Revision of the IPA: Do you know the onion chart?

Abstract

Quite rightly, the question is being posed: For whom is the IPA chart to be of service, (a) chiefly, (b) at all? Yet regardless of who the main beneficiaries may be, an issue on which I intend to imitate the (in)action of the mugwumps, I suggest that pedagogic principles are of the greatest importance in the creation of a chart to replace the existing amalgam. That is to say, a future chart must be so designed as to be not merely a statement of the situation but also a ‘guide, philosopher and friend’ for the user, from whatever walk of life. Users may be taking their first steps in acquiring proficiency in the use of a tool that has to be at the service of an increasingly varied range of people. Viewed thus, the chart must not be a simple systematised aggregation of facts, but also a methodical presentation of the same.