What is a phonetic alphabet word

• Afroasiatic phonetic notation
• Americanist phonetic notation – Phonetic alphabet developed in the 1880s
• Arabic International Phonetic Alphabet – System of phonetic transcription to adapt the International Phonetic Alphabet to the Arabic script
• Articulatory phonetics – A branch of linguistics studying how humans make sounds
• Case variants of IPA letters – International Phonetic Alphabet variants
• Cursive forms of the International Phonetic Alphabet – Deprecated cursive forms of IPA symbols
• Extensions to the International Phonetic Alphabet – Disordered speech additions to the phonetic alphabet
• Index of phonetics articles
• International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration – Transliteration scheme for Indic scripts
• International Phonetic Alphabet chart for English dialects
• List of international common standards
• Luciano Canepari – Italian linguist (born 1947)
• Phonetic symbols in Unicode – Representation of phonetic symbols in the Unicode Standard
• RFE Phonetic Alphabet – phonetic transcription system for Iberian languages, proposed by Tomás Navarro Tomás and adopted by Centro de Estudios Históricos for use in its journal Revista de Filología Española (whence its name)
• SAMPA – Computer-readable phonetic script
• Semyon Novgorodov – Yakut politician and linguist – inventor of IPA-based Yakut scripts
• TIPA – TeX macro package providing phonetic character capabilities provides IPA support for LaTeX
• UAI phonetic alphabet – Phonetic transcription
• Uralic Phonetic Alphabet – Phonetic alphabet for Uralic languages
• Voice Quality Symbols – Set of phonetic symbols used for voice quality, such as to transcribe disordered speech
• X-SAMPA – Remapping of the IPA into ASCII

1. ^ The inverted bridge under the ⟨t̺ʰ⟩ specifies it as apical (pronounced with the tip of the tongue), and the superscript h shows that it is aspirated (breathy). Both these qualities cause the English /t/ to sound different from the French or Spanish /t/, which is a laminal (pronounced with the blade of the tongue) and unaspirated [t̻]. [t̺ʰ] and [t̻] are thus two different, though similar, sounds.
2. ^ «Originally, the aim was to make available a set of phonetic symbols which would be given different articulatory values, if necessary, in different languages.» (International Phonetic Association, Handbook, pp. 195–196)
3. ^ «From its earliest days […] the International Phonetic Association has aimed to provide ‘a separate sign for each distinctive sound; that is, for each sound which, being used instead of another, in the same language, can change the meaning of a word’.» (International Phonetic Association, Handbook, p. 27)
4. ^
   For instance, flaps and taps are two different kinds of articulation, but since no language has (yet) been found to make a distinction between, say, an alveolar flap and an alveolar tap, the IPA does not provide such sounds with dedicated letters. Instead, it provides a single letter (in this case, [ɾ]) for both. Strictly speaking, this makes the IPA a partially phonemic alphabet, not a purely phonetic one.
5. ^ This exception to the rules was made primarily to explain why the IPA does not make a dental–alveolar distinction, despite one being phonemic in hundreds of languages, including most of the continent of Australia. Americanist Phonetic Notation makes (or at least made) a distinction between apical ⟨t d s z n l⟩ and laminal ⟨τ δ ς ζ ν λ⟩, which is easily applicable to alveolar vs dental (when a language distinguishes apical alveolar from laminal dental, as in Australia), but despite several proposals to the Council, the IPA never voted to accept such a distinction.
6. ^
   There are three basic tone diacritics and five basic tone letters, both sets of which may be compounded.
7. ^
   «The non-roman letters of the International Phonetic Alphabet have been designed as far as possible to harmonize well with the roman letters. The Association does not recognize makeshift letters; It recognizes only letters which have been carefully cut so as to be in harmony with the other letters.» (IPA 1949)
8. ^ Originally, [ʊ] was written as a small capital U. However, this was not easy to read, and so it was replaced with a turned small capital omega. In modern typefaces, it often has its own design, called a ‘horseshoe’.
9. ^ Merriam-Webster dictionaries use backslashes  …  to demarcate their in-house transcription system. This distinguishes their IPA-influenced system from true IPA, which is used between forward slashes in the Oxford English Dictionary.
10. ^ For example, the single and double pipe symbols are used for minor and major prosodic breaks. Although the Handbook specifies the prosodic symbols as «thick» vertical lines, which would be distinct from simple ASCII pipes (and similar to Dania transcription), this is optional and was intended to keep them distinct from the pipes used as click letters (JIPA 19.2, p. 75). The Handbook (p. 174) assigns them the Unicode encodings U+007C, which is the simple ASCII pipe symbol, and U+2016.
11. ^ The proper angle brackets in Unicode are the mathematical symbols (U+27E8 and U+27E9). Chevrons ‹…› (U+2039, U+203A) are sometimes substituted, as in Americanist phonetic notation, as are the less-than and greater-than signs <…> (U+003C, U+003E) found on ASCII keyboards.
12. ^ See «Illustrations of the IPA» in the IPA Handbook (1999) for individual languages which for example may use ⟨/c/⟩ as a phonemic symbol for what is phonetically realized as [tʃ], or superscript variants of IPA letters that are not officially defined.
13. ^ Monolingual Hebrew dictionaries use pronunciation respelling for words with unusual spelling; for example, the Even-Shoshan Dictionary respells תָּכְנִית‎ as ⟨תּוֹכְנִית‎⟩ because the word uses the kamatz katan.
14. ^ For example, Sergey Ozhegov’s dictionary adds [нэ́] in brackets to the French loan-word пенсне (pince-nez) to indicate that the final ⟨е⟩ does not iotate the preceding ⟨н⟩.
15. ^ They were moved «for presentational convenience […] because of [their] rarity and the small number of types of sounds which are found there.» (IPA Handbook, p 18)
16. ^ It is traditional to place the tie bar above the letters. It may be placed below to avoid overlap with ascenders or diacritic marks, or simply because it is more legible that way, as in Niesler, Louw, & Roux (2005). «Phonetic analysis of Afrikaans, English, Xhosa and Zulu using South African speech databases». Ajol.info. Retrieved 20 November 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
17. ^ The IPA Handbook variously defines the «linking» symbol as marking the «lack of a boundary» (p. 23) or «absence of a break» (p. 174), and gives French liaison and English linking r as examples. The illustration for Croatian uses it to tie atonic clitics to tonic words, with no resulting change in implied syllable structure. It is also sometimes used simply to indicate that the consonant ending one word forms a syllable with the vowel beginning the following word.
18. ^ ^{a b} The global rise and fall arrows come before the affected syllable or prosodic unit, like stress and upstep/downstep. This contrasts with the Chao tone letters (listed below), which most commonly come after. One will occasionally see a horizontal arrow ⟨→⟩ for global level pitch (only dropping due to downdrift), e.g. in Julie Barbour (2012) A Grammar of Neverver. Additionally, some fonts display the arrows as emoji by default, if ︎ is not appended.
19. ^ ^{a b} There is not a one-to-one correspondence between tone diacritics and tone letters. When pitch is transcribed with diacritics, the three pitches ⟨é ē è⟩ are taken as the basic levels and are called ‘high’, ‘mid’ and ‘low’. Contour tones combine only these three and are called ⟨e᷇⟩ ‘high-mid’ etc. The more extreme pitches, which do not form contours, are ⟨e̋⟩ ‘extra-high’ and ⟨ȅ⟩ ‘extra-low’, using doubled diacritics. When transcribed with tone letters, however, combinations of all five levels are possible. Thus, ⟨e˥ e˧ e˩⟩ may be called ‘high’, ‘mid’ and ‘low’, with ⟨e˦ e˨⟩ being ‘near-high’ and ‘near-low’, analogous to descriptions of vowel height. In a three-level transcription, ⟨é ē è⟩ are identified with ⟨e˥ e˧ e˩⟩, but in a five-level transcription, ⟨e̋ ȅ⟩ are identified with ⟨e˥ e˩⟩ (JIPA 19.2: 76).
20. ^ Although any combination of tone diacritics is theoretically possible, such as ⟨e᪰⟩ for a falling–rising–falling tone, any other than those illustrated are vanishingly rare.
21. ^ Russian sources commonly use a wavy line like U+2E3E ⸾ WIGGLY VERTICAL LINE (approx. ⌇) for a less-than-minor break, such as the slight break in list intonation (e.g. the very slight break between digits in a telephone number).^[64] A dotted line like U+2E3D ⸽ VERTICAL SIX DOTS or U+2999 ⦙ DOTTED FENCE is sometimes seen instead.
22. ^ Maddieson and others have noted that a phonemic/phonetic distinction should be handled by /slash/ or [bracket] delimiters. However, the reversed tone letters remain in use for tone sandhi.
23. ^ A work-around sometimes seen when a language has more than one rising or falling tone, and the author wishes to avoid the poorly legible diacritics ⟨e᷄, e᷅, e᷇, e᷆⟩ but does not wish to employ tone letters, is to restrict the generic rising ⟨ě⟩ and falling ⟨ê⟩ diacritics to the higher-pitched of the rising and falling tones, say /e˥˧/ and /e˧˥/, and to resurrect the retired (pre-Kiel) IPA subscript diacritics ⟨e̗⟩ and ⟨e̖⟩ for the lower-pitched rising and falling tones, say /e˩˧/ and /e˧˩/. When a language has either four or six level tones, the two middle tones are sometimes transcribed as high-mid ⟨e̍⟩ (non-standard) and low-mid ⟨ē⟩. Non-standard ⟨e̍⟩ is occasionally seen combined with acute and grave diacritcs or with the macron to distinguish contour tones that involve the higher of the two mid tone levels.
24. ^ The example has changed over the years. In the chart included in the 1999 IPA Handbook, it was [˦˥˦], and since the 2018 revision of the chart it has been [˧˦˨].
25. ^ Chao did not include tone shapes such as [˨˦˦], [˧˩˩], which rise or fall and then level off (or vice versa). Such tone shapes are, however, frequently encountered in the modern literature.
26. ^ In Chao’s Sinological convention, a single tone letter ⟨˥⟩ is used for a high tone on a checked syllable, and a double tone letter ⟨˥˥⟩ for a high tone on an open syllable. Such redundant doubling is not used in the Handbook, where the tones of Cantonese [si˥] ‘silk’ and [sɪk˥] ‘color’ are transcribed the same way. If the author wishes to indicate a difference in phonetic or phonemic length, the IPA accomplishes that with the length marks ⟨◌̆ ◌ˑ ◌ː⟩ rather than through the tone letters.
27. ^ Sometimes the obsolete transcription ⟨kʻ⟩ (with a turned apostrophe) for weak aspiration vs. ⟨kʰ⟩ for strong aspiration is still seen.
28. ^ The motivation for this may vary. Some authors find the tie bars displeasing but the lack of tie bars confusing (i.e. ⟨č⟩ for /t͡ʃ/ as distinct from /tʃ/), while others simply prefer to have one letter for each segmental phoneme in a language.^{[citation needed]}
29. ^ As in Afrasianist phonetic notation. ⟨S⟩ is particularly ambiguous. It has been used for ‘stop’, ‘fricative’, ‘sibilant’, ‘sonorant’ and ‘semivowel’. On the other hand, plosive/stop is frequently abbreviated ⟨P⟩, ⟨T⟩ or ⟨S⟩. The illustrations given here use, as much as possible, letters that are capital versions of members of the sets they stand for: IPA [n] is a nasal and ⟨N⟩ is any nasal; [p] is a plosive, [f] a fricative, [s] a sibilant, [l] both a lateral and a liquid, [r] both a rhotic and a resonant, and [ʞ] a click. ⟨¢⟩ is an obstruent in Americanist notation, where it stands for [ts]. An alternative wildcard for ‘glide’, ⟨J⟩, fits this pattern, but is much less common than ⟨G⟩ in English-language sources.
30. ^ At least in the notation of ⟨CRV-⟩ syllables, the ⟨R⟩ is understood to include liquids and glides but to exclude nasals, as in Bennett (2020: 115) ‘Click Phonology’, in Sands (ed.), Click Consonants, Brill
31. ^ {Close vowel} may instead be ⟨U⟩, and ⟨O⟩ may stand for {obstruent}.
32. ^ Or glottal~pharyngeal ⟨H⟩, as in Afrasianist phonetic notation
33. ^ Somewhat more precisely, ⟨LM⟩ and ⟨MH⟩ are sometimes used for low and high rising tones, and ⟨HM⟩, ⟨ML⟩ for high and low falling tones; occasionally ⟨R⟩ for ‘rising’ or ⟨F⟩ for ‘falling’ is also seen.
34. ^ For other Turkic languages, ⟨I⟩ may be restricted to {ɯ i} (that is, to ı i), ⟨U⟩ to u ü, ⟨A⟩ to a e/ä, etc.
35. ^ Dedicated letters have been proposed, such as rotated ⟨β⟩ and ⟨ð⟩, reversed ⟨β⟩ and ⟨ð⟩, or small-capital ⟨б⟩ and ⟨ᴆ⟩. Ball, Rahilly & Lowry (2017) Phonetics for speech pathology, 3rd edition, Equinox, Sheffield.
36. ^
    For example, the IPA Handbook lists ⟨p⟩ as «lower-case P» and ⟨χ⟩ as «chi.» (International Phonetic Association, Handbook, p. 171)
37. ^ Online IPA keyboard utilities include the IPA 2018 i-charts hosted by the IPA, IPA character picker 27 at GitHub, Type IPA phonetic symbols at TypeIt.org, and an IPA Chart keyboard at GitHub.

