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inr.net>International Phonetic Association (1999) Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the Use of the International Phonetic Alphabet Cambridge University Press 204 pages Reviewed by Linnea Micciulla, Boston University The Handbook of the International Phonetic Association (hereafter, Handbook) targets a broad readership, ranging from professional phoneticians to non-linguists. It is a multi-purpose tool, including such diverse uses as "a way to show pronunciation in a dictionary, to record a language in linguistic field work, to form the basis of a writing system for a language, or to annotate acoustic and other displays in the analysis of speech" (page 3). The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) was originally adopted for the purpose of facilitating teaching and learning the pronunciation of a language. The Handbook aims to serve as a reference for the IPA, and clearly states its two major goals: 1) it "presents the basics of phonetic analysis so that the principles underlying the Alphabet can be readily understood" and 2) it "exemplifies the use of each of the phonetic symbols comprising the Alphabet." In the Evaluation section of this review, I will discuss both the accessibility of the Handbook to its target audiences, and the extent to which it accomplishes its goals. SYNOPSIS The book is divided into three parts, each of which may be more or less relevant to users with varying degrees of background in phonetics, or who have differing end uses in mind. Part one is an introduction to the IPA chart, written for readers with little or no familiarity with phonetics. Part one is sub-divided into ten sections. The first section begins by explaining briefly why the IPA is needed and what its uses are. The second section continues with an explanation of the theoretical assumptions underlying the IPA Chart. Using examples from both acoustic and articulatory phonetics, it gives a high-level description of the basic divisions of the IPA. The classifications of consonants and vowels and their subsequent placement in the charts are explained row by row, including the significance of shadings and gaps. A sub-section on suprasegmentals discusses IPA transcription for pitch movement and pitch height. The use of diacritics to refine symbols is briefly illustrated, and finally, those symbols that were not included in previous discussions are explained. Throughout Section two, phonetic concepts are introduced along with IPA symbols. The third section, Guide to IPA notation, presents the symbols according to their layout in the chart. It gives one or two examples of each of the symbols, in English and/or French whenever possible. When not possible, another language is used, so that 51 languages exemplify the entire chart. A list of these languages and the families they belong to is given at the end of this section. Section four provides a brief history of the phoneme and the allophone, leading into Section five, which looks at different types of transcription. Section six demonstrates the flexibility of the IPA to accommodate different transcriptions for a single language. Section seven makes some recommendations about the practical issues involved in working with the IPA, ranging from how to refer to symbol that have no agreed upon name, to representing the symbols through handwriting, computers, and Braille. For naming the symbols, the authors recommend the Phonetic Symbol Guide by Pullum and Ladusaw (1996). Various sources for Braille renderings of the IPA are given. Section eight presents the rationale for the Extended IPA, and explains the need for additional symbols that do not form a part of the base IPA chart. Sections nine and ten bring current phonological theory into play, and examine what could be construed as apparent weakness in the system, given the changes in emphasis from segment to feature. Section nine looks at the problem of segmentation, from several angles. In Section ten, it is pointed out that the theory behind the IPA is essentially one of sequential analysis, and not one that considers the variety of domains applicable to current theory. Phonological theory has not had much effect on the IPA chart in the last 100 years, although there have been slight modifications to the Principles of the IPA to account for new theories. Part two consists of "Illustrations" of 29 languages, published in the Journal of the International Phonetic Association between 1989 and 1997. These illustrations account for the bulk of the text (pages 41-156). The illustrations follow a general template for each of the 29 languages, including as a minimum sections devoted to consonants, vowels, stress, conventions, transcription of a passage, and an orthographic version of the passage. With one exception, the same paragraph is translated for all languages, then recorded by a native speaker, and finally transcribed from the recording. Additionally, one or more of the following topics may be addressed: syllabification, tones, dialectical differences, assimilation, suprasegmentals, prosody, geminates, and romanization. Of the 29 languages illustrated, 16 of these are Indo- European, four are Afro-Asiatic, two are Austronesian, three are Altaic (or one, since the classification of Japanese and Korean as Altaic is under debate) two are Sino-Tibetan, one is Niger-Congo and one is Uralic. Part three, Appendices, provides additional information regarding the IPA, including a historical background and steps taken to move forward in a computer-driven age. Part three consists of five appendices. Appendix 1 is "The Principles of the International Phonetic Association" as of 1989. It describes the uses of the IPA and redefines the meaning of the symbols of the IPA to include advances in feature phonology. It mentions the aesthetic aspect of the symbols as well. The emphasis is on representing contrasts that are distinctive within a language. The current principles are actually very similar to the original six principles put forth by the International Phonetic Association in 1888, which also emphasized the use of phonemes rather than allophones, and discouraged the use of diacritics. Appendix 2 deals with the computer coding of IPA symbols. After providing a short history of how the coding came about and giving a rationale for the final selection, charts and tables provide the three digit IPA number assigned to each symbol, along with the UCS and AFII codes. Provisions are made for the development of non-IPA symbols as well, in an effort to be forward- looking and all-inclusive. Appendix 3 presents extensions to the IPA in the form of the ExtIPA Chart. This was developed by the International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association (ICPLA) to use for speech disorders. This set has the advantage of each symbol having a name, in addition to a symbol and a phonetic description. Appendix 4 provides some background information about the International Phonetic Association, including the history of the association, the journal, the alphabet, and current information about membership and contacts. The final appendix provides charts including the symbols and their numerical codes. In addition to the physical text, the International Phonetic Association has recordings of the Illustrations, with links to downloadable files available at: http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/IPA/ipa.html. EVALUATION The Handbook of the International Phonetic Association assumes a daunting task in its effort to assist phoneticians as well as lay people with their comprehension and use of the IPA. In this regard, the presentation of Part one is extremely well planned. The authors of the Handbook begin the introductory sections by laboriously explaining every new linguistic term as it arises, but as the presumed novice reader builds up a lexicon of linguistic terms, fewer words need definitions and the text flows more smoothly. It is written in such a way that a reader who is not initiated in the field of linguistics can read Part one sequentially and develop a basic understanding of the phonetic principles behind the IPA, which is no small feat in less than 40 pages. Readers who are already well-versed in these concepts can go directly to the illustrations in Part two for language-specific information, or refer to Section three of Part one for a quick reference on a symbol. The Handbook's goal to exemplify each of the symbols of the IPA is met in the brief Section three (pages 18-25) of Part one, but only meets with partial success in the Illustrations of Part two. It is unclear what the rationale is for selecting the 29 languages that appear in the Illustrations. Quite probably, they represent the most accessible or instructive illustrations out of those appearing in the Journal. Regardless, if the only purpose of the illustration is to demonstrate the application of the IPA, this could have been accomplished with only one or two languages. The inclusion of 29 languages implies an attempt at diversity, which should create a more varied base of reference materials. However, there are major gaps both from the perspective of language families and IPA symbols. No Dravidian, Bantu, Nilo- Saharan or Caucasian languages are represented in the Illustrations, and notably, all of the indigenous language families of the Americas are missing. From a phonetic point of view, there is no demonstration of clicks or lateral fricatives, and several uvular consonants are omitted. It would add to the completeness and the diversity of the work to illustrate all of the sounds of the IPA, as well as to use a more diverse selection of languages, in Part two. Korean and American English are the only languages providing both a broad and a narrow transcription. The Korean writer provides a Korean phonetic transcription as well. Most of the illustrations do not specify what type of transcription has been used. There is also a great discrepancy between languages regarding the amount of information provided. The Hausa and Irish illustrations, for example, provide information about the languages' current and historic use, detailed explanations of the segments found in their respective inventories, and references for further study. Hausa also includes some information about the style and interpretation of the transcription, which adds to the transcription's value as a model. Portuguese provides a sizable section on prosody. Other languages, such as Swedish, Turkish, Igbo, and Farsi have very little explanatory text, most of which is under the "Conventions" heading. The illustration of American English does an exemplary job of applying the issues brought to light in Part one, particularly those regarding transcription. In American English, Ladefoged presents the consonant and vowel sounds found in a California dialect of English. His data is taken from nine speakers, and illustrates the possible applicability of several different symbols to the same phoneme. This particular illustration is well- suited to the novice user of the IPA. As a guide to the IPA, the Handbook is unique. As compared with its predecessor, "The Principles of the International Phonetic Association" (1949) it shows flexibility in adopting new symbols and adapting the reasoning behind their use to theoretical advances. It provides considerably more information in its Illustrations (referred to as "Specimen" in the 1949 version). However, the Handbook would benefit by including some of the languages from the 1949 Principles; for example, Xhosa satisfies the need to illustrate a language containing clicks in its phonemic inventory, and at the same time provides an illustration of a Bantu language. The stated goals of the Handbook are similar to those of the Phonetic Symbol Guide (1996) in that both works aim to serve as a guide to the IPA. While the Handbook is designed to be read sequentially for general phonetic theory, or used a reference for particular languages, the Phonetic Symbol Guide is organized by symbol. If the Phonetic Symbol Guide plays the role of a dictionary, the Handbook resembles more closely a teaching tool. One disadvantage to the Handbook's format is that looking up individual symbols in is difficult. The first part is organized by principles and the second part by language, but there is no index by symbol. For this reason, these two texts do make good complementary resources. The International Phonetic Association does an outstanding job of presenting a great deal of information in a relatively short book. While there are improvements to be made, it is, in its current state, an exceptional work. What is truly remarkable is the degree to which the Handbook remains faithful to the principles espoused in 1886, while still serving as an invaluable resource, defining the acceptable IPA usage of today. BIBLIOGRAPHY International Phonetic Association (1949, reprinted 1975) Principles of the International Phonetic Association: being a description of the International phonetic alphabet and the manner of using it, illustrated by texts in 51 languages, London: The Association. Pullum, Geoffrey K. and William A. Ladusaw (1996) Phonetic Symbol Guide, University of Chicago Press. About the reviewer Linnea Micciulla is in the Program in Applied Linguistics at Boston University. Her research interests include phonetics, phonology, Optimality Theory, historical linguistics and Algonquian languages.Mail to author|Respond to list|Read more issues|LINGUIST home page|Top of issue