ, tʂʰ] , murmured : [ɱb̪vʱ, dðʱ, dzʱ, dɮʱ, dʒʱ, dʑʱ, dʐʱ] , and prenasalized : [ⁿdz, ⁿtsʰ, ᶯɖʐ, ᶯʈʂʰ] (as in Hmong ). Labialized , palatalized , velarized , and pharyngealized affricates are also common. Affricates may also have phonemic length, that is, affected by
300-669: The Americanist system, affricates may be transcribed with single letters. The affricate [t͜s] may be transcribed as ⟨c⟩ or ⟨¢⟩ ; [d͜z] as ⟨j⟩ , ⟨ƶ⟩ or (older) ⟨ʒ⟩ ; [t͜ʃ] as ⟨c⟩ or ⟨č⟩ ; [d͡ʒ] as ⟨ǰ⟩ , ⟨ǧ⟩ or (older) ⟨ǯ⟩ ; [t͜ɬ] as ⟨ƛ⟩ ; and [d͡ɮ] as ⟨λ⟩ . This also happens with phonemic transcription in IPA: [tʃ] and [dʒ] are sometimes transcribed with
330-967: The IPA ), German and Italian z [t͡s] and Italian z [d͡z] are typical affricates, and sounds like these are fairly common in the world's languages, as are other affricates with similar sounds, such as those in Polish and Chinese . However, voiced affricates other than [d͡ʒ] are relatively uncommon. For several places of articulation they are not attested at all. Much less common are labiodental affricates, such as [p͡f] in German , Kinyarwanda and Izi , or velar affricates, such as [k͡x] in Tswana (written kg ) or in High Alemannic Swiss German dialects. Worldwide, relatively few languages have affricates in these positions even though
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#1732793022175360-510: The International Phonetic Alphabet by a combination of two letters, one for the stop element and the other for the fricative element. In order to show that these are parts of a single consonant, a tie bar is generally used. The tie bar appears most commonly above the two letters, but may be placed under them if it fits better there, or simply because it is more legible. Thus: or A less common notation indicates
390-406: The "s" of standard spelling where it represents a voiced sound, and which visually resembles an angular form of the letter "s"). The backwards "z" occurs prominently in many plural forms of nouns and third-person singular present forms of verbs (including is ). Each of the I.T.A. letters has a name, the pronunciation of which includes the sound that the character stands for. For example, the name of
420-434: The I.T.A., with the main pronunciation of each letter indicated by symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet beneath: Note that "d" is made more distinctively different from "b" than is usual in standard typefaces. Later a 45th symbol was added to accommodate accent variation, a form of diaphonemic writing. In the original set, a "hook a" or "two-storey a" (a) was used for the vowel in "cat" ( lexical set TRAP), and
450-493: The IPA, are the remaining coronal affricates: Any of these notations can be used to distinguish an affricate from a sequence of a stop plus a fricative, which is contrastive in languages such as Polish. However, in languages where there is no such distinction, such as English or Turkish, a simple sequence of letters is commonly used, with no overt indication that they form an affricate. In other phonetic transcription systems, such as
480-702: The UK and US. Later versions were published in French ( French : Lecture en Couleurs ) and Spanish ( Spanish : Letras en Color ). Words in Colour is a synthetic phonics system that uses colour to indicate the phonetic properties of letters. The system has been adapted for the use of deaf children, and for dyslexic children. Words in Colour was one of a number of colour assisted schemes, being followed by Colour Story Reading, Colour Phonics System and English Colour Code. This article relating to education
510-421: The backwards "z" letter is "zess". A special typeface was created for the I.T.A., whose characters were all lower case (its letter forms were based on Didone types such as Monotype Modern and Century Schoolbook ). Where capital letters are used in standard spelling, the I.T.A. simply used larger versions of the same lower-case characters. The following chart shows the letters of the 44-character version of
540-625: The corresponding stop consonants , [p] and [k] , are common or virtually universal. Also less common are alveolar affricates where the fricative release is lateral , such as the [t͡ɬ] sound found in Nahuatl and Navajo . Some other Athabaskan languages , such as Dene Suline , have unaspirated, aspirated, and ejective series of affricates whose release may be dental, alveolar, postalveolar, or lateral: [t̪͡θ] , [t̪͡θʰ] , [t̪͡θʼ] , [t͡s] , [t͡sʰ] , [t͡sʼ] , [t͡ʃ] , [t͡ʃʰ] , [t͡ʃʼ] , [t͡ɬ] , [t͡ɬʰ] , and [t͡ɬʼ] . Affricates are transcribed in
570-516: The fourth being in Montreal in 1967. Any advantage of the I.T.A. in making it easier for children to learn to read English was often offset by some children not being able to effectively transfer their I.T.A.-reading skills to reading standard English orthography, or being generally confused by having to deal with two alphabets in their early years of reading. Certain alternative methods (such as associating sounds with colours, so that for example when