1. ^ ^{a b c d} International Phonetic Association (IPA), Handbook.
2. ^ ^{a b c d e f} MacMahon, Michael K. C. (1996). «Phonetic Notation». In P. T. Daniels; W. Bright (eds.). The World’s Writing Systems. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 821–846. ISBN 0-19-507993-0.
3. ^ Wall, Joan (1989). International Phonetic Alphabet for Singers: A Manual for English and Foreign Language Diction. Pst. ISBN 1-877761-50-8.
4. ^ «IPA: Alphabet». Langsci.ucl.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 10 October 2012. Retrieved 20 November 2012.
5. ^ «Full IPA Chart». International Phonetic Association. Retrieved 24 April 2017.
6. ^ ^{a b c d e} International Phonetic Association, Handbook, pp. 194–196
7. ^ Passy, Paul (1888). «Our revised alphabet». The Phonetic Teacher: 57–60.
8. ^ IPA in the Encyclopædia Britannica
9. ^ ^{a b c} Pullum and Ladusaw, Phonetic Symbol Guide, pp. 152, 209
10. ^ Nicolaidis, Katerina (September 2005). «Approval of New IPA Sound: The Labiodental Flap». International Phonetic Association. Archived from the original on 2 September 2006. Retrieved 17 September 2006.
11. ^ International Phonetic Association, Handbook, p. 186
12. ^ Handbook, International Phonetic Association, p. 196, The new letters should be suggestive of the sounds they represent, by their resemblance to the old ones..
13. ^ Cf. the notes at the Unicode IPA EXTENSIONS code chart as well as blogs by Michael Everson Archived 10 October 2017 at the Wayback Machine and John Wells here and here.
14. ^ ^{a b c} IPA Handbook p. 175
15. ^ ^{a b} IPA Handbook p. 176
16. ^ IPA Handbook p. 191
17. ^ IPA (1999) Handbook, p 188, 192
18. ^ IPA (1999) Handbook, p 176, 192
19. ^ Duckworth et al. (1990) Extensions to the International Phonetic Alphabet for the transcription of atypical speech. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics 4: 4: 278.
20. ^ Basbøll (2005) The Phonology of Danish pp. 45, 59
21. ^ Karlsson & Sullivan (2005) /sP/ consonant clusters in Swedish: Acoustic measurements of phonological development
22. ^ Richard Sproat (2000) A Computational Theory of Writing Systems. Cambridge University Press. Page 26.
23. ^ Barry Heselwood (2013) Phonetic Transcription in Theory and Practice. Edinburgh University Press. Page 8 ff, 29 ff.
24. ^ Paul Tench (2011) Transcribing the Sound of English. Cambridge University Press. Page 61.
25. ^ Gibbon, Dafydd; Moore, Roger; Winski, Richard (1998). Handbook of Standards and Resources for Spoken Language Systems: Spoken language characterisation. Berlin; New York: Walter de Gruyter. p. 61. ISBN 9783110157345.
26. ^ Ball, Martin J.; Lowry, Orla M. (2001). «Transcribing Disordered Speech». Methods in Clinical Phonetics. London: Whurr. p. 80. doi:10.1002/9780470777879.ch3. ISBN 9781861561848. S2CID 58518097.
27. ^ International Phonetic Association 1999, p. 31.
28. ^ Englebretson, Robert (2009). «An overview of IPA Braille: an updated tactile representation of the International Phonetic Alphabet» (PDF). Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 39 (1): 67. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.501.366. doi:10.1017/s0025100308003691. S2CID 36426880. Retrieved 5 April 2014.
29. ^ Esling, John H. (2010). «Phonetic Notation». In Hardcastle, William J.; Laver, John; Gibbon, Fiona E. (eds.). The Handbook of Phonetic Sciences (2nd ed.). Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 678–702. doi:10.1002/9781444317251.ch18. ISBN 978-1-4051-4590-9. pp. 688, 693.
30. ^ Martin J. Ball; Joan Rahilly (August 2011). «The symbolization of central approximants in the IPA». Journal of the International Phonetic Association. Cambridge Journals Online. 41 (2): 231–237. doi:10.1017/s0025100311000107. S2CID 144408497.
31. ^ «Cambridge Journals Online – Journal of the International Phonetic Association Vol. 39 Iss. 02». Journals.cambridge.org. 23 October 2012. Retrieved 20 November 2012.
32. ^ «IPA: About us». Langsci.ucl.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 10 October 2012. Retrieved 20 November 2012.
33. ^ «IPA: Statutes». Langsci.ucl.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 10 October 2012. Retrieved 20 November 2012.
34. ^ «IPA: News». Langsci.ucl.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 11 November 2012. Retrieved 20 November 2012.
35. ^ «IPA: News». Langsci.ucl.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 11 November 2012. Retrieved 20 November 2012.
36. ^ ^{a b c} Kirk Miller & Michael Ashby, L2/20-252R Unicode request for IPA modifier-letters (a), pulmonic
37. ^ ^{a b} Sally Thomason (2 January 2008). «Why I Don’t Love the International Phonetic Alphabet». Language Log.
38. ^ «Phonetics». Cambridge Dictionaries Online. 2002. Archived from the original on 17 August 2011. Retrieved 11 March 2007.
39. ^ «Merriam-Webster Online Pronunciation Symbols». Archived from the original on 1 June 2007. Retrieved 4 June 2007.
    Agnes, Michael (1999). Webster’s New World College Dictionary. New York: Macmillan. xxiii. ISBN 0-02-863119-6.
    Pronunciation respelling for English has detailed comparisons.
40. ^ (in Czech) Fronek, J. (2006). Velký anglicko-český slovník (in Czech). Praha: Leda. ISBN 80-7335-022-X. In accordance with long-established Czech lexicographical tradition, a modified version of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is adopted in which letters of the Czech alphabet are employed.
41. ^ Principles of the International Phonetic Association, 1949:17.
42. ^ Severens, Sara E. (2017). «The Effects of the International Phonetic Alphabet in Singing». Student Scholar Showcase.
43. ^ «Nico Castel’s Complete Libretti Series». Castel Opera Arts. Archived from the original on 24 July 2011. Retrieved 29 September 2008.
44. ^ Cheek, Timothy (2001). Singing in Czech. The Scarecrow Press. p. 392. ISBN 978-0-8108-4003-4. Archived from the original on 7 October 2011. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
45. ^ Zimmer, Benjamin (14 May 2008). «Operatic IPA and the Visual Thesaurus». Language Log. University of Pennsylvania. Retrieved 29 September 2009.
46. ^ «Segments can usefully be divided into two major categories, consonants and vowels.» (International Phonetic Association, Handbook, p. 3)
47. ^ International Phonetic Association, Handbook, p. 6.
48. ^ Fromkin, Victoria; Rodman, Robert (1998) [1974]. An Introduction to Language (6th ed.). Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace College Publishers. ISBN 0-03-018682-X.
49. ^ Ladefoged and Maddieson, 1996, Sounds of the World’s Languages, §2.1.
50. ^ «A symbol such as [β], shown on the chart in the position for a voiced bilabial fricative, can also be used to represent a voiced bilabial approximant if needed.» (Handbook, p.9)
51. ^ Ladefoged and Maddieson, 1996, Sounds of the World’s Languages, §9.3.
52. ^ Esling (2010), pp. 688–9.
53. ^ Amanda L. Miller et al., «Differences in airstream and posterior place of articulation among Nǀuu lingual stops». Submitted to the Journal of the International Phonetic Association. Retrieved 27 May 2007.
54. ^ Ladefoged, Peter; Ian Maddieson (1996). The sounds of the world’s languages. Oxford: Blackwell. pp. 329–330. ISBN 0-631-19815-6.
55. ^ International Phonetic Association, Handbook, p. 10.
56. ^ ^{a b} International Phonetic Association, Handbook, pp. 14–15.
57. ^ ‘Further report on the 1989 Kiel Convention’, Journal of the International Phonetic Association 20:2 (December 1990), p. 23.
58. ^ International Phonetic Association, Handbook, p. 13.
59. ^ Cf. the /ʷ…/ and /ʲ…/ transcriptions in Eszter Ernst-Kurdi (2017) The Phonology of Mada, SIL Yaoundé.
60. ^ E.g. Aaron Dolgopolsky (2013) Indo-European Dictionary with Nostratic Etymologies.
61. ^ ^{a b c d} P.J. Roach, Report on the 1989 Kiel Convention, Journal of the International Phonetic Association, Vol. 19, No. 2 (December 1989), p. 75–76
62. ^ Esling (2010), p. 691.
63. ^ For example, «Balearic». Merriam-Webster Dictionary..
64. ^ Ž.V. Ganiev (2012) Sovremennyj ruskij jazyk. Flinta/Nauka.
65. ^ Nicholas Evans (1995) A Grammar of Kayardild. Mouton de Gruyter.
66. ^ Ian Maddieson (December 1990) The transcription of tone in the IPA, JIPA 20.2, p. 31.
67. ^ Barry Heselwood (2013) Phonetic Transcription in Theory and Practice. Edinburgh University Press. Page 7.
68. ^ ^{a b} Chao, Yuen-Ren (1930), «ə sistim əv «toun—letəz«» [A system of «tone-letters»], Le Maître Phonétique, 30: 24–27, JSTOR 44704341
69. ^ See for example Pe Maung Tin [-phe -maʊ̃ -tɪ̃ː] (1924) bɜˑmiːz. Le Maître Phonétique, vol. 2 (39), no. 5, pp. 4–5, where five pitch levels are distinguished
70. ^ Handbook, p. 14.
71. ^ ^{a b} Kelly & Local (1989) Doing Phonology, Manchester University Press.
72. ^ Bloomfield (1933) Language p. 91
73. ^ Passy, 1958, Conversations françaises en transcription phonétique. 2nd ed.
74. ^ Yuen Ren Chao (1968) Language and Symbolic Systems, p. xxiii
75. ^ Geoffrey Barker (2005) Intonation Patterns in Tyrolean German, p. 11.
76. ^ Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World’s Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. p. 314. ISBN 978-0-631-19815-4.
77. ^ Peter Ladefoged (1971) Preliminaries of Linguistic Phonetics, p. 35.
78. ^ Fallon (2013) The Synchronic and Diachronic Phonology of Ejectives, p. 267
79. ^ Heselwood (2013) Phonetic Transcription in Theory and Practice, p. 233.
80. ^ E.g. in Laver (1994) Principles of Phonetics, pp. 559–560
81. ^ Hein van der Voort (2005) ‘Kwaza in a Comparative Perspective’, IJAL 71:4.
82. ^ John Esling (2010) «Phonetic Notation», in Hardcastle, Laver & Gibbon (eds) The Handbook of Phonetic Sciences, 2nd ed., p 695.
83. ^ Ridouane, Rachid (August 2014). «Tashlhiyt Berber». Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 44 (2): 207–221. doi:10.1017/S0025100313000388. S2CID 232344118.
84. ^ Alderete, John; Jebbour, Abdelkrim; Kachoub, Bouchra; Wilbee, Holly. «Tashlhiyt Berber grammar synopsis» (PDF). Simon Fraser University. Retrieved 20 November 2021.
85. ^ Kirk Miller & Michael Ashby, L2/20-253R Unicode request for IPA modifier letters (b), non-pulmonic.
86. ^ Kirk Miller & Martin Ball, L2/20-116R Expansion of the extIPA and VoQS.
87. ^ «John Wells’s phonetic blog». Phonetic-blog.blogspot.com. 9 September 2009. Retrieved 18 October 2010.
88. ^ «At the 1989 Kiel Convention of the IPA, a sub-group was established to draw up recommendations for the transcription of disordered speech.» («Extensions to the IPA: An ExtIPA Chart» in International Phonetic Association, Handbook, p. 186.)
89. ^ PRDS Group (1983). The Phonetic Representation of Disordered Speech. London: The King’s Fund.
90. ^ «Extensions to the IPA: An ExtIPA Chart» in International Phonetic Association, Handbook, pp. 186–187.
91. ^ e.g. Alan Kaye (2007) Morphologies of Asia and Africa. Eisenbrauns.
92. ^ Campbell, Lyle (2013). Historical linguistics: an introduction (3. ed.). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. pp. xix. ISBN 9780262518499.
93. ^ Haynie, Bowern, Epps, Hill & McConvell (2014) Wanderwörter in languages of the Americas and Australia. Ampersand 1:1–18.
94. ^ Perry (2000) Phonological/phonetic assessment of an English-speaking adult with dysarthria
95. ^ Antonio Quilis (1997) Principios de fonología y fonética españolas, p. 65.
96. ^ Xavier Frías Conde (2001) Introducción a la fonología y fonética del español, p. 11–12. Ianua. Revista Philologica Romanica.
97. ^ Laver (1994) Principles of Phonetics, p. 374.
98. ^ «Diacritics may also be employed to create symbols for phonemes, thus reducing the need to create new letter shapes.» (International Phonetic Association, Handbook, p. 27)
99. ^ Olson, Kenneth S.; Hajek, John (1999). «The phonetic status of the labial flap». Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 29 (2): 101–114. doi:10.1017/s0025100300006484. S2CID 14438770.
100. ^ «The diacritics…can be used to modify the lip or tongue position implied by a vowel symbol.» (International Phonetic Association, Handbook, p. 16)
101. ^ «…the International Phonetic Association has never officially approved a set of names…» (International Phonetic Association, Handbook, p. 31)
102. ^ A chart of the numbers for the most common IPA symbols can be found on the IPA website.IPA number chart
103. ^ «Es gilt das gesprochene Wort: Schriftarten für IPA-Transkriptionen» (in German). 16 March 2014. Retrieved 18 August 2022.
104. ^ «Brill Typeface». Retrieved 18 August 2022.
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107. ^ «Set up Gboard – Android – Gboard Help». support.google.com. Retrieved 28 April 2019.
108. ^ «IPA Phonetic Keyboard». App Store. Retrieved 8 December 2020.

