This is just uncanny... Not even 5 minutes before I read this article, I was walking home from work pondering the pronunciation key in dictionaries. The train of thought that led me TO this subject was different, (a medical pronunciation that I looked up yesterday), but the thoughts that I had were very close to the ones I just read.
I thought to myself "The pronunciation guide is all well and good if you understand it, but I can't recall any of my English teachers going into very much depth about how to READ the things; only the very basics. I can only imagine how people of other languages must see it."
How often does this happen to other people? You're thinking of something, then a short time after, you see several sources talking about very nearly the same exact thing? It seems like it's happening more and more recently. I suppose it could just be me; like how when you buy a new car or phone or something of that nature, you suddenly notice them a lot more when you see other people with them. I'm reminded of the part in Ender's Game where Peter and Val are talking about their clever sayings showing up in public shortly after saying them. (Not likely the case here unless OSC reads my thoughts AND has a time machine... though he IS a Sci-Fi writer... hmmmm)
Posted by Launchywiggin (Member # 9116) on :
They do call it the "international" phonetic alphabet, and it's apparently more common according to my old German teacher.
I had to learn it for diction class as a singer.
Life is full of coincidences and deja vues. I usually treat them as wonderful little glimpses of our dormant psychic abilities. I'm hoping we're not far off from ESP and psychokinetic powers, maybe 100 years of evolution.
Posted by Jon Boy (Member # 4284) on :
But the pronunciation guides used in most dictionaries are not the same thing as the International Phonetic Alphabet. The only dictionary that I know of that uses that is the Oxford English Dictionary.
I had the same problem as OSC until I reached college: I didn't know what the supposed difference was between the sounds in mop, law, and father. I had no problem figuring out the rest of the pronunciation key from the given examples, but in my dialect (and the dialect of a great many Americans, actually) those particular sounds are all the same.
Posted by Sala (Member # 8980) on :
I teach fourth grade and had just been working on dictionary skills lessons, including the pronunciation guide, when I decided to take a break and saw the article. Coincidence IS amazing, isn't it!