The conception of pronunciation in Czech monolingual dictionaries (a call for discussion)

The article deals with conceptions used for the purpose of determining and presenting pronunciation forms in the entries of Czech monolingual dictionaries. This topic is currently of increasing importance, as a new dictionary is being developed at the Institute of the Czech Language. Data from commonly available dictionaries have shown that the conception in use is far from unified, and the approach chosen by the individual manuals is not always upheld; moreover, it is often considerably obscure and inappropriate (e. g. the transcription of foreign loan words with the combination of i + vowel). From the point of view of transcription, problematic phenomena include the sound [x], voiced affricates, terminal consonants, the groups di, ti and ni, the glottal stop, or recording of stress. The main aim of the text is not to determine definitive unambiguous rules (though many such rules are outlined), but rather, to initiate a broader discussion concerning suitable types of transcription, methods of gathering the necessary data, and the general approach used for the transcription of orthographic doublets.