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THE LINGUISTICS STUDENT’S HANDBOOK 134
Table 21.1 Some important changes to IPA practice
Symbol Previous use Current use
b new symbol voiced bilabial trill
l new symbol voiced velar lateral
� new symbol voiced velar approximant (for
which [γ] had to be used
earlier)
ʇ voiceless dental click replaced by [ǀ]
ʗ voiceless alveolar click replaced by [!]
ʖ voiceless alveolar lateral click replaced by [�]
ɼ voiced alveolar fricative trill no longer used
ι near-close front no longer used, only [i]
unrounded vowel recognised for this vowel
� near-close back rounded no longer used, only [υ]
vowel recognised for this vowel
ə any central vowel between specifically a mid-central
[�] and [ɐ] unrounded vowel
ɘ new symbol close-mid central unrounded
vowel
ɵ any central rounded vowel close-mid central rounded
vowel
� any central vowel open-mid central unrounded
vowel
� new symbol open-mid central rounded
vowel
Non-IPA practice
Because the IPA alphabet tends to use symbols with values that they have in
many national Roman-alphabet spelling systems (for example, the use of the
symbol [s]), many non-IPA transcription systems are partly compatible with
the IPA. This is both a blessing and a problem: it is a blessing because you do
not have to reinterpret everything you read; it is a problem because it may not
be clear at first whether or not an IPA system is being used for transcription.
It is not my purpose here to reproduce the Dania system for Danish dialectological
work, Sapir’s system for the transcription of native American languages
or Ellis’s forerunner of the IPA. People who wish to read these in detail
will need to work out the details or find expositions of the details of the individual
systems being used. Nevertheless, certain generalisations can be made.
Where consonants are concerned, there are so many alternatives that they
are set out in table 21.2. While there are many correspondences here, note in
particular the use of the symbol for IPA [j], something which is so widespread
that the IPA has on a number of occasions considered permitting it
within its own system.