Essay talk:Screw IPA

I would feel more comfortable if ye moved this to userpsace. Thanx. 23:01, 20 June 2011 (UTC) C®ackeЯ

{EC} Have you tried Greene King IPA? It embodies all that is best about British beer, with its clean, fresh, hoppy taste and distinctive tawny colour. And it might make you a little less angry perhaps. ωεαşεζøίɗ^{Methinks it is a Weasel} 23:03, 20 June 2011 (UTC)

I don't know. India Pale Ale is one of the only beers I won't drink (it is too goddamn hoppy) so I will echo-by-proxy Mr. Thunderkatz statement: Screw IPA! Aboriginal Noise ^{Theist, barely hanging by a nail} 23:20, 20 June 2011 (UTC)

There is no "Icelandic IPA" or "Polish IPA" etc. - it's all the same international phonetic alphabet with the same characters in it being pronounced the same way. The point of having IPA charts on Wikipedia for different languages (like this one) is to give relevant examples so that editors have some guidance on how to transliterate words from these languages into IPA, since different languages use the same letters differently and some include characters or accents not seen in English. Notice that such charts are in WP project space: they're a reference for editors. WP's mainspace entry on IPA has a full chart including examples from many languages, since some of these sounds are non-existent in English, and sound samples. ΨΣΔξΣΓΩΙÐ^{Methinks it is a Weasel} 00:12, 21 June 2011 (UTC)

Simple English Wikipedia doesn't bother with IPA. They have Eyjafjallajökull as "Ei-ya-fyat-LA-yer-kitle". Pronunciation key here. Wëäŝëïöïď^{Methinks it is a Weasel} 00:37, 21 June 2011 (UTC)

And their system makes intuitive sense. I'm totally wrong about the Icelandic thing (Did Not Do the Research), but the points about IPA being overly-complex to the point of unreadable just gets further proven by SEWP. I don't get why WP itself can't use something more like that. Thunderkatz^Ho! 01:00, 21 June 2011 (UTC)

Musical notation is also overly-complex to the point of unreadable, for those who haven't studied it, as are mathematical formulae, circuit diagrams and lots of other notational conventions. For those used to reading such things, they are in fact about the most comprehensive and unambiguous ways of transcribing the things they represent. Same goes for IPA and the pronunciation of words. For the most part, Wikipedia follows scholarly conventions without dumbing them down. It would be more controversial if they didn't use IPA than if they did. Weaseloid^{Methinks it is a Weasel} 07:26, 21 June 2011 (UTC)

And that's because musical notation is built for musicians, and mathematical forumulae are for mathematicians, and circuit diagrams are for electronic engineers. Wikipedia is not for linguists, it's for regular people, who shouldn't be expected to study something just to be able to use it. For the record, my problem isn't with IPA, it's with Wikipedia using IPA. Thunderkatz^Ho! 12:54, 21 June 2011 (UTC)

And yet Wikipedia does also use musical notation, mathematical equations and circuit diagrams. Wëäŝëïöïď^{Methinks it is a Weasel} 17:37, 21 June 2011 (UTC)

The pronunciation Weaseloid gave for Eyjafjallajökull is how an English speaker might say it, the same syllables may not work for speakers of other tongues. Генгис^{Gum disease} 11:46, 21 June 2011 (UTC)

I like Indian pale ales. :( sterile^talk 11:04, 21 June 2011 (UTC)

Ed Poor's stubs make more sense than this essay. P.S. For Polish check out the Slavic Phonetic alphabet. Editor at CP^{mały książe} 12:02, 21 June 2011 (UTC)

Ouch. That hurts. Thunderkatz^Ho! 12:54, 21 June 2011 (UTC)

That was meant as a compliment! Editor at CP^{mały książe} 13:03, 21 June 2011 (UTC)

Well,

it's not that hard once you learn the basic symbols to extrapolate/infer pronunciations even if you don't know all of the most obscure, language-specific symbols. Blue (is useful) 03:14, 23 October 2011 (UTC)

edit con - Just stumbled across this, so likely no one will see my reply to the rant, but --- are you fucking kidding me? you say it's "too complex". Do you know how many sounds humans make when speaking? And that's not even addressing tonal changes. there is simply no way to clearly represent all those sounds without a separate symbol system.GodotTue pour toujours, et tu veux vivre aussi. 03:17, 23 October 2011 (UTC)

"BUT NOT ALL OF THE SYMBOLS ARE FROM THE LATIN ALPHABET! HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO LEARN WHAT THEY MEAN?!? I'm not a linguist, i can't be bothered to take the five minutes to learn something on an encyclopedia. I'm an American, goddamnit — the world revolves around me!" (Note: if Thunderkatz is not an American, they should really consider becoming one). ^{(talk to a)} Nihilist 23:37, 16 April 2013 (UTC)