From: hanzl@noel.feld.cvut.cz To: John Wells Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2000 19:39:41 +0200 Subject: Czech SAMPA Dear professor Wells, You probably remember an extensive discussion about Czech SAMPA which started in summer 1999. As a result result of this discussion there is a final proposal which seems to be generally acceptable (attached at the end of this message). Prof. Palkova, the authority in Czech phonetics, found the proposal to be correct from her viewpoint. The author of the original proposal (Mr. Batusek) found all the changes acceptable. The proposal was also accepted and used by laboratories creating the Czech SPEECHDAT database and other large databases (which would in fact enforce it as a de-facto standard). It was also included in several publications. At this point I would be very glad to have also your decisive opinion. The final proposal was designed with great care for the overall all-language SAMPA desing, so its inclusion should be smooth and free of conflicts. Main differences from the old proposal (and probably most interesting points for you) are as follows: - final proposal prefers international symbols where available (and gives up questionable similarity with Czech orthography), e.g.: c J\ J instead of old t' d' n' - makes Czech SAMPA uniquely parsable even without spaces: t_s d_z t_S d_Z instead of old ts dz tS dZ - proposes new symbols for voiced fricative trill (r with caron) which is unique for Czech: instead of many variants proposed, use P\ and possibly for the voiceless allophone Q\ This is the point which I think really needs your approval. However symbols "\P" and "\Q" are free now, there is no clash. On the other hand, every other solution proposed for SAMPA coding of the Czech fricative trill was blatantly phonetically misleading and/or in conflict with global symbol meanings. Allocation of new symbols really seems to be the only solution. (The other global change would be addition of suffix /_j/ to list of those reserved for diphthongs and affricates (currently the list contains: _s _S _z _Z _p _b _i _u _y) - I think this is minor and there is also no clash.) Dear professor Wells, I hope you will find time to review the final proposal and if possible make it the official Czech SAMPA definition. (I can help with creating the replacement web pages if you like.) With the Best Regards Vaclav Hanzl ------------------------------------------------------------------- FINAL CZECH SAMPA PROPOSAL ------------------------------------------------------------------- The Czech orthography (second column) is represented like this: ^ after u indicates ring accent (krouzek) ^ after other characters indicates wedge accent (caron, hacek) / after character indicates acute accent (carka) Vowels: ------- i mys^ miS mouse e les les forest a pas pas passport o rok rok year u kus kus piece i: pi/t pi:t to drink e: le/k le:k drug a: ra/d ra:t glad o: mo/da mo:da fashion u: pu^l pu:l half diphthongs: o_u mouka mo_uka flour a_u auto a_uto car Consonants: ----------- plosives: p pes pes dog b bota bota shoe t tam tam there d du/m du:m house c tito cito these J\ de^d J\et grandfather k krk kr=k neck g kde gde where affricates: t_s ci/l t_si:l aim d_z leckdy led_zgdi at times t_S c^as t_Sas time d_Z dz^ba/n d_Zba:n jug fricatives: f forma forma form v vak vak bag s sen sen dream z zub zup tooth P\ r^a/d P\a:t order S s^aty Sati clothes Z z^al Zal regret j jas jas brightness x chata xata cottage h\ had h\at snake liquids: r ret ret lip l led let ice nasals: m ma/k ma:k poppy n noc not_s night N banka baNka bank J nic Jit_s nothing ============================================================== The symbols describel below are not required in the Czech SAMPA transcription. It is however likely that those interested in more detailed transcription would define and use their own symbols for the phenomena mentioned below, so we rather define a common symbols here: 1) syllabic versions of consonants (thought the sound is the same): l= vlk vl=k wolf m= osm osm= eight r= krk kr=k neck 2) additional allophones: PHONE ALLOPHONE OF ORTOGRAPHY TRANSCRIPTION MEANING F m tramvaj traFvaj tram G x abych byl abiGbil so as I am Q\ P\ tr^i tQ\i three 3) additional diphthongs: e_u euforie e_uforie euphoria and maybe also diphthongs like /a_j/, /e_j/ etc. ============================================================== Reasoning and explanation can be found in http://noel.feld.cvut.cz/sampa/hanzl4-english.txt and all the discussions are in http://noel.feld.cvut.cz/sampa (Final emails are missing there but are summarised in this email.)