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IPA vs. APA

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jae
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 Message 1 of 15
26 May 2012 at 9:23pm | IP Logged 
I'm considering pursuing a linguistics minor as an undergrad (and even if I don't end up doing this, I still find the subject interesting), so I was just wondering whether you all think that IPA or APA is more commonly used in linguistic studies. My gut reaction is to think IPA would be more useful to learn since it's more international in scope, but let me know what you all think. (even if it's not all that useful for school, I'd still be interested in learning one, so which one is used more?) Thanks!

Edited by jae on 27 May 2012 at 1:26am

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aldo
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 Message 2 of 15
27 May 2012 at 12:38am | IP Logged 
Actually, APA is more accurate than IPA. The problem is that real linguists have been
forced to transcribe nearly everything into IPA.
You will not be able to learn IPA (in its entirety) on your own--as you won't know the
actual sounds.
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tractor
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 Message 3 of 15
27 May 2012 at 12:57am | IP Logged 
It depends on your syllabus, but it wouldn't surprise me if you have to read some texts with IPA and some texts with
APA and some texts with some annoying deviations from either.
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jae
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 Message 4 of 15
27 May 2012 at 1:43am | IP Logged 
Thanks!
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Keilan
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 Message 5 of 15
27 May 2012 at 4:38am | IP Logged 
I am by no means an expert, but I've done a bit more than a linguistics minor (about 10 courses) including a few where the class consisted only of reading linguistic research papers and have never seen anything using APA.

That being said, when learning IPA most of my books had little subsections explaining the corresponding APA notation and it seemed very similar. So I would suggest you learn IPA and if you need to switch to APA, I doubt you would need more than a reference chart to help you remember the symbols. It's not like you'd have to sink a lot of time into it.
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Hampie
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 Message 6 of 15
27 May 2012 at 5:03am | IP Logged 
You need to know the most common sounds in both. Languages that have a scheme of transcription will use that
and not IPA. Semitic languages will use APA and employ š instead of a long s and ẖ, amerindian languages use l̵,
though the same sound in semitic languages use ś, which in Sanskrit is the same as š is in Semitic languages.

You'll learnt them as you need them, preferably in a language-to-language basis, i.e. no use of learning APA or IPA
for the sole purpose of learning them, it's better to learn the signs of the phonems of a specific language.
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verbalnerd
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 Message 7 of 15
27 May 2012 at 7:35am | IP Logged 
Yeah. If you study linguistics, you'll probably end up having to deal with both. APA is better (IMHO), but IPA is
more common.

Understanding articulatory phonetics, and IPA (which, if a dictionary uses a standard system of phonetic symbols
for its pronunciations, it's likely to be IPA), are bits of language-learning kung fu that I think you'd find quite
helpful even if you don't study linguistics further than that.
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aldo
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 Message 8 of 15
27 May 2012 at 7:37am | IP Logged 
Hampie where did you do linguistics--because that is patently wrong advice. IPA is what
all papers are presented in (all phonology sketches etc are written in IPA--not something
else). APA is more accurate but it lost power after the 80s


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