The idea of having a version of the IPA chart in Chinese was initiated by a group of Chinese phoneticians and dialectologists in 2006. The situation that existed at the time was that the IPA terms used in mainstream Chinese textbooks and in classrooms were still following various older versions of the chart and principles. For instance, there were no approximants in the consonant chart; instead, the Chinese translation of the term ‘frictionless continuant’ was still listed in the consonant chart. After the revised IPA chart was released in 2005, Chinese phoneticians and dialectologists considered it a good opportunity to promote the updated IPA terminology in Chinese, reflected in a Chinese version of the chart. In the winter of 2006, the Phonetic Association of China organized an advisory committee and a working committee to undertake the translation. Following some months of e-mail communications among committee members, a meeting was organized at the Institute of Linguistics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, on 7 January 2007. Five members of the advisory committee and seven members of the working committee participated in the final discussion. At the meeting in Beijing, we worked out the 2007 version of the IPA chart in Chinese that is reproduced here. This chart was first published in the first issue of the Chinese journal Fangyan 方 言 [Dialect] in 2007. The copyright symbol at the top of the chart indicates that the Chinese version is a work of the Phonetic Association of China, which is, officially speaking, a member of the Linguistic Society of China. The intention of the Association in disseminating the chart has been to unify and clarify the traditions of Chinese phonetic usage, to standardize Chinese terminology for referring to speech sounds and categories, and to communicate and promote the knowledge of IPA practices to Chinese-speaking society.

Vietnamese, the official language of Vietnam, is spoken natively by over seventy-five million people in Vietnam and greater Southeast Asia as well as by some two million overseas, predominantly in France, Australia, and the United States. The genetic affiliation of Vietnamese has been at times the subject of considerable debate (Diffloth 1992). Scholars such as Tabard (1838) maintained a relation to Chinese, while Maspero (1912), despite noting similarities to Mon-Khmer, argued for an affiliation with Tai. However, at least since the work of Haudricourt (1953), most scholars now agree that Vietnamese and related Vietic languages belong to the Mon-Khmer branch of the Austroasiatic family.

Shilluk is a Western Nilotic language spoken in Southern Sudan. In the study of sound systems, the Western Nilotic languages are of particular interest on account of their rich systems of suprasegmental distinctions. For example, Dinka, another Western Nilotic language, has three levels of vowel length, a voice quality distinction (modal vs. breathy), and – depending on the dialect – three or four distinctive tone patterns (Andersen 1987, Remijsen & Manyang 2009). As we shall see, Shilluk presents a similarly complex system of suprasegmental distinctions.

Bold indicates that audio files are available at http://web.uvic.ca/ling/resources/ipa/members/. Members may obtain log-on details from the Secretary.

Kera is an Eastern Chadic language spoken by about 50,000 people in southwestern Chad, south of the town of Fianga, and in major towns of Cameroon and Chad. Most Kera speakers would claim to speak a standard variety of Kera although there is some variation depending on gender and location. The differences involve the relationship between tone and voicing, the number of contrastive tones and the presence or absence of a voicing contrast. Women are more conservative than men in the use of tone in rural settings and more innovative than men in urban settings (Pearce 2009). Previous literature on Kera includes Ebert (1975, 1976, 1979) and Pearce (1999, 2006a, b, c, 2007a, 2008, 2009).

In November 2010, elections were held to choose twenty members of the Association's Council who will serve from 2011 to 2015.

Malay (Bahasa Melayu) is a member of the Malayic subgroup of the Austronesian language family. This subgroup includes languages like Gayo in Sumatra (Eades & Hajek 2006), Minangkabau in Sumatra, and Iban in Borneo, as well as many local dialects of Malay found in Borneo, Sumatra, Peninsular Malaysia, and eastern Indonesia (Adelaar 2005).

Edda Farnetani died peacifully on the 14th of December of 2010 at her home on the Lago di Garda at the age of 74.

Long-time IPA member Ilse Lehiste died on 25 December 2010 after a brief bout with pneumonia. Her death marked the end of more than six decades of meticulous and ground-breaking research in many of the phonetic sciences and in several tangent disciplines within historical linguistics.