Consider adding IPA as a babel language

[me-kell]

PROPOSAL

I'd like to suggest to add IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) as a "language".

The IPA is not really a language but an alphabet without a language used to phonetically transcribe whatever human language.

IPA has its own Unicode Range [0250–02AF] See The Unicode Standard, Version 15.0

If IPA were a "language" in the babel sense. It would be easy to use commands like \babelfont or \foreignlanguage in a document.

[jbezos]

Like this? 🙂:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage[english]{babel}

\babelprovide{ipa}
\babelfont[ipa]{rm}{DejaVu Sans}

\begin{document}

Blah \foreignlanguage{ipa}{ɔːlˈðəʊ} Blah.

\end{document}

As you can see, with babel you can create new languages easily. Then you can define shorthands, transforms (if luatex), and so on. I’m not sure it’s the best option for the IPA, but well, here is.

[me-kell]

@jbezos Thank you. That's a very gut point to start. I didn't know that this was possible and so easy.