International phonetic Association

L' international phonetic Association (API) is an organization which encourages the scientific study of the Phonétique and the various practical applications of this science. Its principal contribution to the academic community is the International Phonetic Alphabet (which has the same initials), a standardized collection of the symbols for the phonetic transcription of all the languages of the world. Association off publishes a newspaper entitled Journal the International Phonetic Association (Newspaper of international phonetic Association).

History

In 1886 with Paris, an small group of professors of linguistics created an association to promote the use of a phonetic notation in the schools to help the children to more easily acquire the pronunciation of the foreign languages and also to help the elimination of illiteracy of the young children. The group under Paul Passy was called at the beginning Dhi Fonètik Tîcerz' Asóciécon ( FTA ). Into January 1889, the name of association was changed into the phonetic Association of the professors of living languages ( AP ), and into 1897 they adopted the current name, international phonetic Association .

The top of the size and the influence of association in education was roughly in 1914, as there were 1750 members in 40 countries. The First World War and its consequences stopped the activities of the API one severely; they stopped the publication of the Newspaper until in 1922.

Development of the alphabet

The original goal of the group was to create a collection of phonetic symbols which could show all the articulations used by the human languages, therefore each language would have an alphabet which can particularly describe the sounds of this language. Finally they decided that a universal alphabet, with only one symbol for the same sound in the different languages, was the ideal, and the development of the project advanced quickly until the beginning of the 20th century. For this time, there have been several changes in the alphabet, with additions and subtractions indicated by phonetic science.

Examinations

Since 1908, the API one distributes Certificates of Competence concerning the phonetics of the English, the French and the German to the people who pass an examination.

External bonds

  • Official site API (in English)

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