International Phonetic Alphabet

The International Phonetic Alphabet (unofficially—though commonly—abbreviated IPA) is an alphabetic system

of phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin alphabet. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association as a
standardized representation of the sounds of oral language. The IPA is used by lexicographers, foreign language students and
teachers,linguists, speech-language pathologists, singers, actors, constructed language creators, and translators.
The IPA is designed to represent only those qualities of speech that are part of oral language: phones, phonemes, intonation,
and the separation of words and syllables. 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 may be used.
IPA symbols are composed of one or more elements of two basic types, letters and diacritics. For example, the sound of the
English letter ⟨t⟩ may be transcribed in IPA with a single letter, [t], or with a letter plus diacritics, [t̺ ʰ], depending on how
precise one wishes to be. Often, slashes are used to signal broad or phonemic transcription; thus, /t/ is less specific than, and
could refer to, either[t̺ ʰ] or [t], depending on the context and language.
Occasionally letters or diacritics are added, removed, or modified by the International Phonetic Association. As of the most
recent change in 2005, there are 107 letters, 52 diacritics, and four prosodic marks in the IPA. These are shown in the current
IPA chart, posted below in this article and at the website of the IPA.

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). Their 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. For
example, the sound [ʃ] (the sh in shoe) was originally represented with the letter ⟨c⟩ in English, but with the digraph ⟨ch⟩ in
French. However, in 1888, the alphabet was revised so as to be uniform across languages, thus providing the base for all
future revisions. The idea of making the IPA was first suggested by Otto Jespersen in a letter to Paul Passy. It was developed
by A.J. Ellis,Henry Sweet, Daniel Jones, and Passy.
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 letters for mid-central vowelsand the removal of letters for voiceless implosives. The alphabet was last revised in May
2005 with the addition of a letter for a labiodental flap. Apart from the addition and removal of symbols, changes to the IPA
have consisted largely in renaming symbols and categories and in modifying typefaces.
Extensions to the IPA for speech pathology were created in 1990 and officially adopted by the International Clinical
Phonetics and Linguistics Association in 1994.

Description
The general principle of the IPA is to provide one letter for each distinctive sound (speech segment), although this practice is
not followed if the sound itself is complex. This means that:

