Do anybody know what this phonetic symbols represent?

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santimarti

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Hi


I´m Spanish and I´m trying to learn some English.
My doubt is about phonetics, I´ve found some interesting rules on a book but I don´t understand the meaning of the symbols.

The books says:
1.- After /s/, /z/, /č/, /š/, /ž/ and /j/ (also with the inverted hat on the j), the suffix is pronounced as /ǝz/. Examples:
Judges, Rose´s, rushes

2.- After all other voiced sounds, the suffix is pronounced as /z/. Examples:
Dogs, toys, John´s, Jay´s, runs, cries

3.- After all other voiceless sounds, the suffix is pronounced as /s/. Examples:
cats, Mark´s, walks

My problem is that I don´t know which sounds represent the symbols on the first rule. I know the phonetic alphabet, and I know what is a voiced and voiceless sound but the symbols I know to express that are the ones that you can find on the sticky thread on the "pronunciation and phonetics" section of the forum.

I think that the rule I found in that book is interesting, and I´d like to ask in this forum if anybody knows the meaning these symbols.

Thank you very much!
 

5jj

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/č/ - /ʧ/

/š/ -/ʃ/
/ž/- /ʒ/

with the inverted hat on the j -/ʤ/
 

santimarti

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Oh, thanks!!!!

And do you know what is the name of that alphabet or that kind of representation of the phonetic sounds?.

I mean, if I find other letters with a hat I´d like to know where to look.
 
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č = ʧ (as in chat, chair, arch)
š = sʃ (as in she, shoot, ash)
ž = ʒ (as in mirage, pleasure, leisure)
j with inverted hat = ʤ (jump, join, bridge)

Was the book Czech, Slovakian or Slovenian by any chance? ;)
 

santimarti

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santimarti

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santimarti

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I searched for the complete list of symbols, I found the equivalence between the American Phonetic Alphabet and the International Phonetic Alphabet:

Pronunciation respelling for English - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The only thing that I don´t understand now is that if that´s the alphabet, Why don´t it have the same symbol for the j?.

I mean, you answered that question and that alphabet looks extremely similar, but with that letter there is a difference, Why?.

I apologize for asking this, sorry.:oops:
 

5jj

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When trained phoneticians write a narrow transcription, they use the fairly strictly defined IPA system. It does not matter what their nationality, all phoneticians will transcribe in exactly the same way.

However, most grammar books, dictionaries, teaching materials and teachers use phonemic, not phonetic symbols, and there is no universal agreement on what the symbols represent. As we have seen, most British writers use /ʧ/ for church, /ʃ/ for ship, /ʤ/ for judge, /ʒ/ for pleasure and /j/ for yet. Some Americans use /č/, /š/, /ĵ/, /ž/ and /y/. Others use different symbols. Even though most British writers use /e/ for dress, the 9th edition of the Concise Oxford Dictionary uses/ɛ/. So, you simply have to look at symbols used by each writer. Sometimes they explain why they have chosen a particular symbol. Most British writers use /e/, because e is the letter of the alphabet that is often used in writing to represent that sound. The phonetics editor of the COD preferred /ɛ/ because the sound represented by that is closer to the IPA cardinal vowel [ɛ] than it is to the cardinal vowel [e].
 

santimarti

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A really interesting post, thank you.

Unfortunately I see that maybe on every book I find a different symbol which is going to make things a little more difficult, even more.:-D
 
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