INTERNATIONAL PHONETICS

ALPHABET
(IPA)
ENGLISH PHONEMIC ALPHABETS
WHAT IS IPA?
 International Phonetic Alphabets (IPA) is devised
by International Phonetic Association (IPA).
 The association was established in 1886  the
oldest representative organization for world
phoneticians
 The alphabets
 Based on Latin letters and diacritics
WHAT IS IPA?
 A way of transcribing speech as it‟s pronounced
 Can be used to transcribe any language (as long
as there are symbols for the sounds)
 One-to-one correspondence
 One symbol = one sound
 So, there are no problems with weird, ambiguous
spelling, silent letters, etc.
USING IPA IN PHONETICS & PHONOLOGY
 To represent data sets of sounds from different
languages
 We can focus on the sounds of a language without
having to learn the writing system
WHY USE THE IPA?
 Some languages have no writing system
 There is one-to-one correspondence between
letters and sounds
 Same letter – different sounds
 E.g. dad, father, about, many
 Same sound – different letters
 E.g. believe, people, amoeba, tree
 Several letters used for one sound
 E.g. shout, nation, chord, chip
 One letter used for several sounds
 E.g. box, use
 Some letters have no sound
 E.g. gnaw, sword, debt, damn, bomb
HOW TO TRANSCRIBE USING IPA?
 Sounds not spelling
 Focus on the sounds
 Say the word aloud
 Normal (Fast) Speech
 Don‟t say the word too slowly and carefully  may
change some of the sounds
 Transcribe the way s.o. usually pronounces the words
 IPA symbols ≠ letters
 IPA symbols may look like a letter, but represent different
sound than that letter normally does
 E.g. [e] exists in “say” or “weigh”, but not in “bed” (that
would be [ɛ])
 Ignore silent letters
 E.g. know, gnaw, sword
 Pronunciation may vary
 People with different dialects may pronounce the words
differently
 Use your friends
 If you‟re not sure what sounds you‟re saying, ask someone
else to say the word
TRANSCRIBING PHONETIC SYMBOLS
 Write the phonetic transcription in between square-
brackets [ ]
 E.g. She wants it.  [ʃi: wɒnts ɪt]

 Use block letters

 E.g. table [ teibl]  wrong
 [teɪbl]  right
 Do not use capital letters
 E.g. He lives in London.
 [Hi: lɪvz ɪn Lʌndən]  wrong
 [hi: lɪvz ɪn lʌndən]  right

 Do not use double consonants

 E.g. swimming  [swɪmmɪŋ]
TYPES OF TRANSCRIPTION
 Narrow transcription
 Attempts to record every single phonological feature
(sound) of an utterance, whether it is important to
meaning or not
 Useful when trying to show people‟s accent or when
contrasting or comparing pronunciation of one
language to another
 Another term for phonetic transcription
TYPES OF TRANSCRIPTION
 Broad transcription
 Document only the sounds that are important to
meaning
 Another term for phonemic transcription
 To show how sth should be pronounced
 Emphasize only on the sound differences that serve
to distinguish meaning
 E.g. transcription in dictionaries
USING TRANSCRIPTION IN CLASS
 The letter-like symbols  represent individual
consonant and vowel sounds
 The symbols:
 „ː‟ = longer duration than the „ˑ‟
 „ˈ‟, „ˌ‟ = show the stress applied to the following
syllable, the high = primary stress, the low showing
secondary stress
 „.‟ = a division between syllables (if the latter of the
two syllables isn‟t marked for stress)
USING TRANSCRIPTION IN CLASS
 The vertical line beneath the n near the end of the
transcription marks a syllabic consonant (a
consonant pronounced simultaneously with a vowel)
 Very common for final n, m, and l after a consonant in
English
 Broad transcription is usually enclosed in
slashes.
 Narrow transcription is usually enclosed in
square brackets.
USING TRANSCRIPTION IN CLASS
 Spaces have no meaning in phonetic
transcription  can be used for clarity
 For pause:

‖ = indicates a long pause (such as

that at the end of sentences
 ǀ = indicates a short pause (such as
that ordinarily indicates by a
comma, or semicolon in writing)
IPA ARTICULATION POINTS
ENGLISH VOWEL PHONEMES
ENGLISH CONSONANT PHONEMES
ENGLISH SONORANT PHONEMES
EXERCISES