Phonetic translation for Meerkat?

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aclowes

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Hi,

I seem to be able to find applications online (through various threads on this site) yet I am struggling to find an application that can translate words into the phonetic symbols. Please forgive me if that's a bit of an impossibility but I am trying to make approximations from the phonetic alphabet but I can't be sure that it's correct. In a nutshell, I'm trying to note two pronunciations of the word Meerkat - one correct, one incorrect. I have come up with ‘mɘəkæt’ for the version which was pronounced incorrectly as 'Marecat'. Is this correct?

Many thanks in advance.
 

BobK

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There probably is an [e] sound in Afrikaans (or wherever we borrowed it from*); and probably the second vowel is closer to a pure [a], unheard in any English word and unused in English phonology. In English a meerkat is just a /'mɪəkæt/ .

b

PS *Bingo ;-) OED:
Etymology: < South African Dutch meerkat (Afrikaans meerkat), transferred use of Dutch meerkat a long-tailed monkey of the family Cercopithecidae (see mercat n.).

The forms mier-cat, mier-kat, mierkat reflect the Afrikaans variant mierkat (with the first element altered by folk etymology after Afrikaans mier ant, termite).

(subscription, I'm afraid, so no link)
 

BobK

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PS For an English teacher from England and living in England, you certainly have a way with words ;-).Your last three sentences defy understanding. 'In a nutshell' you're looking for two things, one wrong and one right, but you call this 'trying to note'. Do you want one correctIPA transcription and one incorrect IPA transcription? I wonder why. You propose a transcription and then (correctly) give an incorrect reading. Then you ask if this is correct. I'm lost, though I think the tool Tdol mentions won't do what you want.

If what you want is a tool that takes as input a spelling and produces as output a phonetic transcription, I know of none. I think it's a practical impossibility. If it were theoretically possible, it would be prohibitively expensive. It might be possible to produce something that worked on the level of phonemes, but I don't think it's been done.

b

Hi,

I seem to be able to find applications online (through various threads on this site) yet I am struggling to find an application that can translate words into the phonetic symbols. Please forgive me if that's a bit of an impossibility but I am trying to make approximations from the phonetic alphabet but I can't be sure that it's correct. In a nutshell, I'm trying to note two pronunciations of the word Meerkat - one correct, one incorrect. I have come up with ‘mɘəkæt’ for the version which was pronounced incorrectly as 'Marecat'. Is this correct?

Many thanks in advance.
 

Raymott

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If what you want is a tool that takes as input a spelling and produces as output a phonetic transcription, I know of none. I think it's a practical impossibility. If it were theoretically possible, it would be prohibitively expensive. It might be possible to produce something that worked on the level of phonemes, but I don't think it's been done.

b
Tdol's link does exactly this. It's also free to download.
It doesn't necessarily get the transcription right; but it does take ordinary text as input and outputs a phonetic transcription in IPA.
I look at this application as being a first-pass tool. It will get a lot right and save time, but the transcription must be corrected by a human.
I wouldn't even think of using it to find out how a word is pronounced.
 

BobK

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Hasty skimming - I assumed the link was another. :oops:

b

PS Impressive. It nailed this easy one /ðə kwɪk braʊn fɒks dʒʌmps ˈəʊvə ðə ˈleɪzi dɒɡ/. But I don't expect it to pass a more rigorous examination. ;-)
 
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BobK

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This one's slightly less easy, but it exercises a predictable and limited number of exceptions (not really exceptions when you think about it):

/ðə ˈθɪsl̩z ðət θɔːt ðeɪ ʃəd θwæk ðaɪ θaɪ /​

(I didn't expect it to manage 'thy thigh'.)

b
 

Raymott

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This one's slightly less easy, but it exercises a predictable and limited number of exceptions (not really exceptions when you think about it):

/ðə ˈθɪsl̩z ðət θɔːt ðeɪ ʃəd θwæk ðaɪ θaɪ /​

(I didn't expect it to manage 'thy thigh'.)

b
I imagine that the n most common words are hard coded word by word.
 

Raymott

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I bow to the bowed bough. | aɪ baʊ tu ðə baʊd baʊ |
He has bowed legs | hi həz baʊd leɡz |
Has he bowed legs? | həz hi baʊd leɡz |
Mow the lawn | maʊ ðə lɔːn |
Row your boat | raʊ jə bəʊt | ; These should rhyme. It seems it doesn't handle 'ow' well.


You're here - Your hair. | hɪə <-> jə heə |
Has he? | həz hi |
It also doesn't handle stress variation for words like, 'has', which it gives as /hæz/ as an isolated word, but həz in sentences.


The apple, the book | ði ˈæpl̩ | ðə bʊk | It does handle the two 'the'.


So, it's a mixed bag at the moment, but quite impressive. It should be quite obvious to linguistics teachers if their students handed in an unedited transcription from this.
 

aclowes

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Well, after checking back through the responses that I have received from various members, I must say that I feel quite upset. Is there any need for you to respond in such a critical and offensive way BobK? I'm sorry if I didn't construct my post in a manner that you would have expected. I just wrote it in my way. I do live in England, yes, and have just started a CELTA course which I'm hoping will enable me to LEARN how to teach English to speakers of other languages. Based on your response BobK, maybe I should give up now.

Thanks to the other members who have attempted to answer my query in a kind and helpful way.

I shall change my member type to 'learner' immediately and make a note to look for other forums where people aren't out to ridicule and demean others.

PS For an English teacher from England and living in England, you certainly have a way with words ;-).Your last three sentences defy understanding. 'In a nutshell' you're looking for two things, one wrong and one right, but you call this 'trying to note'. Do you want one correctIPA transcription and one incorrect IPA transcription? I wonder why. You propose a transcription and then (correctly) give an incorrect reading. Then you ask if this is correct. I'm lost, though I think the tool Tdol mentions won't do what you want.

If what you want is a tool that takes as input a spelling and produces as output a phonetic transcription, I know of none. I think it's a practical impossibility. If it were theoretically possible, it would be prohibitively expensive. It might be possible to produce something that worked on the level of phonemes, but I don't think it's been done.

b
 

BobK

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I apologize :oops: Don't give up ;-) I just couldn't make out what you meant and wondered about your status. It's not easy to ask that sort of question diplomatically, and I know I've got a lot to learn in that department.

b
 
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