International Phonetic Alphabet

The International Phonetic Alphabet. "IPA" redirects here. For other uses, see IPA (disambiguation). The NATO phonetic alphabet has also informally been called the International Phonetic Alphabet. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a system of phonetic notation devised by linguists to accurately and uniquely represent each of the wide variety of sounds (phones or phonemes) used in spoken human language. It is intended as a notational standard for the phonemic and phonetic representation of all spoken languages. For a treatment of the English language using the IPA, see International Phonetic Alphabet for English, for a brief chart, see IPA chart for English. Contents 1 History 2 Description 2.1 The principle of formation 2.2 The principles behind the used symbols 2.3 Types of transcriptions 3 Consonants (pulmonic) 3.1 Single articulation 3.2 Coarticulation 4 Consonants (non-pulmonic) 5 Vowels 6 Affricates and double articulation 7 Extended IPA 8 Suprasegmentals 8.1 Intonation 8.2 Tone 9 Diacritics 9.1 Extended IPA diacritics 9.1.1 Prosodic notation 10 Obsolete and nonstandard symbols 10.1 How to transcribe sounds that don't have symbols in the IPA charts 11 Names of the symbols 11.1 The letters 11.2 The diacritic marks 12 Comparison to other phonetic notation 13 See also 14 External links 14.1 Free IPA font downloads 14.2 Keyboards 14.3 Sound files 14.4 Charts 14.5 Unicode 14.6 Personal extensions of the IPA 15 References 16 Note: This page uses special characters History Main article Description The general principle of the IPA is to provide a separate symbol for each speech segment, avoiding letter combinations (digraphs) such as sh and th in English orthography, and avoiding ambiguity such as that of c in English. The principle of formation The IPA is what MacMahon (1996) has termed a "selective" phonetic alphabet. It aims to provide a separate symbol for every contrastive (that is, phonemic) sound occurring in human language. For instance, a flap and a tap are two different articulations, but since no language has (yet) been found to make a phonemic distinction between them, the IPA does not provide them with dedicated symbols. Instead, it provides a single symbol, ɾ, that covers both. For non-contrastive (that is, phonetic or subphonemic) details of these sounds, the IPA relies on diacritics, which are optional. Thus there is a certain level of flexibility in representing a language with the IPA. The principles behind the used symbols The letters chosen for the IPA are generally drawn from the Latin and Greek alphabets, or are modifications of Latin or Greek letters. There are also a few letters derived from Latin punctuation, such as the glottal stop ʔ (originally an apostrophe, but later given the form of a "gelded" question mark to have the visual impact of the other consonants), and one, ʕ, although Latin in form, was inspired by Arabic ﻉ. In contrast, the old Latin-derived symbols for the clicks have been abandoned in favor of the iconic Khoisanist symbols, such as ǁ. The sound-values of the consonants from the Latin alphabet correspond to usage in French and Italian, which are close to those of most other European languages as well: [b], [d], [f], (hard) [ɡ], [l], [m], [n], [p], (unvoiced) [s], [t], [v], [z]. English values are used for [h], [k], and [w], The vowels from the Latin alphabet ([a], [e], [i], [o], [u]) correspond to the vowels of Spanish and are similar to Italian. [i] is like the vowel in piece, [u] like rule, etc. The other symbols from the Latin alphabet ([c], [j], [q], [r], [x], and [y]) correspond to sounds these letters represent in other languages. [j] has the Germanic value, English y in yoke. [y] has the Scandinavian and Old English value (Finnish y, German y or ü, French u, Dutch u). Letters that share a particular modification sometimes correspond to a similar type of sound. For example, all the retroflex consonants have the same symbol as the equivalent alveolar consonant, with the addition of a rightward pointing hook at the bottom. Although there is some correspondence between modified letters, generally the IPA does not have a systematic "featural" relationship between graphic shape and articulation. For instance, there is not a consistent relationship between lowercase letters and their small capital counterparts, nor are all labial consonants linked through a common character design. 