Why use the IPA?

THE PROBLEM:

Every language has its own unique aspects.

For exampleEnglish has 26 letters to convey the 44 syllable sounds of the English language. Confusion ensues. The vowel sounds alone are enough to leave you bewildered. There are only 5 vowels (6 if you count the occasional “y”) to convey over a dozen vowel sounds.

In the “old days” people spelled English words however they felt liked. The same word could be spelled as many ways as the writer had the imagination to create…in the same document or letter! Old could be spelled oeldoaldaulduld…well you get the idea. The old man walking an oeld dog met an oald woman walking an auld dog. They were all very uld.

Never Trust a Vowel
“Vowels were something else. He didn’t like them and they didn’t like him. There were only five of thembut they seemed to be everywhere. Whyyou could go through twenty words without bumping into some of the shyer consonantsbut it seemed as if you couldn’t tiptoe past a syllable without waking up a vowel. Consonantsyou knew pretty much where you stoodbut you could never trust a vowel.”
(Jerry SpinelliManiac Magee. LittleBrown Books for Young Readers1990)
http://grammar.about.com/od/tz/g/vowelterm.htm

THE SOLUTION:

With the International Phonenic Alphabet IPA you can learn any languagewith clearly defined symbolsno matter how the “real” language is spoken and written.

Imagine you can study any language in the world with a consistentworld recognizedsystem of phonetic symbols that tell you the exact proper way to pronounce the sounds in any language you choose. These sounds are clearly defined for any language. You know exactly how to say itno second guessing or wondering if you’ve got it right this time.

Each IPA symbol has one sound and each language has its own set of symbols necessary for that language.