A Sechuana Reader: In International Phonetic Orthography

by Daniel Jones, Sol T (Solomon Tshekisho) 18 Plaatje (Creator)

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

92 pages, Paperback

First published July 21, 2015

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Daniel Jones was a British phonetician.

Reviews

[Preethi · Rating 5 out of 5]

First: I found this book through my Phonology textbook written by Elizabeth Zsiga. She had a quote attributed to Daniel Jones in the introduction of the third chapter about consonants.

It said, "The art of writing phonetically does not come of itself any more than the art of painting.
The average English person can’t paint his own portrait, nor can he write his own language
phonetically or anything approaching it . . . he is always thinking he says one thing when
he really says something else; besides which . . . he is always wanting to write down what
he thinks people ought to say (which has nothing to do with the case)." - Daniel Jones, The [sic] Sechuana Reader 1916, p. 18

Basically, it's hard to transcribe the sounds people make, and people are biased when they do.

I thought this was a great quote, and I figured out that he was the first person to use the word phoneme, basically made the basis for the trapezoidal shape of the vowel chart we use today, etc. It turns out there's good reason to quote him in a phonology textbook.

So, I went and found a copy of "A Sechuana Reader" and it was equally interesting. He described the tones in the language with actual music notation, and pretty much all of his maxims about transcribing language are what we go by now--use your own ears, don't assume sounds will be like your own native language(s), describe things as objectively as possible, don't over-simplify--all great advice.

But what I couldn't find was the quote in my textbook. And that's because it didn't come from "A Sechuana Reader," it came from Volume 8 of Daniel Jones' selected works. Specifically in an essay titled, "How to use Phonetics in Connexion with Little Known Languages." This was originally a speech delivered the same year as A Sechuana Reader's publishing, but definitely not the same.

Still, this was a good read, and what I find hilarious is that Daniel Jones' coauthor on "A Sechuana Reader," Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje, held pretty much the opposite opinion of Jones on understanding phonetic transcription:

"No elaborate course of study is necessary for mastering the principles of phonetic writing. I was myself able to write phonetically soon after I had tried. Had the subject been a difficult one, this book would never have been written, as my exacting duties in London would not have permitted me to follow an elaborate course of instruction."

What an absolute flex.