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. Types of transcriptions The International Phonetic Association recommends that a phonetic transcription should be enclosed in square brackets ("[ ]"). A transcription that specifically denotes only phonological contrasts may be enclosed in slashes ("/ /") instead. If one is in doubt, it is best to use brackets, for by setting off a transcription with slashes one makes a theoretical claim that every symbol within is phonemically contrastive for the language being transcribed. Phonetic transcriptions try to objectively capture the actual pronunciation of a word, whereas phonemic transcriptions are model dependent. For example, Noam Chomsky transcribed the English word night phonemically as /nixt/. In his model, the phoneme /x/ is often silent, but shows its presence by “lengthening” the preceding vowel. The preceding vowel in this case is the phoneme /i/, which is pronounced [aj] when long. So phonemic /nixt/ is equivalent to phonetic [najt], but only if you share Chomsky's belief that historical sounds such as the gh in night may remain in a word long after they have ceased to be pronounced. For phonetic transcriptions, there is flexibility in how closely sounds may be transcribed. A transcription that gives only a basic idea of the sounds of a language in the broadest terms is called a "broad transcription"; in some cases this may be equivalent to a phonemic transcription (only without any theoretical claims). A close transcription, indicating precise details of the sounds, is called a "narrow transcription". These are not binary choices, but the ends of a continuum, with many possibilities in between. All are enclosed in brackets. For example, in some dialects the English word pretzel in a narrow transcription would be [ˈpʰɹ̥ʷɛʔt.sɫ̩], which notes several phonetic features that may not be evident even to a native speaker. An example of a broader transcription is [ˈpʰɹɛt.sɫ̩], which only indicates some of the easier to hear features. A yet broader transcription would be [ˈpɹɛtsl]. Here every symbol represents an unambiguous speech sound, but without making any claims as to their status in the language. There are also several possibilities in how to transcribe this word phonemically, but here the differences are not of precision, but of analysis. For example, pretzel could be /ˈprɛtsl/ or /ˈpretsəl/. The special symbol for English r is not used, for it is not meaningful to distinguish it from a rolled r. The differences in the letter e reflect claims as to what the essential difference is between the vowels of pretzel and pray; there are half a dozen ideas in the literature as to what this may be. The second transcription claims that there are two vowels in the word, even if they can't both be heard, while the first claims there is only one. Occasionally a transcription will be enclosed in pipes ("| |"). This goes beyond phonology into morphological analysis. For example, the words pets and beds could be transcribed phonetically as [pʰɛʔts] and [b̥ɛdz] (in a fairly narrow transcription), and phonemically as /pets/ and /bedz/. Because /s/ and /z/ are separate phonemes in English (unlike Spanish, for example), they receive separate symbols in the phonemic analysis. However, you probably recognize that underneath this, they represent the same plural ending. This can be indicated with the pipe notation. If you believe the plural ending is essentially an s, as English spelling would suggest, the words can be transcribed |pets| and |beds|. If, as most linguists would probably suggest, it is essentially a z, these would be |petz| and |bedz|. To avoid confusion with IPA symbols, it may be desirable to specify when native orthography is being used, so that, for example, the English word jet is not read as "yet". This is done with angle brackets or chevrons: 〈jet〉. It is also common to italicize such words, but the chevrons indicate specifically that they are in the original language's orthography, and not in English transliteration. Consonants (pulmonic) Single articulation Closeup of the main pulmonic consonant section of the IPA chart The pulmonic consonant table, which includes most consonants, is arranged in rows that designate manner of articulation and columns that designate place of articulation. The main chart only includes consonants with a single place of articulation. Place of articulation → Labial Coronal Dorsal Radical (none) Manner of articulation ↓ Bi­la­bial La­bio‐ den­tal Den­tal Al­veo­lar Post‐ al­veo­lar Re­tro‐ flex Pa­la­tal Ve­lar Uvu­lar Pha­ryn‐ geal Epi‐ glot­tal Glot­tal Nasal    m    ɱ    n    ɳ    ɲ    ŋ    ɴ   Plosive p b * * t d ʈ ɖ c ɟ k ɡ q ɢ   ʡ ʔ   Fricative ɸ β f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ ʂ ʐ ç ʝ x ɣ χ ʁ ħ ʕ ʜ ʢ h ɦ Approx­imant    β̞    ʋ    ɹ    ɻ    j    ɰ       Trill    ʙ    r    *    ʀ    *   Tap or Flap    *    †    ɾ    ɽ          *   Lateral Fricative ɬ ɮ *    *    *        Lateral Approx­imant    l    ɭ    ʎ    ʟ   Lateral Flap      ɺ    *      *     Notes: Asterisks (*) mark reported sounds that do not (yet) have official IPA symbols. See the articles for ad hoc symbols found in the literature. Daggers (†) mark IPA symbols that do not yet have official Unicode support. Since May 2005, this is the case of the labiodental flap, symbolized by a right-hook v: In rows where some symbols appear in pairs (the obstruents), the symbol to the right represents a voiced consonant (except for breathy-voiced [ɦ]). However, [ʔ] cannot be voiced. 