Now that the computers UCL makes available to its students have the Windows
2000 operating system and MS Word, the phonetics students routinely have at
their disposal a font (Lucida Sans Unicode) with all the IPA symbols, with
no need to instal a special phonetic font.
Having just read a batch of student essays, on the whole nicely
word-processed, I realize that the font is so extensive that it offers a
whole range of new possible symbol errors. As well as old favourites such
as barred o for theta, vl lat fric for dark l, and ram's-horns for gamma, I
now find myself confronted by new errors such as the Swedish sj thing
instead of eng, and upper-case versions of upsilon (lax-u) and the vd p-alv
fric.
I've put together a warning page at
http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/wells/confusables.htm. Further examples welcome.
John Wells
PS "Lucida" is stressed on the antepenultimate in the source language,
whether Latin, Italian, or Spanish. So we'd probably better pronounce it
that way in English, too: /"lu:[log in to unmask]
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