• Ball, Martin J.; John H. Esling; B. Craig Dickson (1995). «The VoQS system for the transcription of voice quality». Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 25 (2): 71–80. doi:10.1017/S0025100300005181. S2CID 145791575.
• Duckworth, M.; G. Allen; M.J. Ball (December 1990). «Extensions to the International Phonetic Alphabet for the transcription of atypical speech». Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics. 4 (4): 273–280. doi:10.3109/02699209008985489.
• Hill, Kenneth C.; Pullum, Geoffrey K.; Ladusaw, William (March 1988). «Review of Phonetic Symbol Guide by G. K. Pullum & W. Ladusaw». Language. 64 (1): 143–144. doi:10.2307/414792. JSTOR 414792.
• International Phonetic Association (1989). «Report on the 1989 Kiel convention». Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 19 (2): 67–80. doi:10.1017/s0025100300003868. S2CID 249412330.
• International Phonetic Association (1999). Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-65236-7. (hb); ISBN 0-521-63751-1 (pb).
• Jones, Daniel (1988). English pronouncing dictionary (revised 14th ed.). London: Dent. ISBN 0-521-86230-2. OCLC 18415701.
• Ladefoged, Peter (September 1990). «The revised International Phonetic Alphabet». Language. 66 (3): 550–552. doi:10.2307/414611. JSTOR 414611.
• Ladefoged, Peter; Morris Halle (September 1988). «Some major features of the International Phonetic Alphabet». Language. 64 (3): 577–582. doi:10.2307/414533. JSTOR 414533.
• Laver, John (1994). Principles of Phonetics. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-45031-4. (hb); ISBN 0-521-45655-X (pb).
• Pullum, Geoffrey K.; William A. Ladusaw (1986). Phonetic Symbol Guide. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-68532-2.
• Skinner, Edith; Timothy Monich; Lilene Mansell (1990). Speak with Distinction. New York: Applause Theatre Book Publishers. ISBN 1-55783-047-9.
• Fromkin, Victoria; Rodman, Robert; Hyams, Nina (2011). An Introduction to Language (9th ed.). Boston: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning. pp. 233–234. ISBN 978-1-4282-6392-5.

