David Friedland wrote about morphophones:
And it seems like a panacea for the pronunciation
problem. But it's not,
because some words simply have different underlying representations in
different dialects, and the system only works for dialects that are
roughly the same except for a few sound changes. It fails for wildly or
even mildly divergent dialects. The American Heritage Dictionary system
sweeps this problem under the rug by saying "The pronunciations are
exclusively those of educated speech", which, to my mind, is a cop-out,
and not a satisfactory solution for Wikipedia.
How do you mean that morphophones fail for mildly divergent dialects?
What is your reason for thinking such a thing?
Surely not that the American Heritage Dictionary didn't take much effort?
I already said that these dictionaries have unsophisticated systems.
The AHD states its limitations: educated American speech only.
This allows them to cut corners on their implementation.
However, I do not know of any system
advocated by linguists other than what phonologists call "broad
transcription" using IPA. Can you point me to a book or paper, written
by linguists, that specifies such a system for English, and advocates
its use by and for general (non-academic) readers?
I've cited the original 1962 paper introducing morphophones before;
I'd have to look up the citation in the archives to repeat it,
but you're already going through those so I'll refrain for now.
But that was an academic paper; what I should do now
is try to track down a more recent (1980s) book that I've read,
written by linguists, which advocates its use outside academic settings.
I have never encoutered such a system, and I doubt that
one exists.
Barring the existence of a standard system, I don't really see that
Wikipedia has any other options besides IPA for specifying
pronunciations. Certainly I hope no one thinks Wikipedia should invent
its own system. When it comes to standards, it should be our job to
follow them and describe them, not create them.
I'm not sure to what extent there is a /single/ standard system.
There certainly is at least one system in use by linguists.
Probably with variations due to improved understanding over time,
but whether these are coordinated by a single standards body I don't know.
I will try to track this down too.
PS: I have made a page on meta called
[[Pronunciations]] and am going
through the list archives and posting links to relevant discussions
there. I'm not sure what the policy should be regarding where further
discussion should occur, so if you want to respond, do so either here or
on the list.
OK, I'll watch it.
-- Toby