NEW TRANSCRIPTIONAL POLICIES IN THE LATEST ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION DICTIONARIES. A HELP OR HINDRANCE TO THE FOREIGN LEARNER?

Abstract

Up until very recently, Jones’ English Pronouncing Dictionary (EPD) was the undisputed norm with regard to the pronunciation of RP English. This situation began to change with the publication of Wells’ Longman Pronunciation Dictionary (LPD) (1990, 2000), followed soon by Roach & Hartman’s updated version of Jones’ classic pronunciation guide (1997) culminating with the arrival of Upton, Kretzschmar, and Konopka’s Oxford Dictionary of Pronunciation for Current English (ODP) (2001). This commendable diversification of the transcriptional practice has, however, brought about a number of problems for the foreign learner. In this paper I will present the conventions governing the use of the new non-phonemic symbols in the three aforementioned dictionaries. It is argued that, despite their apparent simplicity, the changes introduced affecting high vowels seem to complicate things unnecessarily for the foreign learner, who seems to feel more at ease with a type of transcription where no non-phonemic symbol is used. The casuistry introduced in the representation of high elements followed by a vowel is, on the other hand, a long way from the simplicity principle advocated by Jones.