 It does not normally use combinations of letters to represent single sounds, the way English does with ⟨sh⟩, ⟨th⟩ and⟨ng⟩,
or single letters to represent multiple sounds the way ⟨x⟩ represents /ks/ or /ɡz/ in English.
 There are no letters that have context-dependent sound values, as do "hard" and "soft" ⟨c⟩ or ⟨g⟩ in several European
languages.
 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".
Among the symbols of the IPA, 107 letters represent consonants and vowels, 31 diacritics are used to modify these, and 19
additional signs indicate suprasegmental qualities such as length, tone, stress, and intonation. These are organized into a
chart; the chart displayed here is the official chart as posted at the website of the IPA.
Letterforms
The letters chosen for the IPA are meant to harmonize with the Latin alphabet. For this reason, most letters are
eitherLatin or Greek, or modifications thereof. Some letters are neither: for example, the letter denoting the glottal stop, ⟨ʔ⟩,
has the form of a dotless question mark, and derives originally from an apostrophe. A few letters, such as that of the
voicedpharyngeal fricative, ⟨ʕ⟩, were inspired by other writing systems (in this case, the Arabic letter ‫‘ ﻉ‬ain).
Despite its preference for harmonizing with the Latin script, the International Phonetic Association has occasionally admitted
other letters. For example, before 1989, the IPA letters for click consonants were ⟨ʘ⟩, ⟨ʇ⟩, ⟨ʗ⟩, and ⟨ʖ⟩, all of which were
derived either from existing IPA letters, or from Latin and Greek letters. However, except for ⟨ʘ⟩, none of these letters were
widely used among Khoisanists or Bantuists, and as a result they were replaced by the more widespread
symbols ⟨ʘ⟩, ⟨ǀ⟩, ⟨ǃ⟩, ⟨ǂ⟩, and ⟨ǁ⟩ at the IPA Kiel Convention in 1989.
Although the IPA diacritics are fully featural, there is little systemicity in the letter forms. A retroflex articulation is
consistently indicated with a right-swinging tail, as in ⟨ɖ ʂ ɳ⟩, andimplosion by a top hook, ⟨ɓ ɗ ɠ⟩, but other pseudo-featural
elements are due to haphazard derivation and coincidence. For example, all nasal consonants but uvular ⟨ɴ⟩ are based on the
form ⟨n⟩: ⟨m ɱ n ɲ ɳ ŋ⟩. However, the similarity between ⟨m⟩ and ⟨n⟩ is a historical accident, ⟨ɲ⟩ and ⟨ŋ⟩ are derived
from ligatures of gn and ng, and⟨ɱ⟩ is an ad hoc imitation of ⟨ŋ⟩.
Some of the new letters were ordinary Latin letters turned 180 degrees, such as ɐ ɔ ə ɟ ɥ ɯ ɹ ʇ ʌ ʍ ʎ (turned a c e f h m r t v w
y). This was easily done in the era of mechanical typesetting, and had the advantage of not requiring the casting of special
type for IPA symbols.
Capital letters (wildcards, archiphonemes and voice quality symbols)
Full capital letters are not used as IPA symbols. They are, however, often used for archiphonemes and for natural classes of
phonemes (that is, as wildcards). Such usage is not part of the IPA or even standardized, and may be ambiguous between
authors, but it is commonly used in conjunction with the IPA. (The extIPA chart, for example, uses one or two wildcards in
its illustrations.) Capital letters are also basic to the Voice Quality Symbols sometimes used in conjunction with the IPA.
As wildcards, C for {consonant} and V for {vowel} are ubiquitous. Other common capital-letter symbols are T for
{tone}, N for {nasal}, F for {fricative} (also S for {voiceless fricative} and Z for {voiced fricative}), G for {glide} or for
{semivowel/liquid}, P for {plosive} (stop) (also T for {voiceless stop} and D for {voiced stop}), S for {sibilant}, L for
{liquid} (or R for {rhotic} and L for {lateral}), # or Ʞ for {click}, A for {low vowel}, U for {rounded vowel} and B, D, J or
Ɉ, K, Q, Φ, H for {labial}, {alveolar}, {post-alveolar} or {palatal}, {velar}, {uvular}, {pharyngeal} and {glottal},
respectively, and X for anything. For example, the possible syllable shapes of Mandarin can be abstracted as ranging
from V (atonic vowel) toCVNᵀ (consonant-vowel-nasal syllable with tone). The letters can be modified with IPA diacritics,
for e.g. Cʼ for {ejective}, Ƈ for {implosive}, N͡ C or ᴺC for {prenasalized consonant},Ṽ for {nasal vowel}, S̬ for {voiced
sibilant}, N̥ for {voiceless nasal}, P͡ F or PF for {affricate} and D̪ for {dental consonant}. In speech pathology, they may
represent indeterminate sounds, and superscripted when weakly articulated: ᴰ a weak indeterminate alveolar, ᴷ a weak
indeterminate velar, etc.
Typical examples of archiphonemic use of capital letters are I for the Turkish harmonic vowel set {i y ɯ u} and D for the
conflated flapped middle consonant of American Englishwriter and rider.
V, F and C have different meanings as Voice Quality Symbols, where they stand for 'voice', 'falsetto' and 'creak'. They may
take diacritics that indicate what kind of voice quality an utterance has, and may be used to extract a suprasegmental feature
that occurs on all susceptible segments in a stretch of IPA. For instance, the transcription of Scots Gaelic[kʷʰuˣʷt̪ ʷs̟ ʷ] 'cat'
and [kʷʰʉˣʷt͜ ʃʷ] 'cats' (Islay dialect) can be made more economical by extracting the suprasegmental labialization of the
words: Vʷ[kʰuˣt̪ s̟ ] and Vʷ[kʰʉˣt͜ ʃ].
Typography and iconicity
The International Phonetic Alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet, using as few non-Latin forms as possible. The
Association created the IPA so that the sound values of mostconsonant letters taken from the Latin alphabet would
correspond to "international usage". 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 vowel letters
from the Latin alphabet (⟨a⟩, ⟨e⟩, ⟨i⟩, ⟨o⟩, ⟨u⟩) correspond to the (long) 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 small-capital and cursive forms, diacritics and rotation. There are also several symbols
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. For most of these, subtly different glyph shapes have been devised for the IPA,
namely ⟨ɑ⟩, ⟨ꞵ⟩, ⟨ɣ⟩, ⟨ɛ⟩, ⟨ɸ⟩, ⟨ꭓ⟩, and ⟨ʋ⟩, which are encoded in Unicode separately from their parent Greek letters, though
one of them –⟨θ⟩ – is not, while Greek ⟨β⟩ and ⟨χ⟩ are generally used for ⟨ꞵ⟩ and ⟨ꭓ⟩.
The sound values of modified Latin letters can often be derived from those of the original letters. For example, letters with a
rightward-facing hook at the bottom representretroflex 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 its shape
(as for example in Visible Speech) nor even any systematic relation between signs and the sounds they represent (as
in Hangul).
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 modifiedphonetic values or secondary articulations. There are also special symbols
for suprasegmental features such as stress and tone that are often employed.
Types of transcription
There are two principal types of brackets used to set off IPA transcriptions:

