Adding phonemic & phonetic transcriptions

[Tommy Ting]

I'm working on an oral language. Since I'm looking into the phonectics & phonology at the present stage of documentation, I would like to add phonemic & phonetic transcriptions to every entries. Inside Set up Writing Systems, should I add these two transcriptions as Vernacular Writing Systems or Analysis Writing Systems? And should I add it as Lexeme Form or Citation Form? Thanks!

[Jeff Shrum]

Tommy,

 

It is very typical to have an orthographic (phonemic) and phonetic writing system for the vernacular.  Once you created the two writing systems for the vernacular they will be available in all of the same fields.  In fact if there is not yet a phonemic writing system, the method of developing one is to record everything phonetically, then use Phonology Assistant to develop a an orthography based on the phonetic data then use bulk editing to convert the phonetic transcriptions to phonemic and copy them to the phonemic writing systems.  I have copied the section from Help in Flex concerning making an phonetic (IPA) writing system.

 

 

Define a phonetic writing system

In FieldWorks, you can define orthographic, phonetic, and phonemic writing systems for the vernacular language, if needed. Before you can type IPA characters, you need to define a phonetic writing system that is set to use an IPA keyboard.

Prerequisites:

• Before you add the phonetic writing system:
• Define the orthographic writing system, if it is not already defined.
• Download and setup the IPA keyboard, if you do not already have one.

Add a phonetic writing system

1. Do one of the following:
• On the Writing Systems tab of the FieldWorks Project Properties dialog box, select the orthographic writing system, click Add, and then click Writing System for.

For example, select Sena, click Add, and then click Writing System for Sena.

• In the Writing System Properties dialog box, click Add, and then click Writing System for.
1. Click the General tab of the Writing System Properties dialog box.
2. In the Abbreviation box, edit the text to distinguish the orthographic and phonetic abbreviations.

For example, replace Sen with SenI (example).

4. In the Variant name list, select Phonetic.

The Variant abbreviation box displays fonipa-x-etic.

The writing system code appears as Internal Code at the lower right. For example, seh-fonipa-x-etic.

The writing system name appears in the Writing Systems list at the left. For example, Sena (Phonetic).

5. Verify or modify properties on the other tabs of the Writing System Properties dialog box, such as selected font and keyboard.

 Tip

• http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?&item_id=UniIPAKeyboard&highlight=IPA has a list of IPA keyboards (Keyman, MSKLC, FreeKey, and others), and documentation you can download.
• Documentation is usually installed on your computer's hard drive when you download a keyboard. The documentation includes keyboard layout charts and more. Examples to look for on your computer:
• IPA Unicode 5.1 (ver 1.2) KMN.pdf used with Keyman.
• IPA Unicode 5.1 (ver 1.2) MSK.pdf for use with Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creators.

Related Topics

Add button

Defining a New Writing System overview

Select pronunciation writing systems

Writing Systems overview

Links to LinguaLinks Books (if installed)

About hyperlinks

What are IPA symbols?

What is phonetic writing?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jeff Shrum

SIL International

Language Technology Consultant

Dallas, TX USA

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[Mayank Jain]

Dear Jeff,

I have a similar query regarding setting up writing systems for vernacular language. The details are as follows:

The vernacular language 'Toto' does not has any written text therefore it does not have its own script. The FLEx project created for it has two vernacular writing systems.

The first vernacular writing system defined is IPA, in the General tab Writing System Properties dialog box of IPA, Phonetic is selected In the Variant name list. A suitable font and keyboard were selected.

The second vernacular writing system is Bengali, which is the state language. To define Bengali writing system, on the 'Writing Systems' tab of the FieldWorks Project Properties dialog box, I clicked 'Add' and selected 'Writing System for Toto'. Then, in the General tab of the Writing System Properties dialog box, I selected 'Bengali' in Script name list. The abbreviation is TotB. A suitable font and keyboard were selected.

My query regarding vernacular writing systems are as follows: Is it OK to select 'Phonetic' in the Variant Name list? Can we also select 'International Phonetic Alphabet' in the Variant Name list? What is difference between International Phonetic Alphabet and Phonetic in the Variant name list? Can we first define Phonetic writing system before selecting orthographic writing system or we should first define orthographic writing system then phonetic writing system? Can we add writing systems for vernacular language?

A related query is which of these writing systems will be primary? Can we make any of these writing system primary (I think the writing system which is at the top of the list is the primary)?

I have also a query about writing systems in Texts & Words, In the baseline of Interlinear Texts, can we select primary vernacular system as Bengali, if yes, can we do morphemic analysis using Bengali writing system as primary writing system?

Mayank