Re: PTD was the most-respected of the AUE regulars ...

On Fri, 26 Jul 2024, Antonio Marques wrote:

Date: Fri, 26 Jul 2024 16:10:44
From: Antonio Marques <no_email@invalid.invalid>
Newsgroups: sci.lang, alt.usage.english
Subject: Re: PTD was the most-respected of the AUE regulars ...
 
Stefan Ram <ram@zedat.fu-berlin.de> wrote:

Antonio Marques <no_email@invalid.invalid> wrote or quoted:

Stefan Ram <ram@zedat.fu-berlin.de> wrote:

ˈɹʷʊˑuɿ ᵊɹ̩
and this guy was like, "I don't think that 'u' is stressed!".

(Sorry, but I can't make sense either of the characters you wrote above

 
  Here's the whole shebang in ASCII:
 
MODIFIER LETTER VERTICAL LINE - meaning the next syllable is stressed
LATIN SMALL LETTER TURNED R - to me that a bunched American r
MODIFIER LETTER SMALL W - that r is rounded! (because it's initial)
LATIN SMALL LETTER UPSILON - open "u"
MODIFIER LETTER HALF TRIANGULAR COLON - that open "u" is half-lenghtened
LATIN SMALL LETTER U - a [u]
LATIN SMALL LETTER REVERSED R WITH FISHHOOK - American "t" of "router"
SPACE - I used it to end the syllable, similar to how Wells uses it
MODIFIER LETTER SMALL SCHWA - meaning some speakers insert a schwa here
LATIN SMALL LETTER TURNED R - another bunched American r
COMBINING VERTICAL LINE BELOW - which is syllabic

 
So you were trying to do a 'fully' precise transcription of _router_ in
(some dialect of) american, is that it? Then the characters weren't
garbled, I simply had no idea of the context (it's very rare that one would
not write that inside [] in sci.lang).

I am very skeptical about "fully precise" transcriptions. In every
language I know, the range of pronunciations that native speakers produce
and that other native speakers perceive as distinct and free from dialect
is much broader than a fully precise transcription would specify. The only
thing one could describe that way – if at all feasible which I doubt – is
the idiolect of a single person; perhaps also a dialect forced on
newsreaders in a single country where any personal or regional accent is
strictly forbidden for newsreaders.

  . The "IPA" used above ain't your nana's brew - it's more
  like a souped-up Wells model with some Canepari flair and my
  own secret sauce thrown in. But hey, that "half-long" symbol?
  That's straight-up textbook IPA, no bells and whistles!

 
It's half a long marker, which we usually write : for in here.

Yes, that its shape; and its meaning is to mark medium length of the vowel.

I think it is seldom used. I have used it for a language where the word
stress is primarily realised by slightly lengthening the vowel in a way
that it gets longer than an unstressed vowel but not so long as it would
in another language where vowel length is phonemic irrespective of stress.

Example:

[safaɾi] : indicates neither stress nor length because both are regular
[saˈfaɾi] : indicates only stress without telling how it is realised
[safaˑɾi] : indicates only length but not syllable structure
[saˈfaˑɾi] : indicates stress and how it is realised

Depends on what the readers already know.

I am not an expert, maybe that IPA usage is wrong.

--
Helmut Richter