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 are treated as specifically alveolar, post-alveolar, etc., as appropriate for that language. Shaded areas indicate articulations judged to be impossible. The symbols [ʁ, ʕ, ʢ] represent either voiced fricatives or approximants. It is primarily the shape of the tongue rather than its position that distinguishes the fricatives [ʃ ʒ], [ɕ ʑ], and [ʂ ʐ]. The labiodental nasal [ɱ] is not known to exist as a phoneme in any language. Coarticulation Closeup of the co-articulated consonant section of the IPA chart ʍ Voiceless labialized velar approximant w Voiced labialized velar approximant ɥ Voiced labialized palatal approximant ɕ Voiceless palatalized postalveolar (alveolo-palatal) fricative ʑ Voiced palatalized postalveolar (alveolo-palatal) fricative ɧ Voiceless "palatal-velar" fricative Notes: [ɧ] is described as a "simultaneous [ʃ] and [x]". However, this analysis is disputed. See the article for discussion. To be complete, this chart should also include the semi-palatalized postalveolar (palato-alveolar) fricatives [ʃ] and [ʒ]. The miscellaneous portion of the chart, as published by the IPA, includes additional symbols that would have been included in the main consonant chart were it not for difficulties in typesetting on a printed page. In this article, which does not suffer from such problems, they have been included in the main chart above. Consonants (non-pulmonic) Closeup of the non-pulmonic consonant section of the IPA chart Click releases Implosives Ejectives ʘ Bilabial ɓ Bilabial ʼ For example: ǀ Laminal alveolar ("dental") ɗ Alveolar pʼ Bilabial ǃ Apical (post-) alveolar ("retroflex") ʄ Palatal tʼ Alveolar ǂ Laminal postalveolar ("palatal") ɠ Velar kʼ Velar ǁ Lateral coronal ("lateral") ʛ Uvular sʼ Alveolar fricative Notes: All clicks are doubly articulated and require two symbols: a velar or uvular stop, plus a symbol for the release: [k͡ǂ, ɡ͡ǂ, ŋ͡ǂ, q͡ǂ, ɢ͡ǂ, ɴ͡ǂ], etc. When the dorsal articulation is omitted, a [k] may usually be assumed. Symbols for the voiceless implosives [ƥ, ƭ, ƈ, ƙ, ʠ] are no longer supported by the IPA. Instead, the voiced equivalent is used 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 [ɗ̢]. The ejective symbol is often seen for glottalized but pulmonic sonorants, such as [mʼ], [lʼ], [wʼ], [aʼ], but these are more properly transcribed as creaky ([m̰], [l̰], [w̰], [a̰]). Vowels Closeup of the vowel chart of the IPA Edit - 2× Front N.-front Central N.-back Back Close i • y ɨ • ʉ ɯ • u ɪ • ʏ • ʊ e • ø ɘ • ɵ ɤ • o ə ɛ • œ ɜ • ɞ ʌ • ɔ æ ɐ a • ɶ ɑ • ɒ Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open Notes: Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a rounded vowel, as does [ʊ] (at least prototypically). All others are unrounded. [ɶ] is not confirmed as a distinct phoneme in any language. [a] is officially a front vowel, but there is little distinction between front and central open vowels, and [a] is frequently used for an open central vowel. 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 commonest affricates are optionally represented by ligatures, though this is no longer official IPA usage, due to the great number of ligatures that would be required to represent all affricates this way. A third affricate transcription sometimes seen uses the superscript notation for a consonant release, 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. Image of the six common affricate ligatures and their official IPA equivalents Tie bar Ligature Description t͡s ʦ voiceless alveolar affricate d͡z ʣ voiced alveolar affricate t͡ʃ ʧ voiceless postalveolar affricate d͡ʒ ʤ voiced postalveolar affricate t͡ɕ ʨ voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate d͡ʑ ʥ voiced alveolo-palatal affricate t͡ɬ  – voiceless alveolar lateral affricate k͡p  – voiceless labial-velar plosive ɡ͡b  – voiced labial-velar plosive ŋ͡m  – labial-velar nasal stop 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. Extended IPA The Extended IPA was designed for disordered speech. However, some of the symbols (especially diacritics, below) are