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0Yesterday, I spent the entire day studying the phonetic alphabet system. It all started because I couldn't pronounce a word correctly, so I looked up its phonetic transcription and tried to follow along. However, I came across a symbol that I wasn't familiar with, so I decided to research how to pronounce it. To my surprise, I couldn't find the pronunciation for that particular symbol, and I also noticed that different sources provided different phonetic transcriptions for the same word.
This got me thinking about which phonetic alphabet system I was using and what the differences were between multiple systems.
After conducting some research, I finally gained a better understanding of the phonetic alphabet system. Let me explain it in more detail.
Firstly, the phonetic alphabet system consists of two parts: the symbol system and the pronunciation system.
IPA, which stands for the International Phonetic Alphabet, defines a wide range of symbols and their corresponding pronunciations. It aims to provide a standardized notation for representing the sounds of languages around the world.
Initially, the DJ system was developed to represent British English and it borrowed some symbols from IPA, while also having its own pronunciation system. Later, Cambridge made improvements by adding notations for American English pronunciation, and since then, DJ phonetic transcriptions have become the preferred choice in major dictionaries.
KK, on the other hand, is used to represent American English. It also borrows symbols from IPA and has its own pronunciation system. However, it is not widely used worldwide and is rarely used in the United States. In the past, KK was used in Taiwan.
Another important point to note is that the DJ phonetic transcription for American English can vary slightly between different dictionaries. This is the reason why I encountered different transcriptions for the same word in different dictionaries.
Once you understand these subtle differences, it becomes easier to differentiate and read phonetic transcriptions.
Lastly, here's a fun fact. In China, the DJ phonetic transcription system is widely used in textbooks, but it is an older version that doesn't include the updated American English pronunciation. Interestingly, most of the accompanying audio materials are based on American English pronunciation, so you could say there's a bit of an educational "glitch" there.
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音标系统
昨天一天都在研究音标系统，起因是因为有一个单词不会读，然后去看音标跟读，结果发现其中一个音标陌生，于是去查了一下其如何发音。结果却没有查到此音标的发音，并且发现这个单词，在几个地方我查询出来音标都不同。
于是我就想弄清楚，自己到底在使用哪个音标系统，还有多个音标系统其区别是什么。
经过一番研究，总算是明了了，对音标系统也有了一个大致的认识，下面就细说一下。
首先，音标系统是两部分组成，符号系统和发音系统。
IPA 全称是International Phonetic Alphabet，其定义了非常多符号，以及发音。致力于用于世界各国字母形式文字的标注。
DJ 开始是标注英式英语的，其借鉴了 IPA 的部分符号系统，自己有一套发音系统。后来被剑桥改进后，添加了美式发音标注，随后便成为各大字典的首选音标。
KK 是标注美式英语的，其也是借鉴了 IPA 符号，有自己的发音。目前世界使用范围并不广泛，美国基本没有人使用，早期台湾使用的是 KK 系统。
还有一个重点就是，DJ 音标美式英语的符号系统，不同字典会有些细微的差别。这就是我一开始遇到的问题，为什么一个单词不同的字典音标不同。
只要搞清楚，这些细微的差别在哪，就比较好去区分和看音标了。
最后，还有一个小彩蛋，挺有意思的。国内教材统一使用的是 DJ 音标，此版本比较老并没有更新美式发音。然而我们配套的语音教材基本上都是美式发音，也算是发现了教育上的一个 BUG 吧。