Are there any languages you’d like to learn? Wouldn’t it be cool if you knew how to pronounce words from any language? Well, it is actually possible to do so, thanks to the International Phonetic Alphabet!

If you don’t know what that is, don’t worry… We will explore the International Phonetic Alphabet, why it was created and what it can tell us about speech sounds. We will also look at the phonemic chart for the English language, which shows speech sounds specific to English. Lastly, we will describe how to transcribe phones and phonemes.

What is the International Phonetic Alphabet?

The International Phonetic Alphabet (shortened to IPA) is a set of symbols that represent phonetic sounds. These sounds are known as phones. The IPA is used to help us understand and transcribe different speech sounds from different languages.

Why is the International Phonetic Alphabet useful?

The IPA helps us to pronounce words accurately. Instead of relying on the written spelling of words, which does not always match the way we pronounce them, the phonetic alphabet describes the sounds of words (without reference to the letters of a language). So, when something is written using IPA, it will always match the pronunciation. This is particularly useful for people learning a new language, as they will be able to correctly pronounce the words.

Who created the International Phonetic Alphabet?

The International Phonetic Alphabet was created in 1888 by Paul Passy, a French linguist.

The international phonetic alphabet (IPA) symbols

It was based on the Latin alphabet and was originally represented speech sounds in different languages so they could be easily written down. It was also made with the purpose of replacing the many individual transcription systems previously used; a single system for represent sounds in all languages would be easier to use.

What are the different qualities of speech?

The IPA represents all of the different qualities and sounds of speech in different languages. These include:

• Phones
• Phonemes
• Intonation
• Separation between words
• Syllables.

Let’s go through these in more detail!

What are phones?

Phones are distinguishable sounds. When we speak, we produce phones. Phones are not specific to any language, so are used globally. When we transcribe phones, they are written between square brackets [ ].

What are phonemes?

Phonemes are the mental representations and meanings of the sound of a word. Changing a phoneme in a word can change its meaning. For example, changing the phoneme /t/ in the word sheet to the phoneme /p/ creates the word sheep. Unlike phones, phonemes are language-specific, so cannot be applied to all languages. When we transcribe phonemes, they are written between slashes / /.

What is intonation?

Intonation refers to the variation of someone’s pitch when they speak. Intonation can be used for a variety of reasons, such as:

• to show a speaker’s emotion or attitude.

• to show the difference between a statement and a question.

• to indicate whether or not the speaker has finished their sentence.

• to add stress to certain parts of a sentence, which can slightly change the meaning.

What are separations between words?

When we speak, not every word will flow and not every syllable will end on a clear sound. So, there can be gaps between the sounds we make as we say them. For example, with the word ‘utmost’, the ‘t’ is often not clearly pronounced. When transcribing, the ‘t’ sound can be replaced by a symbol called a glottal stop, which looks like this: ʔ. It is used to indicate the blocking of airflow, which stops us from producing a clear sound.

What are syllables?

Syllables are units of spoken language that must contain a vowel sound, and sometimes consonants. For example, if we look at the following words:

Book — 1 syllable

Table — 2 syllables

Gardening — 3 syllables

As well as signifying gaps between words, the IPA can also be used to signify breaks between different syllables.

The International Phonetic Alphabet chart

Fig. 1 — The IPA chart shows all of the sounds and qualities of speech in system of representative symbols.

There is a lot of information to take in, but don’t worry! We will simply break down each section and look at each part in turn. We will then focus more on the English phonemic alphabet, as this will help explain the sounds specific to the English language.

The IPA can be broken down into:

• Pulmonic consonants

• Non-pulmonic consonants

• Vowels (monophthongs and diphthongs)

• Suprasegmentals

• Tones and word accents

• Diacritics

Pulmonic consonants

These are consonants that are made by air pressure from the lungs and blocking the space between the vocal cords. All consonants in the English language are pulmonic, but there are some in other languages (see below).

In the IPA chart, pulmonic consonants are classified in three ways:

1. Voicing — this refers to whether or not the vocal cords make a sound. Voiced consonants are a result of the vocal cords vibrating to produce sound. For example, the consonants: B, D, G, J, L. With voiceless consonants, the vocal cords do not make a sound, instead air passes through them. For example, the consonants: s, p, t, f, f.

1. Place of articulation — this refers to where in the mouth sounds are made.

1. Manner of articulation — this refers to how our speech organs are used to produce a sound, particularly how the airflow is blocked in order to make different sounds.

For example, the sound pronounced /b/ is called a voiced bilabial plosive. This means that to produce the /b/ sound:

• The vocal cords vibrate to make a sound (voiced).

• Both lips are pressed together (bilabial).

• The vocal tract is blocked and then air is pushed out through the lips (plosive).

Non-pulmonic consonants

These are consonants that are not produced with airflow from the lungs. There are no non-pulmonic consonants in English.

The three types of non-pulmonic consonants are:

Ejectives

Implosives

Clicks

Khoisan languages are known for their use of click consonants, which can be written using symbols such as ǃ and ǂ.

Vowels

Vowels are sounds that are made with no restriction of airflow, and the sound is dependent on the position of the mouth and the tongue.

For example, when we pronounce the vowel ‘a’ in the word ‘bake’, our tongues are far from the roof of our mouths and are positioned towards the front of the mouth. But, when we pronounce the vowel ‘u’ in the word ‘music’, the tongue is close to the roof of the mouth and is positioned towards the back.

Types of vowels

Vowels can be divided into two categories:

• Monophthongs
• Diphthongs

Monophthongs are single vowel sounds in a syllable. For example, the vowel ‘i’ in the word ‘hit’ is a single vowel sound that can be transcribed as /ɪ/.

Diphthongs are two vowel sounds in a syllable. For example, in the word ‘play’, the vowel ‘a’ has two sounds, which are transcribed as /eɪ/. Diphthongs are also called gliding vowels, as one vowel sound glides into another.

Suprasegmentals

A group of symbols that represent the prosodic features of speech, including

• Stress — emphasis on certain parts of a word or utterance.

• Tone — variation in pitch of the voice.

• Duration — Length of sounds measured in milliseconds (not to be confused with vowel length)

• Syllable breaks — where one syllable ends and another begins.

• Linking — an absence of a syllable break

Tones and word accents

Tones and accents are used when transcribing tonal languages, in which the words can have different meanings depending on the inflection (pitch) used. Examples of tonal languages include Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese.

Diacritics

Diacritics are marks added to phonetic characters (eg. accents or cedillas) that show small distinctions in sounds that mildly alter pronunciation.

For example, the word ‘pen’ has an audible expiration of air after the letter ‘p’. This can be shown with the diacritic [ʰ], so would look like [pʰen].

Fig. 2 — Diacritic symbols and their meanings are shown in a table on the IPA chart.

