The previous post is here.
The last couple posts were a bit long-winded, so this one will be a little shorter. It's a quick introduction to the International Phonetic Alphabet- the motivation for it, what it gives you, and how to make use of it.
Part 2 - Basic Practical Linguistics
The IPA - Picking Out Sounds and Making Them
The IPA, or International Phonetic Alphabet, is a way of precisely writing out the sounds used in the world's languages- all of them. It's one of the most basic tools in a linguist's toolbelt (or a language learner, for that matter). It also comes with a system of names for all the sounds it represents that tells you exactly how to make those sounds, if you decide to learn them. For a language learner though, it's most relevant when helping you figure out what sounds a person is actually making and how to pronounce a written word, usually from a dictionary, where the IPA is used as the pronunciation guide next to an entry.
Motivation
Why would you want to do this? Well, first off, if you're reading this zine (at least this version of it), your native language may be English, or at least you're comfortable with English. Most languages, however, don't use the same set of sounds as English (if you're a second-language speaker of English reading this, you might get the sense that you're pronouncing things a little bit off but mostly alright). They may have fewer sounds than English, or more sounds, or maybe just different sounds. Maybe some even have the same basic sounds but modify them in ways that are considered distinctive, while in English the modifications aren't significant.
So, in order to both clearly understand and be clearly understood in another language, it would make sense to learn at least the relevant IPA symbols and what sounds they represent. You can work backwards as well, so that you learn how to scribble down the IPA letters for things you hear if needed, as an absolute backup. This will help you both pronounce and hear the individual sounds when just starting to learn a new language, and fine tune it later.
What It Gives You
So, let's learn a little terminology here (I promise I'll do my best to put it in plain English).
The most basic unit of meaning you can define for language is the phoneme. A phoneme is something like a category of specific sounds that are treated as the same sound by a language. This will make more sense with a few more terms and some concrete examples.
A phone is a specific sound someone makes while speaking- this is what the most detailed IPA transcription is used to record. If there are a few phones that all represent the same phoneme in a given language, they are called allophones of that phoneme.
Here's an exercise in English to use as an example:
Say "spot". Yes, seriously, say this out loud. Then say "pot". Did you notice it?
Now, put your hand right in front of your mouth, but not completely covering it.
Say "spot" again. Then, say "pot" again.
Did you notice it this time, if you didn't before?
The 'p' in "pot" has a quality called "aspiration", while the 'p' in "spot" does not. That means that you are blowing out a little extra air alongside and just after the 'p' in "pot". And it's something you can record using the IPA, like this: [pʰɑt] (though your accent or dialect may differ on specifics).
In English, the phone [pʰ] in "pot" and the phone [p] in "spot" are allophones of the same phoneme, /p/. They're both "just p". But in other languages, like Korean and Hindustani, those two phones are as different as 'b' and 'p' are in English (Korean romanization even uses 'b' for the kind of p in "spot" and 'p' for the kind of p in "pot"). This is why the IPA is useful to understand.
How to Use The IPA
On its own, as just a chart, the IPA isn't super helpful, though you may see some familiar symbols and make some connections with the terms they line up with. However, we have the internet (for now, anyway). You can actually look up recordings of all the basic sounds (and some more obscure ones) on websites like https://www.ipachart.com/. The less-accessible-for-printed-copies thing to check out would be the Wikipedia articles for each sound on the chart- they have recordings, information about common allophones, and languages they occur in. They also help explain what all of the terms mean, if you really want to go down a rabbit hole. For most people, though, the recordings and a loose idea of where and how the sounds are made should be enough. For tonal languages like Chinese or Yucatec Mayan, the IPA has a way to mark tones if needed. It can also mark syllable breaks, stress, pitch change, and more.
You should also know that there is an extension to the IPA, usually abbreviated extIPA. It has a few symbols and diacritics used for sounds that fall outside the most common ones used in the basic chart. This one will be a little bit harder to find recordings for, but if you're studying a language that needs to use these extensions, you probably already know where to find those recordings.
Given a completely detailed IPA representation of the sounds of your target language, next to the original writing system, you would theoretically be able to learn how to speak it without needing a recording. But you probably wouldn't be able to nail down the accent if that was your goal, and it might sound stilted.
The more common and practical usage of the IPA is just being aware of the sounds, and how they might be considered distinct in your target language (even if they aren't in your reference language). Maybe you'd try your hand at transcribing a recording, though you'd be better off learning the language's native script alongside the IPA at first, before ditching IPA transcription.