Is IPA furigana a bad idea?
HTML metadata schema.org · 7 comments · 300 words
My name is
Modern HTML allows the user to use <ruby> to annotate text.
This is usually used for furigana - which allows pronunciation to be placed above words.
For example: "シン・ゴジラ " shows you how to pronounce both words if you are unfamiliar with kanji. The text can be any language or use any characters. In Japanese, it is quite often used to show phonetic pronunciation using hiragana.
Because English is a composite language0, it isn't always easy for people to pronounce words1.
So I have abused(?) the ruby syntax to show the International Phonetic Alphabet above the English words.
Is this a good idea? Is it a valid use of the syntax? Is it semantically correct? I don't know. But I do now know that it is possible.
I doubt the majority of people know the IPA, so it is of dubious use. It does make my name's pronunciation more apparent to machines.
An alternative is to use Schema.org. For example, my contact page has the following microdata:
HTML
<main itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/Person">
<header itemprop="name">
<h1>
<span itemprop="givenName">Terence</span>
<span itemprop="familyName">Eden</span>
<audio id="audioPlayer" src="Terence_Eden.mp3"
itemscope itemprop="additionalType"
itemtype="https://schema.org/PronounceableText">
<meta itemprop="phoneticText" content="/ˈtɛɹəns ˈiːdən/">
<meta itemprop="inLanguage" content="en-GB">
<meta itemprop="textValue" content="Terence Eden">
<meta itemprop="speechToTextMarkup" content="IPA">
</audio>
That allows humans to listen to the pronunciation of my name, and machines to see the IPA version.
Is there a better, more accessible, more useful way of encoding how to pronounce text?
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Or a mongrel language ↩︎
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Yes, I've seen that funny Tiktok. And that one. ↩︎
@Edent I think it’s fine. I’ve used ruby in a production of Tristram Shandy for latin annotation (https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/laurence-sterne/the-life-and-opinions-of-tristram-shandy-gentleman/text/chapter-3-11-la) and I’m currently using it in a production of 1,001 Nights for metre marks in an explanatory appendix.
@Edent seems perfectly legit to me (as editor of https://www.w3.org/TR/html-ruby-extensions/ ). Go ruby!
@Edent Small nitpick: “シン・ゴジラ ” has no kanji in it (it's all katakana).
@zmicier
I genuinely appreciate the correction! I'll update the post this evening. Thanks 😃
@Edent I think it's a good idea! There may not ever be a single ultimate accepted way to communicate how to pronounce one's name, but this seems like it could often help. Like many people, I don't know IPA very well, but I bet I would learn much of it quickly if people started annotating names and other words in their web pages.
@blog I had no idea this was even part of HTML, much less that it had been there for a decade. Zalgo for everyone!
@Edent Thanks! That's a great tutorial and I'll look into using it.
I think there's benefit to both approaches as one may not always want to display phonetic annotations. It's great that there are at least options (hacks) to choose how you might want to design it, though I wish there was a semantic way of doing so. It doesn't seem this is a top priority for #accessibility.
accessibility
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