how is this (use of different symbols in IPA) better than any other system, as long as all the symbology is defined?
The symbols are defined by place and manner of articulation (i.e., how the sound is produced in the vocal tract). The IPA was designed from the beginning to include sounds that do not occur in English. The sounds are not really defined by reference to English (or any other single language's) sounds. IPA developed out of some other early attempts at devising a phonological transcription system. It was developed by people who spent a lot of time and effort in devising a rational system that could be used to transcribe the sounds of any language that a linguist ran across and felt a need to write down. The system does not have any of the conservative features that most orthographies exhibit when sound and symbol diverge over the course of time.
The idea of defining sounds by place (and to some extent) manner of articulation was not an invention of 19th and 20th century European linguists. Ancient Indian grammarians had come up with a similar phonological system 9with different symbols about 2500 years ago. (Actually the symbols came much later; the first descriptions were oral.)
(with my old desk dictionary I could look on the bottom of the page and at least get some idea of the pronunciation. just try that with IPA!)
Where the older, more ad hoc systems break down, is that they only refer to words in the target language. Not all people, speaking regional dialects have the same pronunciation. For example, there are folks in the States who do not pronounce the h in whether[/i] and some who do not differentiate the vowels in pin and pen. You pretty much have to learn any writing system, and as I have suggested before, the symbols needed to transcribe most varieties of English are around 40 or 50, and most of them look like their non-IPA counterparts. Where the IPA is necessarily complicated is in its rendition of vowels. There are more than five (six) vowels in English. A bunch of sounds traditionally called vowels are actually diphthongs or triphthongs. My major problem with most traditional dictionary pronunciation guides is that they differ from dictionary to dictionary. IPA is a standard.
I suppose I shall never convince you. So be it.