IPA sounds

The International Phonetic Alphabet is used to represent all possible speech sounds. These are sounds that appear both in the English language and in other languages. These sounds can be split into phones and phonemes. We’ll come onto these terms and the sounds of English below.

International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) sounds of English

The sounds of English (or any language) are shown in a phonemic chart.

This phonemic chart is based on the IPA, and is specific to the English language. Shown below are the 44 English phonemes:

Fig. 3 — The English phonemic alphabet shows all of the phonemes used in the English language.

Transcribing phones

When phones are transcribed, they are written between square brackets [ ]. Phonetic transcriptions are detailed, including many elements of speech sounds to be more specific about the variations of pronunciation. These are so-called ‘narrow transcriptions’.

Below are some examples of phonetic transcriptions. They are all written according to British Received Pronunciation.

Pin — [pʰɪn]

Wing — [wɪ̃ŋ]

Port — [pʰɔˑt]

Diacritics are used in the above transcriptions to show specific differences in pronunciation. The [ʰ] indicates aspiration — an audible exhalation of air. The [^h] indicates nasalisation — air flows out of the nose.

Transcribing phonemes

When phonemes are transcribed, they are written between slashes / /. Phonemic transcriptions only mention the most obvious and important elements of speech sounds. These are so-called ‘broad transcriptions’.

Below are some examples of phonemic transcriptions. They are all written according to British Received Pronunciation.

Pin — /pɪn/

Wing — /wɪŋ/

Port — /pɔːt/

As phonemic transcriptions are not as detailed as phonetic transcriptions, diacritics are not needed as they are not necessary to the meaning of the words.

International Phonetic Alphabet — Key takeaways

• The international phonetic alphabet (IPA) is a set of symbols that represent phonetic sounds. The IPA helps us to transcribe words in different languages and pronounce words accurately no matter the language.
• The IPA was created in 1888 by Paul Passy, a French linguist.
• The different parts of the IPA chart are: pulmonic consonants, non-pulmonic consonants, monophthong, diphthongs, suprasegmentals, tones and word accents, diacritics.
• The English Phonemic Alphabet chart is specific to the English language and contains the 44 English phonemes.
• Phonetic transcriptions are known as narrow transcriptions. They are written between brackets. Phonemic transcriptions are known as broad transcriptions. They are written between slashes.

References

1. Fig. 1. International Phonetic Association, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
2. Fig. 2. Users Grendelkhan, Nohat on en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
3. Fig. 3. Snow white1991, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a system where each symbol is associated with a particular English sound. By using IPA you can know exactly how to pronounce a certain word in English. This helps in improving English pronunciation and feeling more confident speaking in English, whether you learn English on you own or with a specialist teacher in an individual English Accent Training class. We also run online English courses in virtual groups, and immersion courses in London.

Here are examples of IPA use in common English words. You can practice various vowel and consonant sounds by pronouncing the words. This is one way how you can improve English pronunciation.

Download examples of IPA sounds (PDF) 

International Phonetic Alphabet Sounds In Everyday Speech       

Short Vowels

Long Vowels

Diphthong Vowels

Consonants Sounds: Fricatives

Consonants Sounds: Plosives

Consonants Sounds: Affricates

Consonants Sounds: Nasals

Consonants Sounds: Approximants

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Posted: 16 August 2017

Categories: Communication skills

The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)
is a system of phonetic
notation based on the Latin
alphabet, devised by the International
Phonetic Association as a standardized representation
of the sounds of spoken language.^[1]
The IPA is used by linguists,
speech
pathologists and therapists, foreign
language teachers and students, singers,
actors,
lexicographers,
and translators.^[2][3]

The IPA is designed to represent only those qualities
of speech that are distinctive in spoken
language: phonemes,
intonation,
and the separation of words
and syllables.^[1]
To represent additional qualities of speech such as tooth-gnashing,
lisping,
and sounds made with a cleft
palate, an extended set of symbols called the Extensions
to the IPA is used.^[2]

Occasionally symbols are added, removed, or modified
by the International Phonetic Association. As of 2008,
there are 107 distinct letters, 52 diacritics,
and 4 prosody
marks in the IPA proper.

History

In 1886, a group of French
and British
language teachers, led by the French linguist Paul
Passy, formed what would come to be known (from 1897
onwards) as the International
Phonetic Association (in French, l’Association
phonétique internationale).^[4]
The original alphabet was based on a spelling
reform for English known as the Romic
alphabet, but in order to make it usable for other
languages, the values of the symbols were allowed to vary
from language to language.^[5]
For example, the sound [ʃ]
(sh in shoe) was originally represented
with the letter <c> in English, but with the letter
<x> in French.^[4]
However, in 1888, the alphabet was revised so as to be
uniform across languages, thus providing the base for
all future revisions.^[4][6]

Since its creation, the IPA has undergone a number of
revisions. After major revisions and expansions in 1900
and 1932,
the IPA remained unchanged until the IPA
Kiel Convention in 1989. A minor revision took place
in 1993, with the addition of four mid-central
vowels^[2]
and the removal of symbols for voiceless
implosives.^[7]
The alphabet was last revised in May 2005, with the addition
of a symbol for the labiodental
flap.^[8]
Apart from the addition and removal of symbols, changes
to the IPA have consisted largely in renaming symbols
and categories, and modifying typefaces.^[2]

Extensions of the alphabet are relatively recent; «Extensions
to the IPA» was created in 1990 and officially adopted
by the International
Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association in
1994.^[9]

Description

The general principle of the IPA is to provide one symbol
for each distinctive sound (or speech
segment).^[10]
This means that it does not use letter combinations to
represent single sounds,^[note
2] or single letters to represent
multiple sounds (the way <x> represents [ks] or
[gz] in English). There are no letters that have context-dependent
sound values (as <c>
does in English and other European languages), and finally,
the IPA does not usually have separate letters for two
sounds if no known language makes a distinction between
them (a property known as «selectiveness»^[2]).^[note
3]

A chart of the full International Phonetic Alphabet.

Among the symbols of the IPA, 107 represent consonants
and vowels,
31 are diacritics
that are used to further specify these sounds, and 19
are used to indicate such qualities as length,
tone,
stress,
and intonation.^[note
4]

Letterforms

The symbols chosen for the IPA are meant to harmonize
with the Latin
alphabet.^[note
5] For this reason, most symbols
are either Latin
or Greek
letters, or modifications thereof. However, there are
symbols that are neither: for example, the symbol denoting
the glottal
stop, <ʔ>,
has the form of a «gelded» question
mark, and was originally an apostrophe.^[note
6] In fact, there are a few symbols,
such as that of the voiced pharyngeal
fricative, <ʕ>,
which, though modified to blend with the Latin alphabet,
were inspired by glyphs
in other writing systems (in this case, the Arabic
letter <ﻉ>‎,
`ain).^[7]

Despite its preference for letters that harmonize with
the Latin alphabet, the International Phonetic Association
has occasionally admitted symbols that do not have this
property. For example, before 1989, the IPA symbols for
click
consonants were <ʘ>,
<ʇ>,
<ʗ>,
and <ʖ>,
all of which were derived either from existing symbols,
or from Latin and Greek letters. However, except for <ʘ>,
none of these symbols was widely used among Khoisanists
or Bantuists,
and as a result, they were replaced by the less Latin-like
but more widespread symbols <ʘ>,
<ǀ>,
<ǃ>,
<ǂ>,
and <ǁ>
at the IPA Kiel Convention in 1989.^[11]

Symbols and sounds

The International Phonetic Alphabet is based on the Latin
alphabet, using as few non-Latin forms as possible.^[4]
The Association created the IPA so that the sound values
of most consonants
taken from the Latin alphabet would correspond to “international
usage”.^[4]
Hence, the letters <b>,
<d>,
<f>,
(hard) <ɡ>,
(non-silent) <h>,
(unaspirated) <k>,
<l>,
<m>,
<n>,
(unaspirated) <p>,
(voiceless) <s>,
(unaspirated) <t>,
<v>,
<w>,
and <z>
have the values used in English; and the vowels
from the Latin alphabet (<a>,
<e>,
<i>,
<o>,
<u>)
correspond to the sound values of Latin: [i]
is like the vowel in machine, [u]
is as in rule, etc. Other letters may differ
from English, but are used with these values in other
European languages, such as <j>,
<r>,
and <y>.

This inventory was extended by using capital or cursive
forms, diacritics, and rotation. There are also several
derived or taken from the Greek alphabet, though the sound
values may differ. For example, <ʋ>
is a vowel in Greek, but an only indirectly related consonant
in the IPA. Two of these (<θ>
and <χ>)
are used unmodified in form; for others (including <β>,
<ɣ>,
<ɛ>,
<ɸ>,
and <ʋ>)
subtly different glyph shapes have been devised, which
may be encoded in Unicode separately from their «parent»
letters.

The sound values of modified Latin letters can often
be derived from those of the original letters.^[12]
For example, letters with a rightward-facing hook at the
bottom represent retroflex
consonants; and small capital letters usually represent
uvular
consonants. Apart from the fact that certain kinds
of modification to the shape of a letter generally correspond
to certain kinds of modification to the sound represented,
there is no way to deduce the sound represented by a symbol
from the shape of the symbol (unlike, for example, in
Visible
Speech).