occasionally used for transcribing normal speech as well. View a pdf file here. ʩ Velopharyngeal fricative (often occurs with a cleft palate) ʪ Voiceless central-plus-lateral alveolar fricative, [ɬ͡s] (a lisp) ʫ Voiceless central-plus-lateral alveolar fricative, [ɮ͡z] (a lisp) ʬ Bilabial percussive (smacking lips) ʭ Bidental percussive (gnashing teeth) ¡ Sublaminal lower alveolar click (sucking tongue) The last symbol may be used with the alveolar click for [ǃ¡], a combined alveolar and sublaminal click or "cluck-click". Suprasegmentals Closeup of the suprasegmental section of the IPA chart ˈ Primary stress ˌ Secondary stress ː Long (long vowel or geminate consonant) ˑ Half-long ˘ Extra-short . Syllable break ‿ Linking (absence of a break) Intonation | Minor (foot) break ‖ Major (intonation) break ↗ Global rise ↘ Global fall Tone IPA allows for the use of either tone diacritics or tone letters to indicate tones. e̋ or ˥ Extra high é or ˦ High ē or ˧ Mid è or ˨ Low ȅ or ˩ Extra low ě Rise ê Fall ↓e Downstep ↑e Upstep Note: With regard to tone diacritics, Unicode encodes marks for some contour tones, but not all. In Unicode version 4.1, only hacek (rising) and circumflex (falling) diacritics were encoded. Subsequent versions may also include six additional diacritics for contour tones, such as the macron-acute and the grave-acute-grave ligatures. (See an image here.) Note that contour tone diacritics are not encoded as sequences of level tone diacritics in Unicode. With regard to tone letters, Unicode does not have separate encodings for contour tones. Instead, sequences of level tone letters are used, with proper display dependent on the font, usually by means of OpenType font rendition: [˥˩] or [˦˥˧]. (These are probably not displaying correctly in your browser. See the image for a sample of how they should appear.) Since few fonts support combination tone letters (see the external links for one that is free), a common solution is to use the old system of superscript numerals from '1' to '5', for example [e53, e312]. However, this depends on local linguistic tradition, with '5' generally being high and '1' being low for Asian languages, but '1' being high and '5' low for African languages. An old IPA convention sometimes still seen is to use sub-diacritics for low contour tones: [e̖, e̗] for low-falling and low-rising. The upstep and downstep modifiers are superscript arrows. Unicode version 4.1 does not encode these, though subsequent versions will. The arrows for upstep and downstep should not be confused with the full-height arrows, which are used to indicate airflow direction. Diacritics Closeup of the diacritic section of the IPA chart Sub-diacritics may be placed above a symbol with a descender, i.e. ŋ̊. 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), oʊ (diphthongization). Syllabicity diacritics ɹ̩ n̩ Syllabic e̯ ʊ̯ Non-syllabic Consonant-release diacritics tʰ dʰ Aspirated 2 d̚ No audible release dⁿ Nasal release dˡ Lateral release Phonation diacritics n̥ d̥ Voiceless s̬ t̬ Voiced b̤ a̤ Breathy voiced 1 b̰ a̰ Creaky voiced Articulation diacritics t̪ d̪ Dental t̼ d̼ Linguolabial t̺ d̺ Apical t̻ d̻ Laminal u̟ t̟ Advanced i̠ t̠ Retracted ë ä Centralized e̽ ɯ̽ Mid-centralized e̝ ɹ̝ ˔ Raised (ɹ̝ = voiced alveolar nonsibilant fricative) e̞ β̞ ˕ Lowered (β̞ = bilabial approximant) Co-articulation diacritics ɔ̹ x̹ More rounded ɔ̜ x̜ʷ Less rounded tʷ dʷ Labialized tʲ dʲ Palatalized tˠ dˠ Velarized tˁ dˁ Pharyngealized ɫ z̴ Velarized or pharyngealized e̘ o̘ Advanced tongue root e̙ o̙ Retracted tongue root ẽ z̃ Nasalized ɚ ɝ Rhoticity Notes: Some linguists restrict this breathy-voice diacritic to sonorants, and transcribe obstruents as bʱ. With aspirated voiced consonants, the aspiration is also voiced. Many linguists prefer one of the diacritics dedicated to breathy voice. 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: [t] voiceless [d̤] breathy voice, also called murmured [d̥] slack voice [d] modal voice [d̬] stiff voice [d̰] creaky voice [ʔ͡t] glottal closure Extended IPA diacritics The letters and diacritics of the ExtIPA The ExtIPA has widened the use of some of the regular IPA diacritics, such as ʰp for pre-aspiration, or s̼ for a linguolabial sibilant, as well as adding some new ones. Some of the ExtIPA diacritics can be used for non-disordered speech as well, for example for the unusual airstream mechanisms of Damin. One modification is the use of subscript parentheses around the phonation diacritics to indicate partial phonation; a single parenthesis at the left or right of the voicing indicates that it is partially phonated at the beginning or end of the segment. For example, ₍s̬₎ is a partially voiced [s], ₍s̬ shows partial initial voicing, and s̬₎ partial final voicing; also ₍z̥₎ is a partially devoiced [z], ₍z̥ shows partial initial devoicing, and z̥₎ partial final devoicing. These conventions may be convenient for representing various voice onset times. Phonation diacritics may also be prefixed or suffixed rather than placed directly under the segment to represent relative timing. For instance,  ̬z is a pre-voiced [z], z ̬ a post-voiced [z], and a ̰ is an [a] with a creaky offglide. Other ExtIPA diacritics are, Airstream mechanism p↓ Ingressive airflow !