In a Lingua Franca post a few weeks ago, I needed to use the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) to represent the different pronunciations of the English word People still talk about speech sounds ...

Standing in front of the cashier in the take-out line, you tell them your name so you can pick up that pizza you called in 20 minutes ago. The confused cashier tells you, “Hmm, I don’t have an order ...

Dive into the fascinating world of language with this humorous take on the International Phonetic Alphabet. Watch as confusion transforms into clarity through clever animation, playful satire, and ...

Every writing system represents speech a little differently, and no system is completely faithful to how words are actually pronounced. For over a century, the International Phonetic Alphabet has ...

The build-up of troops on the Russia-Ukraine border has revitalised Nato, the military alliance that looked to be faltering, or even in a terminal decline, only a few months ago. With 30 countries ...

Backers of a universal alphabet say it will make pronunciation easy and foster international understanding. But can phonetic spelling systems really smooth the path to world peace? You are in Vietnam ...

D as in "Dora" — or "David"? The Nazis had eliminated Jewish names from the German spelling alphabet. The names are to return, at least symbolically. It is a common situation during a phone call: the ...