I think this may be some of the confusion:

…[color=#990066] I see slashes around a letter, words that describe the strength of that letters sound in a word, and this, along with my limited experience with phoentics, leads me to belive that it is a phonetic enclosure. [/color]

Slashes are also used in DIACRITICS. What is it about the slashes that has you identify this as phonetics and not as diacritics? An answer would only make sense if you can tell me how you came to consider phonetics in the first place. In other words, I’m wondering how you identify phonetics.

–Joanna