↑ Egressive airflow Phonation p⁼ Unaspirated ạ Whispery phonation aĦ Faucalized voice (stretched pharynx, as in a yawn) a! Harsh voice, ('pressed voice'; involves the false vocal cords, as when lifting a load) Nasalization n͋    v͋ Nasal fricative or frication m͊ Denasal (as with a headcold) Articulatory strength f͈ Strong articulation v͉ Weak articulation Articulation v͆ Dentolabial n̪͆    h̪͆ Interdental or bidental s͇    f͇ Alveolar(ized) s͎ Whistled articulation Secondary articulation s͍ Labial spreading (see rounded vowel) xœ Open-rounded labialization kʋ Labiodentalized s͌ Velopharyngeal friction Timing s͢θ Slurred/sliding articulation p\p\p Stutter (reiterated articulation) In addition to these symbols, a subscript < or > indicates that an articulation is laterally offset to the left or right, and a double exclamation mark indicates 'ventricular' phonation, though it is not clear how this differs from 'harsh' phonation. Prosodic notation The ExtIPA also makes use of musical notation for the tempo and dynamics of connected speech. These are subscripted on the insides of a {brace} notation that indicates that they are comments on the prosody. Pauses are indicated with periods or numbers inside parentheses. (.) Short pause (..) Medium pause (...) Long pause (1.2) 1.2-second pause f Loud speech ('forte') [{f lɑʊd f}] ff Louder speech ('fortissimo') [{ff lɑʊdɚ ff}] p Quiet speech ('piano') [{p kwaɪət p}] pp Quieter speech ('pianissimo') [{pp kwaɪətɚ pp}] allegro Fast speech [{allegro fɑːst allegro}] lento Slow speech [{lento sloʊ lento}] crescendo, rallentando, and other musical terms may also be used. Obsolete and nonstandard symbols ɩ Iota, rejected 1989 in favor of [ɪ] ɷ Closed omega, rejected 1989 in favor of [ʊ] ʚ Closed epsilon, a mistake for [ɞ] ɼ Long-leg R, voiced strident apico-alveolar trill (Czech ř), withdrawn 1989, = [r̝] ɿ Reversed fishhook R / turned iota, apical dental unrounded vowel used by Sinologists, = [z̩] ʅ Squat reversed esh (actually ɿ with retroflex tail), apical retroflex unrounded vowel used by Sinologists, = [ʐ̩] ʮ turned h with fishhook, apical dental rounded vowel used by Sinologists, = [z̩ʷ] ʯ turned h with fishhook and tail, apical retroflex rounded vowel used by Sinologists, = [ʐ̩ʷ] ȶ t with curl, voiceless palatalized postalveolar (alveolo-palatal) plosive, used by Sinologists ȡ d with curl, voiced palatalized postalveolar (alveolo-palatal) plosive, used by Sinologists ȵ n with curl, voiced palatalized postalveolar (alveolo-palatal) nasal, used by Sinologists A small capital A, open central vowel used by Sinologists, between [a] and [ɑ] E small capital E, mid front unrounded vowel used by Sinologists, between [e] and [ɛ] ʆ Curly-tail esh, withdrawn 1989, = [ʃʲ] ʓ Curly-tail ezh, withdrawn 1989, = [ʒʲ] ƫ Left-hook T, withdrawn 1989, = [tʲ] d̡ etc. Subscript left hook, superseded 1989 by [dʲ] etc. σ = [θʷ, sʷ] ƍ = [ðʷ, zʷ] ƪ = [ʃʷ] ƺ = [ʒʷ] k̫ etc. Subscript w, superseded 1989 by [kʷ] etc. ɑ̢ etc. = [ɑ˞] etc. ("retroflex" or r-colored vowels) ʇ Turned T, superseded 1989 by [ǀ] ʖ Inverted glottal stop, superseded 1989 by [ǁ] ʗ Stretched C, superseded 1989 by [ǃ] ʞ Proposed symbol for velar click, withdrawn 1970 ƥ, ƭ, ƈ, ƙ, ʠ Hooktop P, T, C, K, Q, withdrawn 1993, = [ɓ̥ ɗ̥ ʄ̥ ɠ̥ ʛ̥] ƞ Right-leg N, withdrawn 1976, = [n̩] š Americanist usage, = [ʃ] ž Americanist usage, = [ʒ] č Americanist usage, = [t͡ʃ] ǰ, ǧ, ǯ Americanist, Slavicist etc. usage, = [d͡ʒ] ƛ Americanist usage, = [t͡ɬ] λ Americanist usage, = [d͡ɮ] ƾ Withdrawn 1976, = [t͡s] ƻ Barred two, withdrawn 1976, = [d͡z] How to transcribe sounds that don't have symbols in the IPA charts 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 lateral flaps and voiceless lateral fricatives, the epiglottal trill, and the labiodental plosives. Diacritics can supply much of the remainder, which would indeed be appropriate if the sounds were allophones. For example, 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, [v̛̟]. Similarly, a labiodental trill would be written [ʙ̪] (bilabial trill and the dental sign). Palatal and uvular taps, if they exist, and the epiglottal tap could be written as extra-short plosives, [ɟ˘ ɢ˘ ʡ˘]. A retroflex trill can be written as a retracted [r̠], just as retroflex fricatives sometimes are. The remaining consonants, the uvular laterals 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. The vowels are similary manageable by using diacritics for raising, lowering, fronting, backing, centering, and mid-centering. 