Phonosymbolic

In articulatory phonetics the term phonosymbolic refers to an alphabet whose symbols conventionally describe the phonoarticulatory phenomena necessary to the production of the phones they represent. The term phonosymbolic, used in this sense, appears for the first time in the book Fonic - Un alfabeto fonoanalogico e fonosimbolico[1], in which the Fonic alphabet and its phonoanalogic structure are illustrated and explained.

Description

A writing system is said to have a phonosymbolic structure, when its symbols conventionally describe the parameters of phonic production, i.e. for example the shape of the lips (relaxed or rounded) or the air outlet channel (oral or nasal). The phonosymbolic representation can be useful to describe the parameters of the phonic production in an extremely precise way.

History

An attempt at phonosymbolic representation was that of Otto Jespersen, co-founder of the International Phonetic Association together with Paul Passy. The alphabet he created was structural phonetic, like that of the IPA[2]. The representation of the phones was phonosymbolic and was based on groups of alphanumeric symbols, but for this very complex and in practice unusable. The structure of the Fonic alphabet, on the other hand, is phonoanalogic, but implements some phonosymbolic traits, to conventionally describe those articulatory phenomena that are too complex to represent in an analogical way.

Notes

  1. ^ Andrea Vaccari, Fonic - Un alfabeto fonoanalogico e fonosimbolico, Amazon Publishing, 2018, ISBN 9781730703010.
  2. ^ Otto Jespersen, Articulation of Speech Sounds Represented by Means of Analphabetic Symbols, N. G. Elwert Verlag, Marburg, 1889.

Bibliography