Plan Ipa Course

Plan: the IPA, taught like a language

Source of truth: this wiki page.

Postponed to next week (2026-10-04). The content is written; the app does not offer it yet, and the owner's later asks are not in it.

What the owner asked

And add one deck for IPA, which will be for learning how the IPA alphabet works, not only via repetition (which will be via practice), but with as much logical structure as possible. Do a little bit research on this. This will also be offered like a language.

The IPA deck: all symbols will have at least two example usage, one for how it sounds, and one for how it doesn't. And optional sound for both. Like o in dog and o in otter. Both IPA symbols will be grouped in close cards. For some sounds you may need to use other languages, which is fine too.

And each card in every language will also have a button to take them through a curated IPA deck that only has the symbols used in the card.

Decided with the owner:

• The course covers the whole IPA chart (2020). It was first offered twice in the languages to learn, "IPA: my languages" and "IPA: whole chart", sharing progress; the first was dropped on 2026-10-23 (owner: "drop the only your languages IPA course. Doesn't matter. We anyway have the tags.", #735), so it is offered once, as the whole chart.
• Each symbol is heard in an example word, in one of the app's languages, in that language's phone voice.

The owner's own example needs care: the o of dog and of otter are the same sound in British English (/ɒ/), and differ only in American English (/dɔɡ/, /ˈɑtɚ/). A pair that differs everywhere is hot /ɒ/ and go /əʊ/.

What exists

Branch wip/v032-ipa, commit d21d3df, on origin:

• decks/ipa/: 11 decks of 179 cards, ipa-0001 to ipa-0179. Units: basics, familiar letters, places, breath, retroflex, fricatives, liquids, vowels, diacritics, rare, narrow.
• Each card's notes explain where its symbol sits on the chart and how its shape is built.
• Each card's tags give the languages that use the sound, plus core for the symbols every learner needs.
• ipa-en-path.yaml, the script guide ipa-script.yaml ("How the IPA works", 13 features), and ipa-facts.yaml (37 facts in en, bn and hi).
• The language block: { code: ipa, iso639_3: zxx, name: IPA, script: ipa, typed: false, icon: "ə" }.

The IPA line and the Settings > Learning > IPA pronunciations switch (#533) are rebuilt on main from the drafts on feat/ipa-line (f5c8dba) and wip/v032-ui (41e5573, 65df57e), which are not merged: they conflict in 34 files. The line sits on the drill's card, which scrolls, not in the fixed feedback at its foot, where the draft overflowed on a production near miss. Nothing overflows at 1.4x, the app's cap (#505). A grammar question shows its word's IPA from the start and the form's once answered.

The draft of the app side (LanguageInfo.typed and scoped, CardExample.language, and the ipa script needing no reading), and a draft ADR, docs/adr/0026-ipa-course-and-icons.md, are not on main, and no longer on branch claude/ecstatic-wright-b1z4x5: that branch was reused for the skill model and the support mails (#432, #433), and LanguageInfo on main has no typed or scoped. The app side is still to be written; the next free ADR number is 0037.

Decided with the owner, 2026-10-16

Plan item 4's two open points are answered ("Yes, recorded"; "Show, offer to add"):

• The answers given through "The sounds of this word" button are recorded: they count as IPA course practice and are scheduled.
• The button shows for a learner who is not learning the IPA, and tapping it first offers to add the course.

The app side, plan items 1 (the example field), 3 and 4, is built on wip/ipa-course and described in ADR-0041 and DECK-FORMAT.md, "The IPA course". The content, items 1 (the examples), 2 and 5, is not.

Content, done 2026-10-16 (items 1 and 2)

The eleven decks, the path, the script guide and the facts are in the current format (cores and an English layer, ids kept, every scalar quoted, every script word in prose followed by its reading).

• Examples. Every card has a language on each example and at least one where the symbol's letter is not said with its sound (sounds: false, what it is said as instead in the layer). Another language is used where the app's languages lack the sound (German, French, Polish, Welsh, Zulu, Vietnamese, Swedish, Arabic and others). Example IPA of Indian-language words comes from tools/transcribe.py.
• Order. Confusable symbols are adjacent in each deck: ɒ ɔ ɑ, ʈ t̪ and ɖ d̪, ɪ i, ɾ r, e ɛ, ʃ ɕ, θ ð, and the narrow marks in pairs. tools/test_ipa_course.py checks the ids, both kinds of example and the adjacency.
• Checks. The validator's ipa letters now take the click letters, ⱱ, ꜜ and ⁿ.
• For a speaker's check (item 5). A second note on the card says what is doubtful: Hindi h and ɦ; r and ɾ; ɲ and ŋ; ts and dz for Telugu; ʂ for Marathi; Assamese ɛ, ʊ and ɒ; and the example words for ɢ, ɴ, ɻ, ʕ, ɰ, ʍ, ʀ, ʙ, ɺ, ɤ, n̥, b̤, ĕ, ʄ, the Yoruba tone and the Irish t.

Open questions

27 symbols have no example yet where a letter is said with the sound; each has the example where it is not, and a note saying one is wanted. They are the lip flick ⱱ, ʟ, ɘ, ɞ, ɶ, ˑ, ʘ, ǂ, ɠ, ʛ, sʼ, ʜ, ʢ, ʡ, ꜜ, a̰, ɔ̹, ɔ̜, e̠, ë, e̽, t̼, e̝, e̘, e̙, t̺ and t̻. I did not invent words. Which language and word do you want for each? (A speaker or phonetician is needed.)

What is left

Item 5: an independent rating, and the speaker's check above.

Estimate

About 6–8 hours of work: 2 for the examples and ordering, 3–4 for the app, 2 for the per-card button. Confidence: medium.

See also: Roadmap · Plans-Index · Home