Keth wrote:

> A thing I noticed was that MI seems to pronounce the "d" as
> it occurs orthographically in Icelandic words, as the sound that
> we call a "t". Also some b's get changed to p's. But apparently
> not always. (maybe at the beginning of words?) But perhaps this
> is only like a "gliding towards"? Later..

That's because the orthographic <b> <d> <g> (lenis stops) are
pronounced _unvoiced_ in Icelandic; in English, they're pronounced
voiced, while <p> <t> <c/k> are pronounced unvoiced and aspirated.
Icelandic only makes a distinction through aspiration, not voice.
French, and other Romance languages, only makes distinction through
voice, and do not have aspiration. <g> is pronounced "softer" (to use
an untechnical term) in various in-word positions, corresponding to
the relationship between <ð> and <d> (in fact, one could replace all
<ð> with <d> and still have perfect comprehensibility).

> Okay - it is modern Icelandic, just a short piece of prose.
> Under each line there is a phonetic transcription.
> It says it is IPA. But the problem is how to write it
> in ascii. That is where you could help, since Oskar has
> already chosen an ascii representation of IPA. But I don't
> know how to relate the IPA in the book to Oskar's system,
> though many symbols no doubt agree - e.g. the book's small upper

case I

> would in Óskar's system probably be large capital I.
> But he also uses things like a small "n" with a tail on it's
> leg (call it "n-tail"). I suppose that would be an "ng" (nasal)
> Then he also uses a Greek gamma. Maybe we could write things
> like /g ("/" = escape char, like in TeX) for gamma.
> There is also an "ñ" (n-with wavy line above it, but I don't
> know if you can see it)

Right, I'll just try to supply you with a list of the SAMPA versions
of the IPA characters you have there (or that is, those that occur in
Icelandic):

SAMPA IPA character

: : (lengthening marker)
A script a
E eta
I capital i
i i
O inverted c
u u
Y capital y
9 oe ligature

p^h p with h superscript
t^h t with h superscript
c^h c with h superscript
k^h k with h superscript
p p
t t
c c
k k
v v (or u psilon)
D ð
z z
j j
G gamma
f f
T theta
s s
C ç, c-cedilla
x chi
h h
l l
m m
n n
N n with longer right foot (ng before g, k)
J n with longer left foot (ñ in señor)
r r
^0 empty circle added to a symbol (to indicate devoicing)



There, now you have all the standard sounds of Modern Icelandic. Now
bring on that transcription :)

Óskar