(New ones will be added at the top of the list.)
What does the [ɾ] stand for?
It's a flap. See FRH 313-314. It's pronounced as a quick flip of the tongue against the alveolar ridge. American English speakers often pronounce words like "latter" and "ladder" with this sound: [læɾər].
What does the [y] stand for? What is [ay]?
The [y] is part of an older transcription system. See FRH pages 239, 265. In that system, [y] stands for our [j], the voiced oral palatal approximant. Therefore, [ɑy] = [ɑj], so for instance [mɑyk] = [mɑjk] "Mike". In the IPA system [y] stands for a high front rounded tense vowel, as in French [ty] "tu" 'you' or German [tyr] "tür, tuer" 'door'.
What is the little h after p, t and k?
This indicates aspiration. See FRH pages 244-245. We'll discuss this more in the Phonology section of the course.
Hello, Professor Idsardi. My name is _____ and I will be taking Linguistics with you in section ___ on Tuesdays. I was wondering if the course notes that you talked about in the e-mail will be the same as the notes dictated in class or if they were something different. Should they be printed to be brought to class every week or are they only given as an outline for exams? Hope you can clarify this for me. Thanks!
I try not to repeat myself too much. The notes on the web are an outline of what I will go over in class, but what I say in class will expand on what's in the notes quite a lot. The best thing to do is to print out the notes from the web, read them over, bring them to class and write your own notes alongside them. This way you won't have to write down very much in class, but you'll be able to quickly mark any parts that don't make sense or which are especially important.