IPA what I read the main page of the article on IPA On the plus side it is clear On the minus side it makes no attempt to explain what the IPA is context scope purpose etc Nice chart Lots of data for people who probably have no need of it but virtually no general information My questions which weren t answered keep in mind I m a totally lay person An alphabet is used to 1 Communicate between a writer and a reader of the same language 2 Describe that communication unambigously Right Certain things are implied by its name but clearly one should define what the subject of the alphabet is are I have no idea if it covers all indoeuropean languages not to mention Mandarin Chinese etc Does it attempt to cover all spoken languages Written What about non vocal languages finger snaps all that stuff Sign language We now have some evidence that hand gestures are linked to language in the brain but I digress From a simplistic point of view language can be thought of as being three distinct context sensitive types of communication written read spoken heard and performed viewed I suppose an alphabet can t cover the last but see how choreographers describe dance and obviously there are non alphabetical languages pictographics heiroglyphic etc just as there are languages which make use of whistles clicks SO what does the IPA do It just occured to me that maybe the IPA is now a days only used by euro centric hobbyists and that would explain why there was no attention given to giving a serious explanation of what it is if you have to ask then you don t need to know