International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)

Origin
The IPA was first published in 1888 by the Association Phontique Internationale (International
Phonetic Association), a group of rench language teachers founded by Paul Passy! The ai" of the
organisation was to de#ise a syste" for transcribing the sounds of speech which was independent
of any particular language and applicable to all languages!
A phonetic script for $nglish created in 18%& by Isaac Pit"an and 'enry $llis was used as a "odel
for the IPA!
Uses
The IPA is used in dictionaries to indicate the pronunciation of words!
The IPA has often been used as a basis for creating new writing syste"s for pre#iously
unwritten languages!
The IPA is used in so"e foreign language te(t boo)s and phrase boo)s to transcribe the
sounds of languages which are written with non*latin alphabets! It is also used by non*nati#e
spea)ers of $nglish when learning to spea) $nglish!
+here sy"bols appear in pairs, the one on the right represents a #oiced consonant, while the one
on the left is un#oiced! ,haded areas denote articulations -udged to be i"possible!