This is interesting to me, at least. It looks like they trialled this in poorer areas of the country, so mostly I see Lancashire in the article, but also Plymouth; possibly places where kids wouldn't be expected to have access to books at home?

I went to school at a very early age, to a day-boarding school. They taught ITA and normal English together, I think, at least, I could read normal English, but I thought in ITA and still do.

If you ask me to spell something, I spell it in my head in the phonetic alphabet (ah, bu, ker, der, eh, pff, ger) and I have a mostly instinctive translation mechanism that translates it to normal English style before I speak it; except when I have to actually think about the spelling, and split my brain, then it comes out phonetically, I have to experiment with the spelling in phonetics before I can convert - I just can't think in normal English.

I am not sure it messed me up much. I have learned to spell, but some words don't make sense to me (which is just English), and some I am stubborn about.

I also collect ITA books now, the first one I got after 50 years or so, I realised I could read perfectly. I'd never thought about what happened to ITA, maybe I was lucky that I used both and wasn't suddenly hit with a whole new reading language; but I do wonder where it went, and when I stopped using it.

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/jul/06/1960s-schools-experiment-created-new-alphabet-thousands-children-unable-to-spell

#English #Writing #Education #ITA #Pittman #Phonetics #Schools #UK #GB #Lancashire #Poor #Kids #Language

Fascinating. I had never even heard of this (but maybe I was lucky to be a little younger)]

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/jul/06/1960s-schools-experiment-created-new-alphabet-thousands-children-unable-to-spell

#Experiments #Reading #Alphabets #Phonetics

The Danish #copula, and its variation in pronunciation, is the topic of my chapter in "Grammar in Action". Danish copulas may be reduced to the point of not being there, and I show that they can be used for assessments. Stressed copulas, which are not reduced, are used for either contrasts with something previous or for (re)asserting something already stated in the conversation - both often happen as part of assessment activities in some way. #phonetics

https://doi.org/10.1075/slsi.37.10sor

@UnicodeWatch

Interesting to see letters like :Dania_LongI:, :Phonotypic_ith:, and :Phonotypic_oi: proposed for inclusion in Unicode! :Unicode:

#EnglishPhonotypicAlphabet #PhonotypicAlphabet #Phonotypic #Dania #Phonetic #Phonetics #PhoneticTranscription #Unicode

Language questions...

https://blog.taursnd.haus/display/1a041b09-4368-52ce-748d-6c4591422838

🇫🇷
Left: A novel in French.

Right: The same novel without the letters that aren’t pronounced in French.
#languages #french #france #literature #fun #humor #humour #phonetics #jazykysveta

🆕 Congratulations to Quintino Lopes, whose paper about Armando de Lacerda and the Coimbra Phonetics Laboratory (co-authored with Francisco de Lacerda and Ana Simões) was the winner of the 2025 edition of the A. H. de Oliveira Marques Prize for Portuguese History! 🥳

👉 Full story: https://ihc.fcsh.unl.pt/en/quintino-lopes-aholiveira-marques-prize/

@histodons
@histodon

#Histodons #PortugueseHistory #HistoryOfScience #HistoryfTechnology #Phonetics #Awards #ASPSH #AcademicLife #HistóriaDePortugal #HistóriaDaCiência #HistóriaDaTecnologia

I'm looking for an editorial published in a speech science journal that was mentioned to me in passing as an example of an early-ish attempt to popularise #OpenScience in #linguistics or at least in #phonetics. Does that ring any bells? 🔍 🕵️‍♂️

@yvanspijk
Relatedly, the initial “w” is still retained in many (perhaps most) English speakers' pronunciation of e.g. “wren”, “write”, “writ”, “wrap”, in spite of those vowels being unrounded.

#phonetics #EnglishLanguage

@yvanspijk

I'd maintain that “who”, “whom” and “whose” certainly DIDN'T lose the initial “W element”. It's still there, as the lips are rounded and the tongue dorsum is raised even before, and while, the [h] is sounded in these words.

Speech doesn't work like alphabetic writing.

#linguistics #phonetics #EnglishLanguage

In addition to the audio files that I got out of this, I've been finding the Wikipedia pages on Swedish phenology to be a helpful supplement:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA/Swedish

While it's useful to hear people simply pronounce words with a native accent, reading descriptions of the exact phonetic features of the sounds helps me hear the spoken examples better

#Swedish #IPA #Language #Linguistics #Phonetics

Please boost, this is for a kid! (Potentially long post)

I am teaching a well spoken 10 year old kid on how to read and write, he's been struggling with it for a while now evidently.

The kid knows his phonics in a way that he would be able to recall the letter in requirement in response to being given a sound but struggles to come up with the letter for the spelling of words by himself.

He eventually gets the spellings for the words correct after lots of guidance, but it takes more help than is available in the real world. He would regularly spell a completely different word if given a word to spell out, for eg: he loves to spell out "t h a t" when given "t h e y" or "t h e r e" (when given the whole world and not its phonic explosion. He would also give me letters for a spelling for which no sound has been uttered by me (which would suggest that he needs to work on his phonics but when he pays attention it shows that he has his phonics right to the core when asked questions such as "what letter makes the ***given*** sound?"))

I've completed the various sounds that the alphabets make by themselves and when used with "h", for example how "phone" starts with the sound of "f" because of the use of "h" with "p". And that has certainly helped him attempt to come up with the spellings. I've been working on sight words as of right now and am hoping to start dictating whole sentences for him to write (he does this already with his parents and I've done so atleast once with him).

There is some signs of attention deficiency in his evaluations but nothing as concrete as to diagnose him with ADD or ADHD has come up yet. In short he hasn't yet been diagnosed with anything so far.

I'm wondering what proactive steps i could take to help this kid as a first time tutor, feel free to ask me any questions about him.

Tags: #edutooters @edutooters #education #literacy #boost #reading #writing #phonics #phonetics #psychology #specialneeds

@rl_dane @dm @sotolf @mirabilos

Deutsch and Nederlands NL are cousins.

Just try to say goedemorgen in NL DuckDuckGo for the phonetics if you are interested.

#Language #Deutsch #Nederlands #phonetics