On Sat, 16 Aug 2003 16:38:56 +0000, Richard Wordingham
<richard.wordingham@...> wrote:

>--- In phoNet@yahoogroups.com, Miguel Carrasquer <mcv@w...> wrote:
>> The note to the vowel chart says:
>> "Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a
>> rounded vowel"). This means that schwa has been changed from
>> "mid unrounded" to "mid". [8] has been changed from "mid rounded"
>> to "half-close rounded", to match the new symbol [&*], while its
>> old position has been usurped by [&].
>>
>> In (phonological) practice, this means that you can now use /&/ to
>> denote any mid-central vowel, even if its main allophone is rounded
>> (French, Dutch).
>
>You mean that's the last defence deferring to the IPA. I don't
>think you could sensibly use [U] for an unrounded vowel - or does
>that happen with Japanese?

I don't know if Japanese has a centralized or lax version of its /u/ (which
is unrounded). It has an unvoiced allophone, of course.

I think there's a couple of symbols missing from the IPA vowel chart:
barred smallcap I [lower-high central unrounded], barred smallcap U
[lower-high central rounded], and smallcap/script W [lower-high back
unrounded]. There's also no symbol for the rounded counterpart of [æ]
(which is the first part of the Dutch diphthong <ui>). I don't know if
there's any need for a rounded counterpart of turned a...

All positions are covered in Bloch and Trager's system (1942):

front central back
unround rounded unround rounded unround rounded
high i ü i- u' ï u
lower-high I Ü I- U' Ï U
higher-mid e ö e' o' ë o
mean-mid E Ö E' O' Ë O
lower-mid 3 )" 3' )' 3" )
higher-low æ w" æ' w' æ" w
low a Ä a' A' ä A

(where 3 is actually epsilon, O is capital omega, ) is open-o, w is omega,
A is turned script a, i- is barred-i, and the diacrtitics are dot-above
(for central [except barred-i]) and double-dot above [diaeresis] (for front
rounded _and_ back unrounded)). No-one will ever need that many symbols.


=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...