Help talk:IPA/Czech and Slovak
transcription changes
Currently, this page offers too narrow a transcription convention. There are a number of things we should do to modify it
- Use <o> for both long and short o. It looks like the vowel is actually mid to close-mid, and we might as well use the typographically easiest letter (this is how it's done with Spanish, Greek, and Hebrew).
- Remove the diacritics for the diphthongs so that they are either [ou], [ɛu] and [au] or [ow], [ɛw] and [aw]. I'm leaning towards the former but if Czech makes contrasts between e.g. Cau and Ca.u, then the latter is better.
- organize the symbols in alphabetical order like they are done in the other IPA for X pages. This also includes not separating sonorants and consonants into different tables.
- remove the voiceless version of the fricative trill since it's an allophone and requires additional diacritics that we needn't require editors to use.
- note somehow that /oː/. /f/, /g/, and the two voiced affricates appear mostly/only in foreign loanwords.
- Then we can create {{IPA-cs}} and start using this page. — Ƶ§œš¹ [aɪm ˈfɻɛ̃ⁿdˡi] 18:28, 14 October 2008 (UTC)
- FWIW, I don't know whether you can find true minimal pairs, but there are certainly Czech words where adjacent vowels do not form a diphthong, e.g., použít [ˈpɔ.uʒiːt], nauka [ˈna.uka], neustále [ˈnɛ.ustaːlɛ]. These can be also pronounced with an intervening glottal stop, e.g., [ˈpɔʔuʒiːt]. — Emil J. 12:44, 15 October 2008 (UTC)
- All right. That's reason enough to use w rather than u. — Ƶ§œš¹ [aɪm ˈfɻɛ̃ⁿdˡi] 07:23, 16 October 2008 (UTC)
- FWIW, I don't know whether you can find true minimal pairs, but there are certainly Czech words where adjacent vowels do not form a diphthong, e.g., použít [ˈpɔ.uʒiːt], nauka [ˈna.uka], neustále [ˈnɛ.ustaːlɛ]. These can be also pronounced with an intervening glottal stop, e.g., [ˈpɔʔuʒiːt]. — Emil J. 12:44, 15 October 2008 (UTC)