Beyond the letters themselves, there are a variety of
secondary symbols which aid in transcription. Diacritic
marks can be combined with IPA letters to transcribe
modified phonetic
values or secondary
articulations. There are also special symbols for
suprasegmental
features such as stress
and tone
that are often employed.

Usage

Although the IPA offers over a hundred symbols for transcribing
speech, it is not necessary to use all relevant symbols
at the same time; it is possible to transcribe speech
with various levels of precision. The most precise kind
of phonetic transcription, in which sounds are described
in as much detail as the system allows, without any regard
for the linguistic significance of the distinctions thus
made, is known as narrow transcription. Anything
else is termed broad transcription, though «broad»
is obviously a relative term. Both kinds of transcriptions
are generally enclosed in brackets,^[1]
but broad transcriptions are sometimes enclosed in slashes
instead of brackets.

Broad transcription only distinguishes sounds which are
considered different by speakers of a language. Sounds
that may be pronounced differently between styles and
dialects or depending on neighbouring sounds can be considered
the «same» sound in the sense that they are allophones
of the same phoneme.
When a word is written as phonemes, it is usually enclosed
in slashes.
For example, the pronunciation of the English word «little»
may be transcribed broadly using the IPA as /lɪtl/,
and this broad (imprecise) transcription is a correct
(accurate) description of many, if not all, pronunciations.
This broad transcription merely identifies the separate
phonetically relevant components of the word, and it does
not indicate the variety of corresponding sounds. On the
other hand, the narrow transcription (placed between square
brackets) specifies the way each sound is pronounced.
A more narrow transcription of «little» would be different
depending on the way it is said: [lɪɾɫ]
(General
American), [lɪʔɫ]
(Cockney),
or [lɪːɫ]
are just a few possibilities.

Neither broad nor narrow transcription using the IPA
provides an absolute description; rather, they provide
relative descriptions of phonetic sounds. This is especially
true with respect to the IPA vowels: there exists no hard
and fast mapping between IPA symbols and formant
frequency ranges, and in fact one set of formant frequencies
may correspond to two different IPA symbols, depending
on the phonology of the language in question.

Educational initiative

There is some interest in using native speakers to produce
sound and video files of all the IPA speech sounds. Such
a project would encompass a large subset of the world’s
languages. This would aid linguistic and anthropologic
research, as well as help teach language learning. A standard
reference IPA could preserve examples of speech sounds.
For education, the IPA can help standardize resources
which prepare students and children for language acquisition
through familiarization and subsequent imitation of the
breadth of human speech sounds.^[13]
Research by Flege, Mackay and Piske (2002) and Sebastián-Gallés,
Echeverría and Bosch (2005) have shown that early exposure
to extra phonetic sounds and uses improves later comprehension
and pronunciation (accent).

Use

Linguists

Although IPA is popular for transcription by linguists,
it is also common to use Americanist
phonetic notation or IPA together with some nonstandard
symbols, for reasons including reducing the error
rate on reading handwritten transcriptions or (arguable)
awkwardness of IPA in some situations. The exact practice
may vary somewhat between languages and even individual
researchers, so authors are generally encouraged to include
a chart or other explanation of their choices.^[14]

Dictionaries

Many British dictionaries, among which are learner’s
dictionaries such as the Oxford
Advanced Learner’s Dictionary and the Cambridge
Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, now use the
International Phonetic Alphabet to represent the pronunciation
of words.^[15]
However, most American (and some British) volumes use
their
own conventions intended to be more intuitive for
readers unfamiliar with the IPA. For example, the pronunciation-representation
systems in many American dictionaries (such as Merriam-Webster)
use «y» for IPA [j]
and «sh» for IPA [ʃ],
reflecting common representations of those sounds in written
English.^[16]
(In IPA, [y]
represents the sound of the French u (as in tu),
and [sh]
represents the pair of sounds in grass hut.)

One of the benefits of using an alternative to the IPA
is the ability to use a single symbol for a sound pronounced
differently in different dialects. For example, the American
Heritage Dictionary uses ŏ for the vowel in cot
(kŏt)
but ô for the one in caught (kôt).^[17]
Some American speakers pronounce
the vowels ŏ and ô the same way (for example,
like IPA [ɒ]
in the Boston
dialect); for those speakers who maintain the distinction,
depending on the accent, the vowel in cot may vary
from [ɑ]
to [a],
while the vowel in caught may vary from [ɔ]
to [ɑ],
or may even be a diphthong. Using one symbol for the vowel
in cot (instead of having different symbols for
different pronunciations of the o) enables the
dictionary to provide meaningful pronunciations for speakers
of most dialects of English.

The IPA is also not universal among dictionaries in other
countries and languages. Mass-market Czech multilingual
dictionaries, for instance, tend to use the IPA only for
sounds not found in the Czech
language.^[18]

Orthographies and capital variants

IPA symbols have been incorporated into the standard
orthographies of various languages, notably in Subsaharan
Africa but in other regions as well. These include
for example: Hausa;
Fula;
Akan;
Gbe
languages; and Manding
languages.

An example of capital letter forms for IPA symbols is
Kabiyé
of northern Togo,
which has Ɔ
Ɛ
Ɖ
Ŋ
Ɣ
Ʃ
Ʊ
(or Ʋ)
(capital ɔ
ɛ ɖ ŋ ɣ ʃ ʊ (or ʋ)):
MBƱ AJƐYA KIGBƐNDƱƱ
ŊGBƐYƐ KEDIƔZAƔ SƆSƆƆ
TƆM SE. Other IPA-paired capitals include
Ɑ
Ɓ
Ƈ
Ɗ
Ə/Ǝ
Ɠ
Ħ
Ɯ
Ɱ
Ɲ
Ɵ
Ʈ
Ʒ
Ɽ.

The abovementioned and other capital forms are supported
by Unicode,
but appear in Latin ranges other than the IPA extensions.

Opera

IPA has widespread use among opera singers for preparation,
especially among English-speaking singers who rarely sing
in their native language. Opera librettos are authoritatively
transcribed in IPA, such as Nico
Castel’s volumes^[19]
and Timothy Cheek’s book Singing in Czech.^[20]
Opera singers’ ability to read IPA was recently used by
the Visual
Thesaurus, which employed several opera singers «to
make recordings for the 150,000 words and phrases in VT’s
lexical database. …for their vocal stamina, attention
to the details of enunciation, and most of all, knowledge
of IPA.»^[21]

Letters

The International Phonetic Alphabet divides its letter
symbols into three categories: pulmonic
consonants, non-pulmonic consonants, and vowels.^[22][23]
Each character is assigned a number, to prevent confusion
between similar letters (such as ɵ
and θ),
for example in printing manuscripts. Different categories
of sounds are assigned different ranges of numbers.

Pulmonic consonants

A pulmonic
consonant is a consonant made by obstructing the glottis
(the space between the vocal cords) or oral
cavity (the mouth) and either simultaneously or subsequently
letting out air from the lungs. Pulmonic consonants make
up the majority of consonants in the IPA, as well as in
human language. All consonants in the English language
fall into this category.^[24]

The pulmonic consonant table, which includes most consonants,
is arranged in rows that designate manner
of articulation, meaning how the consonant is produced,
and columns that designate place
of articulation, meaning where in the vocal tract
the consonant is produced. The main chart includes only
consonants with a single place of articulation.

Notes

• Asterisks (*) next to symbols mark reported sounds
  that do not (yet) have official IPA symbols. See the
  respective articles for ad hoc symbols found
  in the literature.
• Daggers (†) mark IPA symbols that have recently
  been added to Unicode.
  As of Unicode 5.1.0, this is the case of the labiodental
  flap, symbolized by a right-hook v: .
  These will display properly with a recent version of
  Charis
  SIL, Doulos
  SIL or DejaVu
  Sans fonts installed.
• In rows where some symbols appear in pairs (the obstruents),
  the symbol to the right represents a voiced
  consonant (except breathy-voiced
  [ɦ]).
  However, [ʔ]
  cannot be voiced, and the voicing of [ʡ]
  is ambiguous.^[25]
  In the other rows (the sonorants),
  the single symbol represents a voiced consonant.
• Although there is a single symbol for the coronal
  places of articulation for all consonants but fricatives,
  when dealing with a particular language, the symbols
  may be treated as specifically dental, alveolar, or
  post-alveolar, as appropriate for that language, without
  diacritics.
• Shaded areas indicate articulations judged to be impossible.
• The symbols [ʁ,
  ʕ, ʢ] represent either voiced fricatives
  or approximants.
• In many languages, such as English, [h]
  and [ɦ]
  are not actually glottal, fricatives, or approximants.
  Rather, they are bare phonation.^[26]
• It is primarily the shape of the tongue rather than
  its position that distinguishes the fricatives [ʃ
  ʒ], [ɕ
  ʑ], and [ʂ
  ʐ].

