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There is in fact a phonetic alphabet that singers utilize all the time when they are working on a new language or unfamiliar words in languages they do know. Today, I'll give you a quick fundraiser update and then give you an overview of how that works!
Thank you so much to everyone who has been able to donate so far! I can't believe that in 4 short weeks we made it to my 60% goal just in time for the date deadline! Only 40% left to make it to the finish line!
If you can donate, I can accept donations via the link below or if you reach out to me, I also have a myriad of other virtual options for your convenience. Please don't hesitate to contact me if you would like to donate using another method!
Fundraising goals:
90% of goal - May 15, 2022
100% of goal - June 1, 2022
And now to continue to build on your knowledge of how people learn to sing in other languages! If you haven't already read my last post, make sure to take a look for some more insight!
If you have used certain dictionaries, you might have already seen some of this International Phonetic Alphabet. Not all dictionaries have it - some only use a "phonetic respelling" like in the screenshot below. Some online dictionaries have the option to switch between this phonetic spelling and the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA for short!) so you can see both. The phonetic spelling can be helpful but it is not as accurate or detail oriented as the IPA and as singers, we want to make sure we are pronouncing words like a native speaker of a given language.
Most collegiate singers are required to take classes to learn how to use IPA as part of their degree. Because it is a whole alphabet of characters, you have to learn how to read it and the rules of pronunciation for each language - usually the core 4: English, Italian, German and French.
The pronunciation of a single word used in multiple languages, for example the word "opera", can vary in it's IPA spelling due to the rules of that language. This accounts for accents that you hear and also sometimes dialects.
For example, the English pronunciation has options for both American and UK English dialects. They are slightly different in their pronunciations of the "o" at the beginning of the word and the "r", which is likely the part most people notice right away. You can listen to the differences by visiting the dictionary online at this link.
The Italian pronunciation of the word looks very similar to the actual spelling of the word, given Italian is the origin of this word, but it tells us a lot about the pronunciation.
The symbol used for the "e" tells us it should be pronounced more like the sound in the word "send" than like the word "bet". The apostrophe at the beginning for the word, tells us the first syllable is where the stress goes. We want to make sure we don't put the "em-PHA-sis" on the wrong "syl-LA-ble" if we want to sound native to Italy!
The French pronunciation looks very similar to the Italian version but you will notice in this case there are no stress marks at all. Something that is characteristic of French is how the language flows together so stress tends to be at the end of a sentence rather and in the words themselves. The "r" is also different here from either the English or Italian pronunciations
Finally, the German word is the first one we see where there is an actual spelling difference. In addition to missing the final vowel, we have the "o" being pronounced more like the word "open" which makes it sound very different from the Italian and French pronunciations but not too far off the English ones.
In order to learn the Czech, I had to locate a book that explained the IPA for the different letters in Czech. From my last post, you know I went to look for the translation of the text at the library. The book I found also provided the IPA for entire lines of text in the opera. I copied the translation and the IPA into my personal copy of the score so that I make sure to know How to sing the words and What I am singing about at all times while learning the music.
It might look very daunting, but with a lot of practice, preparation and some coaching with someone who is familiar with a language, singers learn to express themselves like native speakers of these languages.
I hope you found this interesting and maybe instructive! You too could go out and learn how to pronounce a few foreign words if you learn some simple IPA!
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