In the recent update of acapela-box we improved the Pronunciation Editor by adding support for phonetic transcriptions.
Phonetic transcriptions are a quite advanced tool that can be used to fine tune the way a word in pronunced.
To use phonetic transcriptions you need to learn how to use the phonetic alphabet for the specific language you are using. A phonetic alphabet is made of phonetic symbols, each corresponding to a particular sound of that language.
Let’s see how to use it.
When you open the Pronunciation Editor you will see a button called “SHOW PHONETIC SYMBOLS”. Click on it and a table of phonetic symbols will appear, completed with an example for each sound. For instance in US English there are 2 phonetic symbols corresponding to the letter “t”: one is simply called “t” and corrispond to the sound in the word “stop”, the other is “t_h” corresponding to the sound in the word “top”
At the bottom of the table you will see some further instruction on how to use the phonetic symbols, as for instance information about how to specify lexical stress, glottal stops and so on.
To write the pronunciation of a word with phonetic symbols, you need to select the “Use phonetic symbols” option in the Pronunciation Editor, and then type the phonetic symbols in the “Pronunciation” field.
You can listen to the current pronunciation at any time by clicking on the play button (a triangle) next to the “Pronunciation” field.
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