"Writing pronunciation" in Business Spotlight

The first Business Spotlight issue in 2008 has brought a change in the way pronunciation is written, or transcribed. The Czech transcription has been replaced by the international transcription, which is based on the IPA (IPA stands for International Phonetic Alphabet). The IPA is the system of choice in almost all English textbooks.

We believe that the only one disadvantage of the IPA - it is a bit less convenient because it uses some new symbols - is balanced by the fact that the IPA is more explicit about the way English sounds are really pronounced. And to be honest, the new symbols are relatively transparent, and there are not too may of them.

Let us therefore look at all the English sounds and how they are transcribed in the IPA. You can click on the IPA symbols to listen to a few examples.

SIMPLE VOWELS

		easy, peak, see		Most of the new symbols belong to vowels.
		enough, tip
		extra, step
		act, pack
		other, cut
		after, task, spa
		office, stock		You can hear how for example the "short" and "long" o-vowels are quite different.
		awsome, sport, law		That's why we use different symbols for them.
		put
		spoon, too
		alone, industry, teacher
		early, girl, fur
		paper		In most American accents, the end of paper has a "r" sound - it is rhotic. For simplification, we transcribe it as shown here.
		early, girl, fur		Also these sounds are rhotic in most American accents.

COMPLEX VOWELS - DIPHTHONGS

		late, night, boy		Diphthongs are basically combinations of their two components, so we present them in groups.
		town, show		In American English, the vowel in show sounds different.
		clear, hair, poor
		clear, hair		In American English, these vowels are again rhotic.

CONSONANTS

1) Some of the symbols for consonants are used in the Roman alphabet:

   [p] (as at the beginning of paper), [b] (basket), [t] (table), [d] (desk), [k] (coin) and [g] (gain).

   [f] (far), [v] (video), [s] (see), [z] (zero) and [h] (head).

   [m] (make), [n] (north), [r] (rose), [l] (late), [j] (yellow) and [w] (water).

2) Some of the non-Roman symbols have been used in the Czech transcription, too. You can listen to these sounds:

		think
		this
		morning, singing		Notice that there is no "k" or "g" behind this sound.

3) Only two consonant symbols are completely new:

		shoe		This symbol replaces the Czech [š].
		measure		This symbol replaces the Czech [ž].

 And from these two we derive the symbols for the Czech [č] and [dž]:

		chair
		journey

If you have any questions concerning the new transcription system in Business Spotlight, do not hesitate to contact us.

Radek Skarnitzl
editor-in-chief of Business Spotlight

radek.skarnitzl@economia.cz