Common Questions

 
Who created this phonetic transcriber?

Our phonetic transcription app was conceived and developed by Dr. Kelly J. Turner of Pfafftown, NC. Dr. Turner has taught vocal and choral music, lyric diction, and music theory at both the secondary and collegiate levels. He holds the Doctor of Musical Arts in Choral Conducting from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

For whom is this IPA translator designed?

Our IPA translator was created to be a lyric diction resource for choral conductors, teachers of voice, professional vocalists, church musicians and music educators and students. Linguists and speech pathologists may also find IPANow! helpful with the understanding that certain, subtle differences exist between spoken and lyric diction.

What is the purpose of this phonetic transcription app?

Many undergraduate vocal music curricula devote too little time to the study of lyric diction. Some institutions only offer a semester-long overview of all four languages; others do not offer diction at all. Even those that dedicate a semester to each language end up spending a great deal of time teaching students how to transcribe texts into phonetics, when the most important skill for vocalists is learning to physically negotiate the subtleties of pronunciation within each language and coordinate those subtleties with the singing voice. It is our hope that our phonetic transcription app will allow students to dedicate more time to this essential aspect of lyric diction.

What languages are available currently?

IPANow! currently features English, Latin, Italian, German, Spanish, and French.

On what scholarly resources is the IPA converter based?

Our IPA converter is based on material from standard lyric diction texts such as A Handbook of Diction for Singers by David Adams, the Lyric Diction Workbook series by Cheri Montgomery, A Singer's Manual of German and French Diction by Richard Cox, Singers' Italian by Evelina Colorni, and Diction by John Moriarty.

How do I type special characters in foreign languages?

Our phonetic transcription app features an easy-to-use interface for inserting accents, umlauts and other diacritical marks associated with each foreign language. No need to memorize complex keystroke combinations.