Some languages' writing systems do not provide enough information about the pronunciation of words or have a significant number of words/word forms where it is not provided. To provide the information about the pronunciation to children or adult learners, these languages use additional scripts or a modified script, written next/above/below/before/after the main text.
Phonetic guides are used when the intended audience may not have mastered reading without them - language education texts for children, foreigners or dialect speakers; when the correct pronunciation is considered very important - religious texts, some poetry, dictionaries for disambiguation purposes. It can be used when certain words are known to be difficult - geographical or personal names or when the pronunciation is counter-intuitive.
Some major languages with difficult writing systems and the most common phonetic guides used (the International Phonetic Alphabet may of course be used for any language):
- Arabic - Harak تكات), also known as Tashkīl (تشكيل) - vowel marks.
- Chinese - Pinyin (汉语拼音) (mainland China), Zhuyin Fuhao (注音符号) (Taiwan) (also called Bopomofo ㄅㄆㄇㄈ). Cantonese may use a number of romanizations for the same purpose but this is not standardized.
- English - uses a number of respelling systems or transcriptions.
- Hebrew - Niqqud, also known as Nekudot (נִקּוּד) - vowel marks.
- Japanese - Furigana (振り仮名) (usually written as small Hiragana (平仮名,) above or next to the main text)
Subcategories
This category has the following 2 subcategories, out of 2 total.
N
- Niqqud (12 P, 2 F)
R
- Ruby characters (7 P)
Pages in category "Phonetic guides"
The following 13 pages are in this category, out of 13 total. This list may not reflect recent changes.