ONE chart for sounds produced by MANY humans ???

[j4mes_bond25]

Is there a limit to the number of sounds a human voice can make? With that being asked can a phonic chart of characters be made to represent every sound a person can make?

I know some foreign people will pronounce an English word very differently or otherwise in a way that it can be mistaken for another word or not be known what was said. Is there a phonic symbol type language that can basically eliminate dialects and accents by being super specific about what sound one is expected to make?

[Tdol]

Given that there are many limtations on the human voice, like sound frequency, then there must be limits, though these could be broken down into infinitely smaller gradations.

[HotWombat]

Have a look at http://www.british-blc.com/academy2/...c%20chart.html which lists 44 words together with their phonemic symbol. The chart also highlights the portion of each word that relates to the symbol. You can also listen to the pronunciation of the word together with the portion of the word that relates to the symbol.

The Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary uses these phonemic symbols to indicate pronunciation. The dictionary also differentiates between British English and North American English. The dictionary further lists three additional symbols for the following sounds: 'y' as in 'many'; 'u' as in 'actual' and 'o' as in 'go'. For an audio rendition of these three words you could try Mirriam-Webster Online.

So, adding the British Language Centre's forty four sounds to Oxford's additional 3 sounds, you have a total of forty seven sounds.

I am no expert, but apart from intonations, I would suggest that if one were to learn the correct pronunciation of the 47 words depicted, one would have the basic building blocks to pronounce any word in the English language.

[BobK]

Originally Posted by j4mes_bond25

Is there a limit to the number of sounds a human voice can make? With that being asked can a phonic chart of characters be made to represent every sound a person can make?

The English-only charts are more useful in the present context, but if you want the whole story
http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/IPA/IPA_chart_(C)2005.pdf addresses speech sounds more generally.

b