Integridad intestinal

• There are two different dashed-l characters in IPA, namely the <ɫ> latin small letter l with middle tilde atU+026B and the <ɬ> latin small letter l with belt at U+026C. These of course look highly similar, al- though they are different sounds. As a solution, we will actually propose to not use the middle tilde at all (see Section 5.5).

5.5 Pitfall: Multiple encoding options in IPA

It is not just the Unicode Standard that offers multiple options for encoding the IPA. Even the IPA specification itself offers some flexibility in how transcriptions have to be encoded. There are a few cases in which the IPA explicitly allows for different options of transcribing the same phonetic content. This is understand- able from a transcriber’s point of view, but it is not acceptable when the goal is in- teroperability between resources written in IPA. We consider it crucial to distin- guish between valid IPA, for which it is sufficient that any phonetically-trained reader is able to understand the transcription, and strict IPA, which should be standardized on a single unique encoding for each sound, so search will work across resources. We are aware of the following non-unique encoding options in the IPA, which will be discussed in turn below:

• The marking of tone • The marking of <g>

• The marking of velarization and pharyngealization • The placement of diacritics

The first case in which the IPA allows for different encodings is the question of how to transcribe tone (cf. Maddieson (1990)). There is an old tradition to use diacritics on vowels to mark different tone levels (The International Phonetic Association 1949). Prior to the 1989 Kiel convention, IPA-approved tone symbols included diacritics above or below the vowel or syllable, e.g. high and low tones marked with macrons (<◌̄>, <◌̱>), and acute and grave accents for high rising tone <◌́>, low rising tone <◌̗>, high falling tone <◌̀> and low falling tone <◌̖>. These tone symbols, however, had failed to catch on (probably) due to aesthetic objections and matters of adequacy for transcription (Maddieson 1990: 29).

After the 1989 Kiel convention, the accent tone symbols were updated to the tradition that we are familiar with today and which was already in wide use by Africanists and others, namely level tones <◌̋,◌́,◌̄,◌̀,◌̏> and contour tones

<◌̌,◌̂,◌,᷄ ◌᷅,◌᷈>.8_{In addition, the IPA also adopted tone letters developed by Chao} (1930), e.g. <˥˦˧˨˩>, which were in wide use by Asianists.9_{Tone letters in the IPA} have five different levels, and sequences of these letters can be used to indicate contours. Well-designed fonts will even merge a sequence of tone letters into a contour. For example, compare the font Linux Libertine, which does not merge tone letters <˥˨˧˩>, with the font CharisSIL, which merges this sequence of four tone letters into a single contour <˥˨˧˩>. For strict IPA encoding we propose to standardize on tone letters.

Second, we commonly encounter the use of <g> latin small letter g at U+0067, instead of the Unicode Standard IPA character for the voiced velar stop <ɡ> latin small letter script g atU+0261. One begins to question whether this issue is at all apparent to the working linguist, or if they simply use theU+0067 because it is easily keyboarded and thus saves time, whereas the latter must be cumbersomely inserted as a special symbol in most software. The International Phonetic Association has taken the stance that both the keyboard latin small letter g and the latin small letter script g are valid input characters for the voiced velar plosive (The International Phonetic Association 1999: 19).10_Unfortu- nately, this decision further introduces ambiguity for linguists trying to adhere to a strict Unicode Standard IPA encoding. For strict IPA encoding we propose to standardize on the more idiosyncratic latin small letter script g atU+0261.

Third, the IPA has special markers for velarization <◌ˠ> and pharyngealiza- tion <◌_{ˤ>. Confusingly, there is also a marker for “velarized or pharyngealized”,} using the <◌_{̴> combining tilde overlay at}U+0334. The tilde overlay seems to be extremely rarely used. We suggest to try and avoid using the tilde overlay, though for reasons of backward compatibility we will allow it in valid-IPA.

Finally, the IPA states that “diacritics may be placed above a symbol with a de- scender”. For example, for marking of voiceless pronunciation of voiced segments the IPA uses the ring diacritic. Originally, the ring should be placed below the 8_{To make things even more complicated, there are at least two different Unicode homoglyphs}

for the low and high level tones, namely <◌̀> combining grave tone mark at U+0340 vs. <◌̀> combining grave accent at U+0300 for low tone, and <◌_{́> combining acute tone mark at} U+0341 vs.<◌_{́> combining acute accent at U+0301 for high tone.}

9_{Not sanctioned by the IPA, but nevertheless widely attested, is the use of superscript numbers}

for marking tones, also proposed by Chao (1930). One issue to note here is that superscript numbers can be either regular numbers that are formatted as superscript with a text processor, or they can be separate superscript characters, as defined in the Unicode Standard (see: https: //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superscripts_and_Subscripts). This divide means that searching text is dependent on how the author formatted or encoded the superscript numbers.

10_{Note however that the current instructions for contributors to the Journal of the International}