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 vowels that aren't representable in this scheme are the compressed vowels, which would require a dedicated diacritic. Names of the symbols It is often desirable to distinguish an IPA symbol from the sound it is intended to represent, since there is not a one-to-one correspondance between symbol and sound in broad transcription. The symbol's names and phonetic descriptions are described in the Handbook of the International Phonetic Association. 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 letters The traditional names of the Latin and Greek letters are used for unmodified symbols. 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. Examples: IPA symbol name phonetic description Unicode name p (lower-case) P voiceless bilabial plosive LATIN SMALL LETTER P x (lower-case) X voiceless velar fricative LATIN SMALL LETTER X r (lower-case) R coronal trill LATIN SMALL LETTER R β beta voiced bilabial fricative GREEK SMALL LETTER BETA ɛ epsilon open-mid front unrounded vowel LATIN SMALL LETTER OPEN E ɣ gamma voiced velar fricative LATIN SMALL LETTER GAMMA θ theta voiceless dental fricative GREEK SMALL LETTER THETA χ chi voiceless uvular fricative GREEK SMALL LETTER CHI ɸ phi voiceless bilabial fricative LATIN SMALL LETTER PHI ʊ upsilon 1 near-close near-back rounded vowel LATIN SMALL LETTER UPSILON Note The Latin "upsilon" is frequently called "horseshoe u" in order to distinguish it from the Greek upsilon. Historically, it derives from a Latin small capital U. The IPA standard includes some small capital letters, such as ʀ, although it is common to refer to these symbols as simply "capital" or "cap" letters, because the IPA standard does not include any full-size capital letters. A few letters have the forms of cursive or script letters. Examples: IPA symbol name phonetic description Unicode name ɑ script A open back unrounded vowel LATIN SMALL LETTER ALPHA ɡ opentail G 1 voiced velar plosive LATIN SMALL LETTER SCRIPT G ʋ cursive V 2 labiodental approximant LATIN SMALL LETTER V WITH HOOK Note The "looptail G" In form and origin, but not in name, this is the Greek upsilon. Ligatures are called precisely that, although some have alternate names. Examples: IPA symbol name phonetic description Unicode name œ (lower-case) o-e ligature open-mid front rounded vowel LATIN SMALL LIGATURE OE ɮ L-Ezh ligature voiced coronal lateral fricative LATIN SMALL LETTER LEZH æ ash; (lower-case) a-e ligature near-open front unrounded vowel LATIN SMALL LETTER AE Many letters are turned, or rotated 180 degrees. Examples: IPA symbol name phonetic description Unicode name ʎ turned Y palatal lateral approximant LATIN SMALL LETTER TURNED Y ɥ turned H labial-palatal approximant LATIN SMALL LETTER TURNED H ɒ turned script A open back rounded vowel LATIN SMALL LETTER TURNED ALPHA ʌ turned V open-mid back unrounded vowel LATIN SMALL TURNED V ɔ open O open-mid back rounded vowel LATIN SMALL LETTER OPEN O The symbol ɔ can be described as a turned cee, but it is almost always referred to as open o, which described both its articulation and its shape. The symbol ʌ is often also called "caret" or "wedge" for it similarity to that diacritic. A few letters are reversed (flipped on a vertical axis): ɘ reversed E, ɜ reversed epsilon, ʕ reversed glottal stop [often called by its Arabic name, ayin]. One letter is inverted (flipped on a horizontal axis): ʁ inverted R. (ʍ could also be called an inverted double-u, but turned double-u is more common.) When a horizontal stroke is added, it is called a bar: ħ barred H, ɵ barred o, ʢ reversed barred glottal stop or barred ayin, ɟ barred dotless J or barred gelded J [apparently never 'turned F'], ǂ double-barred pipe, etc. One letter instead has a slash through it: ø slashed O. The implosives have hook tops: ɓ hook-top B, as does ɦ hook-top H. Such an extension at the bottom of a letter is called a tail. It may be specified as left or right depending on which direction it turns: ɳ right-tail N, ɻ right-tail turned R, ɲ left-tail N [note that ŋ has its own traditional name, engma], ɱ left-tail em, ʐ tail Z [or just retroflex Z], etc. When the tail loops over itself, it's called curly: ʝ curly-tail jay, ɕ curly-tail C. There are also a few unique modifications: ɬ belted L, ɞ closed reversed epsilon [there was once also a ɷ closed omega], ɰ right-leg turned M, ɺ turned long-leg R [there was once also a long-leg R], ǁ double pipe, and the obsolete ʗ stretched C. Several non-English letters have traditional names: ç C cedilla, ð eth (also spelled edh), ŋ engma, ə schwa, ǃ exclamation mark, ǀ pipe. Other symbols are unique to the IPA, and have developed their own quirky names: ɾ fish-hook R, ɤ ram's horns, ʘ bull's eye, ʃ esh [apparently never 'stretched ess'], ʒ ezh [sometimes also yogh], ɧ hook-top heng. The ʔ is usually called by the sound it represents, glottal stop. This is not normally a problem, because this symbol is seldom used to represent anything else. However, to specify the symbol itself, it is sometimes called a gelded question mark. The diacritic marks Diacritics with traditional names: é acute, ē macron, è grave, ê circumflex, ě caron, wedge, or háček, ë diaeresis or umlaut, ĕ breve, ẽ (superscript) tilde, plus variants such as ḛ subscript tilde, ɫ superimposed tilde, etc. Non-traditional diacritics: d̼ seagull, e˞ hook, e̽ over-cross, d ̚ corner, d̪ bridge, d̺ inverted bridge, d̻ square, e̥ under-ring, e̊ over-ring, e̜ left half-ring, e̹ right half-ring, e̟ plus, e̠ under-bar, e̯ arch, d̬ subscript wedge, e̝ up tack, e̞ down tack, e̘ left tack, e̙ right tack, d͡z tie bar, ẹ under-dot, n̩ under-stroke. Diacritics are alternately named after their function: The bridge is also called the dental sign, the under-stroke the syllabicity sign, etc. Comparison to other phonetic notation The IPA is not the only phonetic transcription system in use. The other common Latin-based system is the Americanist phonetic notation, devised for representing American languages, but used by some US linguists as an alternate to the IPA. There are also sets of symbols specific to Slavic, Indic, Finno-Ugric, and Caucasian linguistics, as well as other regional specialies. The differences between these alphabets and IPA are relatively small, although often the special characters of the IPA are abandoned in favour of diacritics or digraphs. Other alphabets, such as Hangul, may have their own phonetic extensions. There also exist featural phonetic transcription systems, such as Alexander Bell's Visible Speech and its derivatives. There is an extended version of the IPA for disordered speech (extIPA), which has been included in this article, and another set of symbols used for voice quality (VoQS). There are also many personal or idiosyncratic extensions, such as Luciano Canepari's canIPA. 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. Two notable systems are Kirshenbaum and SAMPA (or X-SAMPA). These systems are often used in electronic media, although their usage has been declining with the development of computer technology, specifically because of spreading support for Unicode. See also: Unicode and HTML See also Wikimedia Commons has media related to: International Phonetic Alphabet for English explains those IPA symbols used to represent the phonemes of English. IPA chart for English: simplifed version. TIPA provides IPA support for LaTeX. SAMPA, X-SAMPA and Kirshenbaum are other methods of mapping IPA designations into ASCII. List of phonetics topics Uralic Phonetic Alphabet (UPA) External links Official home page of the IPA Free IPA font downloads Doulos SIL, a Times IPA font that supports tone letters, the new labiodental flap, and many non-standard phonetic symbols, but only in roman typeface. Gentium, a highly legible international (Latin, Greek, Cyrillic) font in roman and italic typefaces that includes the IPA, but not yet tone letters or the new labiodental flap. Test page for installed fonts. Includes alternate variants and tone letters. Keyboards Online keyboard IPA-SIL keyboard layout for Mac OS X for Unicode IPA input WikiTeX supports editing IPA sequences directly in Wiki articles. Sound files Peter Ladefoged's Course in Phonetics (with sound files) Pronounceable IPA chart An introduction to the sounds of languages IPA Lab Chart with sound files at University of Victoria. (Works with QuickTime.) Flash version of IPA charts, with sound samples Another set of IPA sound samples Charts IPA chart source IPA Chart in Unicode and XHTML/CSS IPA number chart, at University of Victoria. Unicode Official Unicode PDF files: Unicode chart for main IPA letters Unicode chart for IPA modifier letters Unicode chart including IPA diacritics International Phonetic Alphabet in Unicode Unicode-HTML codes for IPA symbols: Tables of symbol names and HTML codes at PennState. Personal extensions of the IPA canIPA : Luciano Canepari's system (500 base symbols) References Albright, Robert W. (1958). The