[bradrn]

> I wasn’t really aware of the IPA, is this mostly used for teaching purposes when learning a new language?

It’s mostly used for linguistic purposes — most often in grammatical descriptions of obscure languages, or for precisely specifying the pronunciation of a word (e.g. in my dialect ‘mutable’, say, is [mjʉːtˢə̆bu]). But I believe it gets used in language learning as well.

[Bud]

It's also used for training singers. For instance, in grad school, I taught Singers' Diction in various languages. Being able to transcribe any given text into IPA, and then of course pronounce it accurately, is a core skill for classical singers. The usual languages covered are English, German, Italian, and French, those being the most important for classical music. Interestingly, the language that a lot of native English speakers have the most trouble with is...English! You'd be surprised.

[tasogare]

> most often in grammatical descriptions of obscure languages

No, it's used everywhere in phonology, for every language.

I started a project like that (also to train myself using web components), except it listed the phonemes of a given language, selectable to the user. I should complete it one day...

[bradrn]

> No, it's used everywhere in phonology, for every language.

Sure, of course, but I was thinking mostly of those grammars (usually Sino-Tibetan ones, for some reason) which use IPA throughout instead of a romanisation. (I suppose that by now I’m just so used to IPA being used for phonologies that I don’t even think about it.)

> I started a project like that (also to train myself using web components), except it listed the phonemes of a given language, selectable to the user. I should complete it one day...

So like PHOIBLE? (https://phoible.org/)

[40four]

Thanks, I’ll have to read about this more. That makes sense, gives you system to precisely describe particular pronunciations I guess. TIL :)

[cjhveal]

Really, with a [u] at the end? That's really interesting, do you mind me asking what dialect you speak?

[bradrn]

I’ve never been quite sure about my accent, but it’s probably closest to Australian English. The relevant sound change is /l/-vocalisation: syllable-final [ɫ] → [w] with accompanying vowel changes, and syllabic [ɫ̩] → [u]. So I have e.g. pool [puːw], wall [woːw], adult [ˈʔæɾʊwtˢ], peel [piːw ~ ˈpiju], apple [ˈʔæpʰu], middle [ˈmɪɾu].

[cjhveal]

Very interesting. After asking I wondered if there could have been some kind of velar connection but L-vocalization makes sense. Appreciate the in depth explanation with lots of examples from your idiolect.