600-463: The letter "c" writes a [k] sound it would be coloured with the same colour as the letter "k", but when "c" writes an [s] sound it could be coloured like "s", as in Words in Colour and Colour Story Reading ) were found to have some of the advantages of the I.T.A. without most of the disadvantages. Though the I.T.A. was not originally intended to dictate one particular approach to teaching reading, it
630-502: The release of the affricate with a superscript: This is derived from the IPA convention of indicating other releases with a superscript. However, this convention is more typically used for a fricated release that is too brief to be considered a true affricate. Though they are no longer standard IPA, ligatures are available in Unicode for the sibilant affricates, which remain in common use: Approved for Unicode in 2024, per request from
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#1732793022175660-407: The stop–fricative sequence /t.ʃ/ (found across syllable boundaries) can be observed by minimal pairs such as the following: In some accents of English, the /t/ in 'worst shin' debuccalizes to a glottal stop before /ʃ/ . Stop–fricatives can be distinguished acoustically from affricates by the rise time of the frication noise, which is shorter for affricates. In the case of coronals,
690-687: The symbols ⟨ t, d ⟩ are normally used for the stop portion of the affricate regardless of place. For example, ⟨ t͡ʂ ⟩ is commonly seen for ⟨ ʈ͡ʂ ⟩. The exemplar languages are ones that have been reported to have these sounds, but in several cases, they may need confirmation. Mandarin j ( pinyin ) Polish ć , ci Serbo-Croatian ć /ћ Thai จ Vietnamese ch The Northwest Caucasian languages Abkhaz and Ubykh both contrast sibilant affricates at four places of articulation: alveolar, postalveolar, alveolo-palatal and retroflex. They also distinguish voiceless, voiced, and ejective affricates at each of these. When
720-514: The symbols for the palatal stops, ⟨ c ⟩ and ⟨ ɟ ⟩, for example in the IPA Handbook . In some languages, affricates contrast phonemically with stop–fricative sequences: The exact phonetic difference varies between languages. In stop–fricative sequences, the stop has a release burst before the fricative starts; but in affricates, the fricative element is the release. Phonologically, stop–fricative sequences may have
750-530: The term suffricate for such contours. Awngi has 2 suffricates /s͡t/ and /ʃ͡t/ according to some analyses. Symbols to the right in a cell are voiced , to the left are voiceless . Shaded areas denote articulations judged impossible. Legend: unrounded • rounded Words in Colour Words in Colour is an approach to literacy invented by Caleb Gattegno . Words in Colour first appeared in 1962, published simultaneously in
780-469: The two-letter digraphs "wh", "sh", and "ch" of conventional writing, and also ligatures for most of the long vowels . There are two distinct ligatures for the voiced and unvoiced "th" sounds in English, and a special merged letter for "ng" resembling ŋ with a loop. There is a variant of the "r" to end syllables, which is silent in non-rhotic accents like Received Pronunciation but not in rhotic accents like General American and Scots English (this
810-502: The use of special symbols. Affricate An affricate is a consonant that begins as a stop and releases as a fricative , generally with the same place of articulation (most often coronal ). It is often difficult to decide if a stop and fricative form a single phoneme or a consonant pair. English has two affricate phonemes, /t͜ʃ/ and /d͜ʒ/ , often spelled ch and j , respectively. The English sounds spelled "ch" and "j" ( broadly transcribed as [t͡ʃ] and [d͡ʒ] in
840-519: Was no separate I.T.A. symbol for the English unstressed schwa sound [ə] , and schwa was written with the same letters used to write full vowel sounds. There were also several different ways of writing unstressed [ɪ] / [i] and consonants palatalized to [tʃ] , [dʒ] , [ʃ] , [ʒ] by suffixes. Consonants written by double letters or "ck", "tch" etc. sequences in standard spelling were written with multiple symbols in I.T.A. The I.T.A. symbol set includes joined letters ( typographical ligatures ) to replace
870-427: Was often identified with phonics methods, and after the 1960s, the pendulum of educational theory swung away from phonics. The ITA was very rarely used by the 1970s. The I.T.A. remains of interest in discussions about possible reforms of English spelling . There have been attempts to apply the I.T.A. using only characters which can be found on the typewriter keyboard or in the basic ASCII character set , to avoid
900-427: Was the 44th symbol added to the I.T.A.). There are two English sounds which each have more than one I.T.A. letter whose main function is to write them. So whether the sound [k] is written with the letters "c" or "k" in I.T.A. depends on the way the sound is written in standard English spelling, as also whether the sound [z] is written with the ordinary "z" letter or with a special backwards "z" letter (which replaces
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