SMACKIE is a transcription of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) into ASCII, designed to provide a more aesthetically pleasing alternative to SAMPA. To achieve this, SMACKIE goes beyond the standard 7-bit range, but still remains within the ISO-8859-1 region of the Unicode table, so it should be usable in most places/situations. It attempts to imitate the look of IPA whenever possible, but falls back on logic when not, so there is always a justification for the choice of a particular symbol. Furthermore, it favors English, so sounds of that language are prioritized; obscure languages like French and Swedish get more non-alphanumeric characters. Also bear in mind that this is a product of our own personal needs and tastes, so its main purpose is to be usable by us (i.e., YMMV).

-- LRC & Jagni

(Last update: May 3, 2005)

(  ) applied to a diacritic dimish its effect [  ] can be used as escape signs, to notify the reader that what stands between them is a directive, not phonemes

For Great Justice