Coarticulation

Coarticulated
consonants are sounds that involve two simultaneous
places
of articulation (are pronounced using two parts of
the vocal
tract). In English, the [w] in «went» is a coarticulated
consonant, because it is pronounced by rounding the lips
and raising the back of the tongue. Other languages, such
as French
and Swedish,
have different coarticulated consonants.

Note

• [ɧ]
  is described as a «simultaneous [ʃ]
  and [x]«.^[27]
  However, this analysis is disputed. (See voiceless
  palatal-velar fricative for discussion.)

Affricates and double articulation

Affricates
and doubly
articulated stops are represented by two symbols joined
by a tie bar, either above or below the symbols. The six
most common affricates are optionally represented by ligatures,
though this is no longer official IPA usage,^[1]
because a great number of ligatures would be required
to represent all affricates this way. Alternatively, a
superscript notation for a consonant release is sometimes
used to transcribe affricates, for example tˢ
for t͡s,
paralleling kˣ
~ k͡x.
The symbols for the palatal plosives, <c
ɟ>, are often used as a convenience for
[t͡ʃ
d͡ʒ] or similar affricates, even in official
IPA publications, so they must be interpreted with care.

Note

• If your browser uses Arial
  Unicode MS to display IPA characters, the following
  incorrectly formed sequences may look better due to
  a bug in that font: ts͡,
  tʃ͡, tɕ͡, dz͡, dʒ͡,
  dʑ͡, tɬ͡, kp͡, ɡb͡,
  ŋm͡.

Non-pulmonic consonants

Non-pulmonic consonants are sounds whose airflow is not
dependent on the lungs. These include clicks (found in
the Khoisan
languages of Africa) and implosives
(found in languages such as Swahili).

Notes

• Clicks are double articulated and have traditionally
  been described as having a forward ‘release’ and a rear
  ‘accompaniment’, with the click letters representing
  the release. Therefore all clicks would require two
  letters for proper notation: [k͡ǂ,
  ɡ͡ǂ, ŋ͡ǂ, q͡ǂ,
  ɢ͡ǂ, ɴ͡ǂ] etc.,
  or [ǂ͡k,
  ǂ͡ɡ, ǂ͡ŋ, ǂ͡q,
  ǂ͡ɢ, ǂ͡ɴ]. When
  the dorsal articulation is omitted, a [k]
  may usually be assumed. However, recent research disputes
  the concept of ‘accompaniment’.^[28]
  In such approaches, the click letter represents both
  articulations, there is no velar-uvular distinction,
  and the accompanying letter represents the manner of
  the click: [ǂ,
  ^ɡǂ, ^ŋǂ]
  etc.
• Symbols for the voiceless
  implosives [ƥ,
  ƭ, ƈ, ƙ, ʠ] are no longer
  supported by the IPA, though they remain in Unicode.
  Instead, the IPA uses the voiced equivalent with a voiceless
  diacritic: [ɓ̥,
  ʛ̥], etc.
• Although not confirmed from any language, and therefore
  not explicitly recognized by the IPA, a retroflex
  implosive, [ᶑ],
  is supported in the Unicode Phonetic Extensions Supplement,
  added in version 4.1 of the Unicode Standard, or can
  be created as a composite [ɗ̡].
• The ejective symbol often stands in for a superscript
  glottal stop in glottalized
  but pulmonic sonorants,
  such as [mˀ],
  [lˀ], [wˀ], [aˀ]. These may also
  be transcribed as creaky [m̰],
  [l̰], [w̰], [a̰].

Vowels

The IPA defines a vowel as a sound which occurs at a
syllable center.^[29]
Below is a chart depicting the vowels of the IPA. The
IPA maps the vowels according to the position of the tongue.

An X-Ray shows the sounds [i, u, a, ɑ]

The vertical axis of the chart is mapped by vowel
height. Vowels pronounced with the tongue lowered
are at the bottom, and vowels pronounced with the tongue
raised are at the top. For example, [ɑ]
(said as the «a» in «palm») is at the bottom because the
tongue is lowered in this position. However, [i]
(said as the vowel in «meet») is at the top because the
sound is said with the tongue raised to the roof of the
mouth.

Tongue positions of cardinal front vowels with highest point indicated. The position of the highest point is used to determine vowel height and backness

In a similar fashion, the horizontal axis of the chart
is determined by vowel
backness. Vowels with the tongue moved towards the
front of the mouth (such as [ɛ],
the vowel in «met») are to the left in the chart, while
those in which it is moved to the back (such as [ʌ],
the vowel in «but») are placed to the right in the chart.

In places where vowels are paired, the right represents
a rounded
vowel (in which the lips are rounded) while the left
is its unrounded counterpart.

Notes

• [a]
  officially represents a front vowel, but there is little
  distinction between front and central open vowels, and
  [a]
  is frequently used for an open central vowel. ^[14]
  However, if disambiguation is required, the retraction
  diacritic may be added to indicate an open central vowel
  ([a̱]).

Diacritics

Diacritics are small markings which are placed around
the IPA letter in order to show a certain alteration or
more specific description in the letter’s pronunciation.^[30]
Sub-diacritics (markings normally placed below a letter
or symbol) may be placed above a symbol having a descender
(informally called a tail), e.g. ŋ̊.^[30]

The dotless i, <ı>,
is used when the dot would interfere with the diacritic.
Other IPA symbols may appear as diacritics to represent
phonetic detail: tˢ
(fricative release), bʱ
(breathy voice), ˀa
(glottal onset), ᵊ
(epenthetic schwa), o^ʊ
(diphthongization). Additional diacritics were introduced
in the Extensions
to the IPA, which were designed principally for speech
pathology.

Notes

a^ With
aspirated voiced consonants, the aspiration is also
voiced. Many linguists prefer one of the diacritics
dedicated to breathy voice.

b^ Some
linguists restrict this breathy-voice diacritic to sonorants,
and transcribe obstruents as bʱ.

The state of the glottis
can be finely transcribed with diacritics. A series of
alveolar plosives ranging from an open to a closed glottis
phonation
are:

Suprasegmentals

These symbols describe the features of a language above
the level of individual consonants and vowels, such as
prosody,
tone,
length,
and stress,
which often operate on syllables, words, or phrases:
that is, elements such as the intensity, pitch, and gemination
of the sounds of a language, as well as the rhythm
and intonation
of speech.^[31]
Although most of these symbols indicate distinctions that
are phonemic at the word level, symbols also exist for
intonation on a level greater
than that of the word.^[31]

Finer distinctions of tone may be indicated by combining
the tone diacritics and letters shown here, though not
many fonts support this. Examples can be seen on the PDF
version of the IPA chart at the beginning of this article.
A work-around sometimes seen when a language has more
than one rising or falling tone, and the author does not
wish to completely abandon the IPA, is to restrict generic
rising ɔ̌
and falling ɔ̂
for the higher-pitched of the rising and falling tones,
ɔ˥˧
and ɔ˧˥,
and to use the non-standard subscript diacritics ɔ̗
and ɔ̖
for the lower-pitched rising and falling tones, ɔ˩˧
and ɔ˧˩.

Obsolete symbols and nonstandard
symbols

The IPA inherited alternate symbols from various traditions,
but eventually settled on one for each sound. The other
symbols are now considered obsolete. An example is ɷ
which has been standardised to ʊ.
Several symbols indicating secondary articulation have
been dropped altogether, with the idea that such things
should be indicated with diacritics: ƍ
for zʷ
is one. In addition, the rare voiceless implosive series
ƥ
ƭ ƈ ƙ ʠ has been dropped; they
are now written ɓ̥
ɗ̥ ʄ̊ ɠ̊ ʛ̥
respectively.

There are also unsupported or ad
hoc symbols from local traditions that find their
way into publications that otherwise use the standard
IPA. This is especially common with affricates such as
ƛ
for t͡ɬ
(the «tl» in «Nahuatl»).

IPA extensions

Extensions to the IPA, also often abbreviated as extIPA,
is a group of symbols whose original purpose was to accurately
transcribe disordered
speech. At the IPA
Kiel Convention in 1989, a group of linguists drew
up the initial set of symbols for the Extended IPA.^[32]
Extensions to the IPA were first published in 1990, and
modified over the next few years before its official publication
in the Journal of the International Phonetic Association
in 1994 allowed it to be officially adopted by the ICPLA.^[33]
While its original purpose was to transcribe disordered
speech, linguists have used it to designate a number of
unique sounds within standard communication, such as hushing,
gnashing teeth, and smacking lips. The Extensions to the
IPA have also been used to record certain peculiarities
in an individual’s voice, such as nasalized voicing.^[2]

Aside from the extIPA, another set of symbols is used
for voice quality (VoQS), such as whispering.