 [square brackets] are used with phonetic notations, possibly including details of the pronunciation that may not be used
for distinguishing words in the language being transcribed, but which the author nonetheless wishes to document.
 /slashes/ are used for phonemic notations, which note only features that are distinctive in the language, without any
extraneous detail.
For example, while the /p/ sounds of pin and spin are pronounced slightly differently in English (and this difference would
be meaningful in some languages), the difference is not meaningful in English. Thus phonemically the words
are /pɪn/ and /spɪn/, with the same /p/ phoneme. However, to capture the difference between them (the allophones of /p/),
they can be transcribed phonetically as [pʰɪn] and [spɪn].
Other conventions are less commonly seen:

 Double slashes //...//, pipes |...|, double pipes ||...||, or braces {...} may be used around a word to denote its underlying
structure, more abstract even than that of phonemes.See morphophonology for examples.
 Double square brackets ⟦...⟧ are used for extra-precise transcription. They indicate that a letter has its cardinal IPA
value. For example, ⟦a⟧ is a low front vowel, rather than the perhaps slightly different value (such as low central) that
"[a]" may be used to transcribe in a particular language. Thus two vowels transcribed for easy legibility
as ⟨[e]⟩and ⟨[ɛ]⟩ may be clarified as actually being ⟦e̝ ⟧ and ⟦e⟧; ⟨[ð]⟩ may be more precisely ⟦ð̠̞ ˠ⟧.
 Angle brackets are used to clarify that the letters represent the original orthography of the language, or sometimes an
exact transliteration of a non-Latin script, not the IPA; or, within the IPA, that the letters themselves are indicated, not
the sound values that they carry. For example, ⟨pin⟩ and ⟨spin⟩ would be seen for those words, which do not contain
the ee sound [i] of the IPA letter ⟨i⟩. Italics are perhaps more commonly used for this purpose when full words are
being written (as pin, spin above), but may not be sufficiently clear for individual letters and digraphs.
 {Braces} are used for prosodic notation. See Extensions to the International Phonetic Alphabet for examples in that
system.
 (Parentheses) are used for indistinguishable utterances. They are also seen for silent articulation (mouthing), where the
expected phonetic transcription is derived from lip-reading, and with periods to indicate silent pauses, for example (...).
 Double parentheses indicate obscured or unintelligible sound, as in ((2 syll.)) or ⸨2 syll.⸩, two audible but
unidentifiable syllables.
Handwritten forms
IPA letters have handwritten forms designed for use in manuscripts and when taking field notes; they are occasionally seen
in publications when the printer did not have fonts that supported IPA, and the IPA was therefore filled in by hand.

Modifying the IPA chart

The International Phonetic Alphabet is occasionally modified by the Association. After each modification, the Association
provides an updated simplified presentation of the alphabet in the form of a chart. (See History of the IPA.) The most recent
official chart, from 2005, is presented above. Not all aspects of the alphabet can be accommodated in a chart of the size
published by the IPA. The alveolo-palatal and epiglottal consonants, for example, are not included in the consonant chart for
reasons of space rather than of theory (two additional columns would be required, one between the retroflex and palatal
columns and the other between the pharyngeal and glottal columns), and the lateral flap would require an additional row for
that single consonant, so they are listed instead under the catchall block of "other symbols". The indefinitely large number
of tone letters would make a full accounting impractical even on a larger page, and only a few examples are shown.
The procedure for modifying the alphabet or the chart is to propose the change in the Journal of the IPA. (See, for example,
August 2008 on a low central vowel and August 2011 on central approximants.) Reactions to the proposal may be published
in the same or subsequent issues of the Journal (as in August 2009 on the low central vowel). A formal proposal is then put
to the Council of the IPA – which is elected by the membership – for further discussion and a formal vote.
Only changes to the alphabet or chart that have been approved by the Council can be considered part of the official IPA.
Nonetheless, many users of the alphabet, including the leadership of the Association itself, make personal changes or
additions in their own practice, either for convenience in working on a particular language (see "Illustrations of the IPA" for
individual languages in the Handbook, which for example may use ⟨c⟩ for [tʃ]), or because they object to some aspect of the
official version. For example, the chart displayed here is reorganized in response to perceived shortcomings of the official
version, and in places reflects the organization of the 1979 chart.

