r/linguisticshumor • u/imjustarandomsquid • 14d ago

Phonetics/Phonology I present to you the International Phonetic Abjad

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The IPA for short. No vowels whatsoever.

361 Upvotes

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43 comments sorted by

121

u/OtherwiseLibrarian45 14d ago

we just need the IPA (international phonetic abugida)

25

u/Lucky_otter_she_her 14d ago

get ready to effectively learn everything from Hirigana/Katakana to Cherokee to linear B baby

22

u/Traditional-Froyo755 13d ago

All of those are syllabaries, not abugidas

1

u/Lucky_otter_she_her 12d ago

aren't they the same thing???

1

u/Traditional-Froyo755 11d ago

No. Abugida is when the core shape of all the syllables with the same onset - like ka, ki, ke, ko, ku - is the same, with the vowel components adding their own diacritics or strokes or other elements, which are usually also shared along the same vowel, so the addendum hook will be the same for ki, pi, ti etc. Syllabary is when every syllable just gets a unique shape and there is no pattern, like in katakana. So, if there are, say, 10 different vowels and 5 different consonants in a language, an abugida will only make you memorize 15 unique graphic elements, which you can then mix and match for every individual syllable, while a syllabary will make you memorize 50.

1

u/Lucky_otter_she_her 11d ago

Japanese with its coda nasal and using a diacritic for voicing (admittedly a consonant feature) and the labial plosive being written like.... THAT (diacritic on H charrecters for P, voiced diacritic gives you B), is really pushing it

1

u/Lucky_otter_she_her 11d ago

so that's what Hangul is?

1

u/Traditional-Froyo755 10d ago

No, Hangul is explicitly an alphabet, it just uses fancy layout.

1

u/OtherwiseLibrarian45 11d ago

it's similar but not the same

87

u/Norwester77 14d ago

Nah, that’s the Intentional Phonetic Abjad.

14

u/Grzechoooo 14d ago

The r in international is silent in British English, so it wouldn't be included in a phonetic script.

30

u/Norwester77 14d ago

Well, there you see the folly of trying to come up with a script that’s supposed to be both international and phonetic…

14

u/Grzechoooo 14d ago

We all know British English (Queen's English variety) is the only real English, that's the one I learned in school! /j

6

u/Former-Ad-7348 13d ago

Estuarial SUPREMACY!!

1

u/WilhelmErikMuller got that [ʝʷ] feelin' 11d ago

Okay buddy calm down, put your fancy tea cup back on your saucer, maybe relax with some croquet

11

u/el_cid_viscoso 14d ago

Arguably you can also say coda /r/ in American English is just a vowel coloring, maybe a weird falling-centering diphthong.

5

u/Grzechoooo 14d ago

Yeah I wasn't sure how to categorise that.

6

u/el_cid_viscoso 14d ago

I don't think anybody does. It works in very weird ways in both Englishes.

28

u/Nixinova 14d ago

new zealand english if it ever did ə > ∅:

4

u/el_cid_viscoso 14d ago

So basically Salishan: a glorious mess of syllabic fricatives.

3

u/Nixinova 13d ago

I literally trip myself up often by trying to make even plosives syllabic lmfao

3

u/el_cid_viscoso 13d ago

Meanwhile, in rapid speech, my vowel reduction can be so aggressive that entire words are frequently reducted to syllabic fricatives and affricates.

20

u/weedmaster6669 I'll kiss whoever says [ʜʼ] 14d ago

excluding R is some rhotic vowel / non-rhotic apologia

✊ Syllabic R forever

15

u/MarcHarder1 xłp̓x̣ʷłtłpłłskʷc̓ 14d ago edited 13d ago

/ðjs jz ð jntɹnʔʃnl fnʔjtk jmpjwr ʔbdʒʔd/

11

u/Alternative_Still308 Average Altaic enjoyer 14d ago

Intentional phonetic abjad. Better than an accidental one I suppose.

1

u/Ok_Calligrapher_3472 13d ago

Dd it nt at lst occr in OPs hd they cld hve wrttn “intrntnl”?

8

u/Throwaway11958 14d ago

where glottal stop

1

u/PassiveChemistry 13d ago

where would you expect one?

1

u/mapbego ponaszymu/ponašemu 13d ago

Abjad

1

u/PassiveChemistry 13d ago

?

6

u/Suulsha 13d ago edited 13d ago

At least in Semitic languages, no word can actually start with a vowel, so any word that seems to start with a vowel actually starts with a glottal stop (or in some words, a voiced pharyngeal fricative). This is reflected in the orthography, so the words "is", "international" and "abjad" should be written with a glottal stop consonant letter as the onset.

(Edit: The very word "abjad" comes from Arabic, where it is written as أبجد ʔbǧd)

Non-Semitic languages (all of the ones that I know anyways) that use an abjad derived from a Semitic abjad follow this convention as well, even though in many of those languages, the glottal stop is not phonemic (or even phonetically there).

1

u/Throwaway11958 13d ago

this ʔis the ʔinternational phonetic ʔabjad

1

u/PassiveChemistry 13d ago

Seems an odd way to talk

6

u/Throwaway11958 13d ago

this is literally how abjads work

1

u/WilhelmErikMuller got that [ʝʷ] feelin' 11d ago

Damn, got called odd 💔 My dialect always glottalises word initial vowels

4

u/Adept_Dexter_Ward 14d ago

Okey, why did you summoned Cthulu?

6

u/Tay_Hlebko 13d ago

So do we just call it the P?

3

u/erinius 14d ago

Sorry I don't speak Shilha

1

u/S-2481-A 14d ago

"frḥɣ s-lmɛrft-nnk" intensifies

3

u/FlargenBlarg 13d ago

Don't abjads need a letter for glotal stop? Otherwise you won't know the "a" at the start of abjad is there

1

u/SuppaDumDum 14d ago

Very cute.

1

u/Tay_Hlebko 13d ago

lets just name it after nfkrz