Segments that have no symbols

The remaining blank cells on the IPA chart can be filled
without too much difficulty if the need arises. Some ad
hoc symbols have appeared in the literature, for
example for the retroflex lateral flap and the voiceless
lateral fricative series, the epiglottal trill, and the
labiodental plosives. (See the grey symbols in the PDF
chart.) Diacritics can supply much of the remainder, which
would indeed be appropriate if the sounds were allophones.^[34]

Consonants without letters

Representations of consonant sounds outside of the core
set are created by adding diacritics to symbols for similar
sound values. The Spanish bilabial approximant is commonly
written as a lowered fricative, [β̞].
Similarly, voiced lateral fricatives would be written
as raised lateral approximants, [ɭ˔
ʎ̝ ʟ̝]. A few languages such
as Banda
have a bilabial flap as the preferred allophone of what
is elsewhere a labiodental flap. It has been suggested
that this be written with the labiodental flap symbol
and the advanced diacritic, [ѵ̟].^[35]

Similarly, a labiodental trill would be written [ʙ̪]
(bilabial trill and the dental sign), and labiodental
stops [p̪
b̪] rather than with the ad hoc symbols
sometimes found in the literature. Other taps can be written
as extra-short plosives or laterals, e.g. [ɟ̆
ɢ̆ ʟ̆], though in some cases
the diacritic would need to be written below the letter.
A retroflex trill can be written as a retracted [r̠],
just as retroflex fricatives sometimes are. The remaining
consonants, the uvular laterals (ʟ̠
etc.) and the palatal trill, while not strictly
impossible, are very difficult to pronounce and are unlikely
to occur even as allophones in the world’s languages.

Vowels without letters

The vowels are similarly manageable by using diacritics
for raising, lowering, fronting, backing, centering, and
mid-centering.^[36]
For example, the unrounded equivalent of [ʊ]
can be transcribed as mid-centered [ɯ̽],
and the rounded equivalent of [æ]
as raised [ɶ̝].
True mid vowels are lowered [e̞
ø̞ ɘ̞ ɵ̞ ɤ̞ o̞],
while centered [ɪ̈
ʊ̈] and [ä]
are near-close and open central vowels, respectively.
The only known vowels that cannot be represented in this
scheme are the compressed
vowels, which would require a dedicated diacritic, such
as [ʏ̫].

Symbol names

An IPA symbol is often distinguished from the sound it
is intended to represent since there is not a one-to-one
correspondence between symbol and sound in broad transcription.
While the Handbook of the International Phonetic Association
states that no official names exist for symbols, it admits
the presence of one or two common names for each character
that are commonly used.^[37]
The symbols also have nonce names in the Unicode
standard. In some cases, the Unicode names and the IPA
names do not agree. For example, IPA calls ɛ
«epsilon», but Unicode calls it «small letter open E».

The traditional names of the Latin and Greek letters
are usually used for unmodified symbols.^[note
7] Letters which are not directly
derived from these alphabets, such as [ʕ],
may have a variety of names, sometimes based on the appearance
of the symbol, and sometimes based on the sound that it
represents. In Unicode, some of the symbols of Greek origin
have Latin forms for use in IPA; the others use the symbols
from the Greek section.

For diacritics, there are two methods of naming. For
traditional diacritics, the IPA uses the name of the symbol
from a certain language, for example, é
is acute,
based on the name of the symbol in English and French.
In non-traditional diacritics, the IPA often names a symbol
according to an object it resembles, as d̪
is called bridge.

ASCII transliterations, IPA influence
on other phonetic alphabets

Since the IPA uses symbols that are outside the ASCII
character set, several systems have been developed that
map the IPA symbols to ASCII characters. Notable systems
include Kirshenbaum,
SAMPA,
and X-SAMPA.
The usage of mapping systems in on-line text has to some
extent been adopted in the context input methods, allowing
convenient keying of IPA characters that would be otherwise
unavailable on standard keyboard layouts.

See also

• Articulatory
  phonetics
• IAST
• IPA
  chart for English
• List
  of phonetics topics
• Phonetic
  transcription
• SAMPA,
  X-SAMPA
  and Kirshenbaum
  are other methods of mapping IPA designations into ASCII.
• Semyon
  Novgorodov — the inventor of IPA-based Yakut
  alphabet.
• TIPA
  provides IPA support for LaTeX.
• Unicode
  Phonetic Symbols

Notes

1. ^
   «The acronym ‘IPA’ strictly refers […] to the ‘International
   Phonetic Association’. But it is now such a common
   practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet
   itself (from the phrase ‘International Phonetic Alphabet’)
   that resistance seems pedantic. Context usually serves
   to disambiguate the two usages.» (Laver 1994:561)
2. ^
   In contrast, English
   sometimes uses combinations of two letters to represent
   single sounds, such as the digraphs
   sh and th for the sounds [ʃ]
   and [θ]/[ð],
   respectively.
3. ^
   For instance, flaps
   and taps are two different kinds of articulation,
   but since no language has (yet) been found to make a
   distinction between, say, an alveolar
   flap and an alveolar tap, the IPA does not provide
   such sounds with dedicated symbols. Instead, it provides
   a single symbol (in this case, [ɾ])
   for both sounds. Strictly speaking, this makes the IPA
   a phonemic alphabet, not a phonetic one.
4. ^
   There are five basic tone marks, which are combined
   for contour tones; six of these combinations are in
   common use.
5. ^
   «The non-roman letters of the International Phonetic
   Alphabet have been designed as far as possible to harmonize
   well with the roman letters. The Association does not
   recognise makeshift letters; It recognises only letters
   which have been carefully cut so as to be in harmony
   with the other letters.» (IPA 1949)
6. ^
   Technically, the symbol [ʔ]
   could be considered Latin-derived, since the question
   mark may have originated as «Qo»,
   an abbreviation of the Latin word quæstio,
   «question».
7. ^
   For example, [p] is called «Lower-case P» and [χ]
   is «Chi.» (International Phonetic Association, Handbook,
   p. 171)

Citations

References

External links

General

• A
  little encyclopedia of phonetics, Peter Roach, Professor
  of Phonetics, University of Reading, UK. (pdf)
• The
  International Phonetic Association web site
• The
  International Phonetic Alphabet (revised to 2005)
  Symbols for all languages are shown on this one-page
  chart.
• IPA
  copy & paste charts, keyboards, etc by IPA.Webstuff.org
• Learning
  the IPA for English, (Standard American English)
• Information
  on IPA by Omniglot
• IPA
  Chart in Unicode and XHTML/CSS
• Using
  IPA fonts with Mac OS X: The Comprehensive Guide,
  an article explaining how to install and use freeware
  fonts and keyboard layouts to type in the International
  Phonetic Alphabet on OS X.

Free IPA font downloads

• Charis
  SIL, a very complete international font (Latin,
  Greek, Cyrillic) in roman, italic, and bold
  typefaces that includes tone letters and pre-composed
  tone diacritics on IPA vowels, the new labiodental flap,
  and many non-standard phonetic symbols. Based on Bitstream
  Charter, this font suffers from extremely bad hinting
  when rendered by Freetype
  on Linux.
• Doulos
  SIL, a Times/Times New Roman style font. It contains
  the same characters as Charis SIL, but only in a single
  face, roman.
• TIPA,
  a font and system for entering IPA phonetic transcriptions
  in LaTeX
  documents.
• DejaVu
  fonts [1],
  available under GPL
  license, have full Unicode IPA support.[2]
• Gentium,
  a professionally designed international font (Latin,
  Greek, Cyrillic) in roman
  and italic
  typefaces that includes the IPA, but not yet tone
  letters or the new labiodental flap. For bold typefaces
  but only the most basic IPA letters, Gentium Basic may
  be used.

Keyboard input

• Complete
  Guide: Beginners’ guide to using IPA on Windows,
  Mac OS and Linux, covering many office applications
  and browsers
• Online
  keyboard
• IPA
  Character Picker Web-based input method
• Online
  keyboard with MP3
  sound files for IPA symbols
• Downloadable
  IPA-SIL keyboard layout for Mac OS X for Unicode
  IPA input
• Downloadable
  IPA keyboard layout for Microsoft Windows for Unicode
  IPA input
• IPACharMap
  is an on-screen keyboard for point and click character
  entry, which can then be copied and pasted into a unicode-aware
  word processor. Based on IPA Palette.
• IPA
  Palette is the Mac OS X version of IPACharMap.
• Microsoft
  Template — Creates a Toolbar for Microsoft Word.
  (Please be aware this uses Macros)

Sound files

• Paul
  Meier Dialect Services — IPA Charts, including English
  diphthongs
• Peter
  Ladefoged’s Course in Phonetics (with sound files)
• IPA
  chart with AIFF
  sound files for IPA symbols
• An
  introduction to the sounds of languages
• IPA
  chart with MP3
  sound files for all IPA symbols on the chart (limited
  version is available to anyone)
• Flash
  version of IPA charts, with sound samples
• Another
  set of IPA sound samples
• Complete
  IPA chart with sound samples, including English diphthongs

Unicode charts

• Unicode
  chart for main IPA lettersPDF (127 KB)
• Unicode
  chart for IPA modifier lettersPDF (97.9 KB)
• Unicode
  chart including IPA diacriticsPDF (112 KB)
• International
  Phonetic Alphabet in Unicode
• Unicode-HTML
  codes for IPA symbols: Tables of symbol names, character
  entity references and/or numeric
  character references at PennState.
• MySQL
  Unicode collation chart for IPA and other phonetic blocks

Published — December 2008

I phoned back, only to realize that the advisor had taken down the code wrong – the recovery vehicle had gone to the wrong bridge.