People on the various #YouTube channels I follow haven't settled on a pronunciation for the last syllable of the Strait of Hormuz. Many say /hɔːrˈmuːz/ (final vowel like 'boo'), but others prefer /hɔːrˈmʊz/ (like 'look'), and others still /hɔːrˈməʊz/¹ ('no').

[1] Really? I go from the vowel in 'bo͝ok' to the one in 'gō' by sticking a schwa in front of the upsilon? That's what the ipachart·app site says, but it seems off to me. #IPA #phonetic

When communicating on noisy #radio channels I use a #phonetic spelling alphabet. My #hamradio #FCC call sign W9GYR is spoken "Whiskey Niner Golf Yankee Romeo" (ICAO / NATO / ITU 1950s-today)

My grandfather would have said "William Nine George Young Robert" (Western Union 1918 / ARRL 1932-1946)

For commercial radio traffic "Washington Nine Gallipoli Yokohama Roma" (ITU 1932-1947)

There are over 200 alphabets that were used historically, or in different languages.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_phonetic_alphabet

Random Wikipedia #criticism (rant?)...

One of the things that bugs me about (English) #Wikipedia is how aspects of it are controlled by, for lack of a better word, #pedants, without consideration of the actual #readers - without considering the purpose of an encyclopedia.

One example of this is how, when an article features aspects of another language or dialect - for instance, something from Old English, or Arabic - where the reader will not be familiar with how to pronounce something presented transliterated to a modern Latin/English alphabet, or with a word shown in a non-Latin script entirely.

It used to be common in reference works to give a simple #pronunciation key that was at least close to the correct pronunciation, but was easily understood by a normal literate reader. You know; the stuff that looked like "ED-joo-KAY-shun" or "SHEH-joo-ull" or whatever.

Well, that's not good enough for Wikipedia most of the time. Instead, they give the pronunciation in International #Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), so you get stuff like "æɪ" and "aʊ" and "/ɔː/".

These are absolutely more #accurate guides to how a word should sound. And they are absolutely, completely #useless and #uninformative to 99% of people reading the article.

You know who already knows and is completely comfortable reading #IPA?

#Linguists. Students of language.

You know, the people who *already know* how to #pronounce the words. The people who don't actually need it.

#FFS.

#pedant #unhelpful #rant

I got my first #tattoo!
It's the #phonetic #transcription of *how* my #toddler said *his* #firstWord.

#firstTattoo #IPA