Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 21:18, 17 July 2005

Pronunciation in Misplaced Pages is indicated using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).

A few articles use SAMPA or X-SAMPA, which is a way of indicating IPA without using the special IPA characters. Some editors prefer SAMPA because it is easier to edit, and doesn't require Unicode fonts. The last objection is largely mitigated by using Template:IPA (see below), which works around broken display of IPA text in Internet Explorer. SAMPA is generally much less familiar to potential readers, and current practice is to replace it with IPA where possible.

Ad-hoc pronunciation guides are discouraged. Forms such as "pro-NUN-see-AY-shun" can be read in different ways by people who speak different international variants of English, or whose first language isn't English. However it may be helpful to add comments such as "rhymes with..." or "stress on the first syllable".

If a language is not normally written using the latin alphabet, an official Romanisation may exist. For example pinyin for Mandarin Chinese or the Royal Thai General System of Transcription. In that case both this romanisation and the IPA rendering may be given.

IPA style

When using IPA provide an explanation, for instance by using Template:IPA notice, or just by linking to one of the articles describing the IPA codes, for instance:

(]: )

Which yields:

(IPA: )

Don't link the IPA text, because the link underlining may make IPA characters difficult to read.

IPA style recommends the use of square brackets around pronunciations. The use of slashes is permitted in cases where the pronunciation represents only phonemes. Slashes should only be used if the distinction between phonemes and phones is important. For example the English word pull would normally be shown in a phonemic transcription as , but if a more detailed phonetic transcription is also included, such as , emphasing the aspirated allophone of /p/ and the "dark" allophone of /l/, then the phonemic transcription could be /pʊl/.

Distinction between British, American and Australian pronunciation

(This is currently being discussed at Talk:International_Phonetic_Alphabet_for_English#Pronunciation_guides_in_Wikipedia_articles.)

Technical issues

Microsoft Internet Explorer for Windows doesn't automatically use a font that contains specialized IPA characters. Passages of IPA text should be placed into Template:IPA, which tells Explorer to choose the correct font. More detailed documentation is at Template talk:IPA.

An example, placing a phonetic rendering of the word characters in Template:IPA:

{{IPA|}}

In your browser:

You should not see a difference between the two, unless you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer on Windows.

See also

• International Phonetic Alphabet

• Misplaced Pages style guidelines