Talk:International Phonetic Alphabet

Obsolete 19th-century terminology

The IPA was defined as "phonetic" at a time when the word "phonemic" didn't exist, but it is phonemic. But it's neither "international" nor an "alphabet" as well. It does not relate to nations but to languages (or language varieties), and the link between "nation" and "language" is tenuous at best. Furthermore, alphabets are usually finite sets of symbols arranged in… well, alphabetic order, while the IPA is neither; it should really be called a code. Backinstadiums (talk) 22:49, 28 September 2022 (UTC)