International Phonetic Alphabet: Its background and development. International journal of American linguistics (Vol. 24, No. 1, Part 3); Indiana University research center in anthropology, folklore, and linguistics, publ. 7. Baltimore. (Doctoral dissertation, Standford University, 1953). Ball, Martin J.; Esling, John H.; & Dickson, B. Craig. (1995). The VoQS system for the transcription of voice quality. Journal of the International Phonetic Alphabet, 25 (2), 71-80. Canepari, Luciano. (2005a). "A Handbook of Phonetics: ‹Natural› Phonetics." München: Lincom Europa, pp. 518. ISBN 3-8958-480-3 (hb). Canepari, Luciano. (2005b) "A Handbook of Pronunciation: English, Italian, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Arabic, Hindi, Chinese, Japanese, Esperanto." München: Lincom Europa, pp. 436. ISBN 3-89586-481-1 (hb). Duckworth, M.; Allen, G.; Hardcastle, W.; & Ball, M. J. (1990). Extensions to the International Phonetic Alphabet for the transcription of atypical speech. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 4, 273-280. Ellis, Alexander J. (1869-1889). On early English pronunciation (Parts 1 & 5). London: Philological Society by Asher & Co.; London: Trübner & Co. Hill, Kenneth C. (1988). [Review of Phonetic symbol guide by G. K. Pullum & W. Ladusaw]. Language, 64 (1), 143-144. Hultzen, Lee S. (1958). [Review of The International Phonetic Alphabet: Its backgrounds and development by R. W. Albright]. Language, 34 (3), 438-442. International Phonetic Association. (1949). The principles of the International Phonetic Association, being a description of the International Phonetic Alphabet and the manner of using it, illustrated by texts in 51 languages. London: University College, Department of Phonetics. International Phonetic Association. (1989). Report on the 1989 Kiel convention. Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 19 (2), 67-80. 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). Jespersen, Otto. (1889). The articulations of speech sounds represented by means of analphabetic symbols. Marburg: Elwert. Jones, Daniel. (1989). English pronouncing dictionary (14 ed.). London: Dent. Kelly, John. (1981). The 1847 alphabet: An episode of phonotypy. In R. E. Asher & E. J. A. Henderson (Eds.), Towards a history of phonetics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Kemp, J. Alan. (1994). Phonetic transcription: History. In R. E. Asher & J. M. Y. Simpson (Eds.), The encyclopedia of language and linguistics (Vol. 6, pp. 3040-3051). Oxford: Pergamon. Ladefoged, Peter. (1990). The revised International Phonetic Alphabet. Language, 66 (3), 550-552. Ladefoged, Peter; & Halle, Morris. (1988). Some major features of the International Phonetic Alphabet. Language, 64 (3), 577-582. MacMahon, Michael K. C. (1996). Phonetic notation. In P. T. Daniels & W. Bright (Ed.), The world's writing systems (pp. 821-846). New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-507993-0. Passy, Paul. (1888). Our revised alphabet. The Phonetic Teacher, 57-60. Pike, Kenneth L. (1943). Phonetics: A critical analysis of phonetic theory and a technic for the practical description of sounds. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Pullum, Geoffrey K.; & Laduslaw, William A. (1986). Phonetic symbol guide. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-68532-2. Sweet, Henry. (1880-1881). Sound notation. Transactions of the Philological Society, 177-235. Sweet, Henry. (1971). The indispensable foundation: A selection from the writings of Henry Sweet. Henderson, Eugénie J. A. (Ed.). Language and language learning 28. London: Oxford University Press. Wells, John C. (1987). Computer-coded phonetic transcription. Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 17, 94-114. Note: This page uses special characters Technical Note: Most IPA symbols are not included in Times New Roman, the default font for Latin scripts in Internet Explorer for Windows. To properly view IPA symbols in Internet Explorer for Windows, you must set your browser font to a typeface that includes the IPA extensions, such as Lucida Sans Unicode (which comes with Windows XP), Gentium (which is freely available), Doulos (SIL) (same source, SIL), or Arial Unicode MS (which comes with Microsoft Office). Alternatively, the style sheet could try using unicode-range specifications to note the gaps where Times does not have glyphs for IPA, Hawaiian ‘okina (glottal stop), etc. and thus hopefully force the browser to check further down the list of fonts. On this page, we have forced the browser to use such a font, so it should appear correctly, but this hasn't yet been done to all the other pages containing IPA. This also appli