The phonetic language is one that adheres to the rules of pronunciation. It is considered phonetic if the pronunciation (phonemes) is correlated with the written form (graphemes).
English is not a phonetic language because of how words tend to be pronounced so strangely. For example, the word "Oedipus" (Oedipus in Spanish) is pronounced "ee-di-puss" instead of "oed-puss."
In the European Union, today, 4 languages are offered in the school: English, Spanish, German and French. Spanish is perhaps the most phonetic of them.
It is labeled "easy language" and students from France or Germany have a tendency to study Spanish as a second foreign language, since most words sound the way they are written.
The International Phonetic Alphabet
The military and the aviation industry use an English phonetic alphabet that has many other uses, such as identifying time zones.
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is one of the most popular and well-known phonetic alphabets. It was originally created by English language teachers, with later efforts by European phonetic experts and linguists.
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)
Photo recovered from: fsxalasdevenezuela.blogspot.com.
It has changed from its earlier intention as a tool of foreign language pedagogy to a practical alphabet of linguists. It is currently becoming the most viewed alphabet in the field of phonetics.
In the English alphabet the letters represent sounds. In the Chinese alphabet, however, its symbols represent ideas rather than sounds.
But even in English, a letter doesn't always represent the same sound; The "a" in cat (cat), dad (father) and mate (partner), for example, represents three different sounds.
Because of this, word books often use specially created phonetic alphabets in which each symbol represents a single sound to represent pronunciations.
Phonetic spelling
Phonetic spelling is the representation of vowel sounds that express pronunciations of words. It is a spelling system in which each letter invariably represents the same spoken sound.
Some schools may use phonetic pronunciations to help children learn the spelling of difficult words, for example, Wednesday = Wed Nes Day.
Phonetic spelling is an alteration of ordinary spelling that better represents spoken language, uses only characters from the regular alphabet, and is used in a conventional spelling context.
A phonetic spelling is a writing system where there is a one-to-one relationship between graphemes (the written form) and phonemes (the spoken form).
Phonetic transcription
An approximate pronunciation is offered using the Spanish alphabet and then the pronunciation according to the International Phonetic Alphabet.
Photo recovered from: guioteca.com.
Phonetic transcription is the visual representation of the sounds of speech. The most common type of phonetic transcription uses a phonetic alphabet, such as the International Phonetic Alphabet
The pronunciation of words in many languages, unlike their written form (spelling), has undergone a significant change over time.
Pronunciation can also vary greatly between dialects of a language. The standard spelling in some languages is often irregular, making it difficult to predict the pronunciation of the spelling.
References
- Womack, T (1957). "Is English a phonetic language?". Elementary English. Vol. 34, No. 6, pp. 386-388.
- Kumar, R. (2015). "What is a phonetic language". Recovered from quora.com.
- Editorial team of Reverso Dictionary. (2017). "Phonetic". Recovered from dictionary.reverso.net.
- Antimoon editor team. (2009). “Is Spanish the most phonetic language”. Recovered from antimoon.com.
- Dictionary editor team. (2015). "What is phonetic spelling?" Recovered from blog.dictionary.com.
- Shakir, M. (2007). “English is not a Phonetic Language”. Recovered from linguisticslearner.blogspot.com.
- Merriam-Webster Editorial Team. (2017). "Phonetic". Recovered from merriam-webster.com.