fabiform wrote:
What I meant by this was that at least all the symbols used in SAMPA are recognisable. Like in the IPA you have the upsidedown e (schwa), or the E which is like a rotated 3, or the long s. These can be off-putting.
This makes no sense to me. Whether it's an ɛ (rotated 3) or an "{", you still have to learn what it means. In fact, having symbols that already have a different meaning may be even more off-putting. Especially when you have a "{" without a matching "}"… :-p At least IPA uses letter-like symbols, so you can assume that things that look like an s (s, ʃ, ʂ) have a pronunciation somewhere close to s. Even moreso with vowels.
Timwi