Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
The International Phonetic Alphabet is a system of phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin alphabet. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association as a standardized representation of the sounds of spoken language. The IPA is used by lexicographers, foreign language students and teachers, linguists, speech-language pathologists, singers, actors, constructed language creators, and translators.
This edition of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" is written entirely in that same alphabet, with fonts specially designed by Michael Everson. The transcription reflects the standard, regionally-neutral form of spoken British English known as "Received Pronunciation". Granted that most linguists agree that not much more than 4% of the population of Britain speak it today, RP was nevertheless traditionally based on educated speech in southern England; it is still widely taught and dictionaries for native speakers and learners of English still make use of it in their transcriptions.
Because this is a novel, and meant to be read, it was decided to retain some orthographic features which are not normally kept in phonetic transcription: punctuation, italicization, and capitalization. Carroll's punctuation has been retained with the exception of the apostrophe marking the genitive (because "Duchess's voice" just looked wrong as "'D?t??s'?z v??s"). ----
?i? ??nt?'na??nl F??'net?k 'Alf?b?t ?z ? 's?st?m ?v f??'net?k n??'te???n be?st 'pra?m?r?l? ?n ?? 'Lat?n 'alf?b?t. ?t w?z d?'va?zd ba? ?i? ??nt?'na??nl F??'net?k ??s??s?'e???n az ? 'stand?da?zd ?repr?zen'te???n ?v ?? sa?ndz ?v 'sp??k?n 'la?gw?d?. ?? 'A? 'Pi? 'E? ?z ju?zd ba? ?leks?'k?gr?f?z, 'f?r?n 'la?gw?d? 'stju?d?nts, ?nd 'ti?t??z, 'l??gw?sts, spi?t? ?n 'la?gw?d? p?'??l?d??sts, 's???z, 'akt?z, k?n'str?kt?d 'la?gw?d? kri?'e?t?z, ?nd trans'le?t?z.
??s ?'d???n ?v "'Al?s?z ?d'vent??z ?n 'W?nd??land" pr?'zents ?? tekst ?n ?n ??nt?'na??nl F??'net?k 'Alf?b?t trans'kr?p??n. ?? trans'kr?p??n r?'flekts ?? 'stand?d 'ri?d??nli 'nju?tr?l f??m ?v 'sp??k?n 'Br?t?? '??gl?? n??n az "R?'si?vd Pr??n?ns?'e???n". ?r??nt?d ?at m??st 'l??gw?sts ?'gri? ?at n?t m?t? m?? ?an 4% ?v ?? ?p?pj?'le???n ?v 'Br?t?n spi?k ?t t?'de?, '?? 'Pi? w?z ?nev???'les tr?'d??n?l? be?st ?n 'edju?ke?t?d spi?t? ?n 's???n '??gl?nd; ?t ?z st?l 'wa?dli t??t ?nd 'd?k??nr?z f? 'ne?t?v 'spi?k?z ?nd 'l??n?z ?v '??gl?? st?l me?k ju?s ?v ?t ?n ?e? trans'kr?p??nz.
B?'k?z ??s ?z ? 'n?v?l, ?nd ment t? bi? red, ?t w?z d?'sa?d?d t? r?'te?n s?m ?????'graf?k 'fi?t??z w?t? ?? n?t 'n??m?li kept ?n f??'net?k trans'kr?p??n: ?p??ktj?'e???n, ?'tal?sa?'ze???n, ?nd k??p?t?la?'ze???n. 'Kar?lz ?p??ktj?'e???n haz be?n r?'te?nd w?? ?i? ?k'sep??n ?v ?i? ?'p?str?f? 'm??k?? ?? 'd?en?t?v (b?'k?z "Duchess's voice" d??st l?kt r?? az "'D?t??s'?z v??s").
