Phonemic chart

Hi, great debate here.

Yes, the sample sounds need to be greatly improved. It would also be useful to have a video of someone pronouncing the sounds. (There used to be one, but it wasn't very good. The pronunciation of the schwa, particularly, was incorrect.)

Also, this chart doesn't include the sound of the intervocalic 't' that in standard US English occurs before an unstressed vowel (as in 'waiting'). I know that this is a British chart, but the vast majority of students in the world have more exposure to standard US English than standard British English. What harm could it do to mention this very common variation?

However, phonemic charts in general aren't very useful, partly because most dictionaries publish different versions anyway, but mainly because the majority of the symbols are based on English sound-symbol correlations - which are, of course, different to the sound-symbol correlations in other languages. (For example, when my Spanish speakers see the symbol /d/ in a phonemic chart, they don't pronounce the sound of the English 'd', they pronounce the sound of the Spanish 'd', which is much closer to the 'th' in 'then' than the 'd' in 'den'.) In other words, the IPA is great for native English speakers trying to learn the pronunciation of foreign languages; not so great for people trying to learn the English language. But I guess we're stuck with it.

BTW: Can anyone explain to me why the schwa is classified as a vowel sound? Unlike consonant sounds (which are produced through contact or friction between parts of the mouth), vowel sounds are produced through movement of parts of the mouth (jaw, lips, tongue). But the schwa is pronounced without any movement at all, so can we really consider it a vowel sound? 

Because it's such an important sound (the key to authentic pronunciation and successful listening comprehension), and doesn't even exist in many languages, I'd put it in a separate category of its own (together with the 'long' schwa), with a note explaining that although all languages have vowels and consonants, in English we have a third type of sound called a 'schwa'. (Speaking of which, why do you use the /3:/ symbol for the 'long' schwa? Surely it's simpler to just put a colon after the schwa symbol, as many dictionaries do.)

I'd also reclassify /j/ and /w/ as vowel sounds, but that's a whole other debate!

Cheers,

David

Hello, I hope this is not too obvious a question but why is the "ue" in Tuesday not a phoneme yet the "ai" in pain, for example, is?

Thanks!

Can i know how to download phonemic chart thru samsung note2?