Usage
Although the IPA offers over 160 symbols for transcribing speech, only a relatively small subset of these will be used to
transcribe any one language. It is possible to transcribe speech with various levels of precision. A precise phonetic
transcription, in which sounds are described in a great deal of detail, is known as a narrow transcription. A coarser
transcription which ignores some of this detail is called a broad transcription. Both are relative terms, and both are generally
enclosed in square brackets.[1] Broad phonetic transcriptions may restrict themselves to easily heard details, or only to details
that are relevant to the discussion at hand, and may differ little if at all from phonemic transcriptions, but they make no
theoretical claim that all the distinctions transcribed are necessarily meaningful in the language.
For example, the English word little may be transcribed broadly using the IPA as [ˈlɪtəl], and this broad (imprecise)
transcription is a more or less accurate description of many pronunciations. A narrower transcription may focus on
individual or dialectical details: [ˈɫɪɾɫ] in General American, [ˈlɪʔo] in Cockney, or [ˈɫɪːɫ] in Southern US English.
It is customary to use simpler letters, without many diacritics, in phonemic transcriptions. The choice of IPA letters may
reflect the theoretical claims of the author, or merely be a convenience for typesetting. For instance, in English, either the
vowel of pick or the vowel of peak may be transcribed as /i/ (for the pairs /pik, piːk/ or /pɪk, pik/), and neither is identical to
the vowel of the French word pique which is also generally transcribed /i/. That is, letters between slashes do not have
absolute values, something true of broader phonetic approximations as well. A narrow transcription may, however, be used
to distinguish them: [pʰɪk], [pʰiːk], [pikʲ].
Linguists
Although IPA is popular for transcription by linguists, American linguists often alternate use of the IPA with Americanist
phonetic notation or use the IPA together with some nonstandard symbols, for reasons including reducing the error rate on
reading handwritten transcriptions or avoiding perceived 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.
Language study
Some language study programs use the IPA to teach pronunciation. For example, in Russia (and earlier in the Soviet Union)
and mainland China, textbooks for children and adults for studying English and French consistently use the IPA. English
teachers and textbooks in Taiwan tend to use the Kenyon and Knott system, a slight typographical variant of the IPA.
Dictionaries
English
Many British dictionaries, including the Oxford English Dictionary and some 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.[32] However, most American (and some British) volumes use one of a
variety of pronunciation respelling systems, intended to be more comfortable for readers of English. For example, the
respelling 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,[33] using only letters of the English Roman
alphabetand variations of them. (In IPA, [y] represents the sound of the French ⟨u⟩ (as in tu), and [sh] represents the pair of
sounds in grasshopper.)
Other languages
The IPA is also not universal among dictionaries in languages other than English. Monolingual dictionaries of languages
with generally phonemic orthographies generally do not bother with indicating the pronunciation of most words, and tend to
use respelling systems for words with unexpected pronunciations. Dictionaries produced in Israel use the IPA rarely and
sometimes use the Hebrew script for transcription of foreign words. Monolingual Hebrew dictionaries use pronunciation
respelling for words with unusual spelling; for example, the Even-Shoshan Dictionary respells ‫ ָּת ְכִנית‬as ‫ ּתֹוְכִנית‬because this
word uses kamatz katan. Bilingual dictionaries that translate from foreign languages into Russian usually employ the IPA,
but monolingual Russian dictionaries occasionally use pronunciation respelling for foreign words; for example, Ozhegov's
dictionary adds нэ́ in brackets for the French word пенсне (pince-nez) to indicate that the е does not iotate the н.
The IPA is more common in bilingual dictionaries, but there are exceptions here too. Mass-market bilingual Czech
dictionaries, for instance, tend to use the IPA only for sounds not found in the Czech language.
Standard orthographies and case variants
IPA letters have been incorporated into the alphabets of various languages, notably via the Africa Alphabet in sub-Saharan
Africa: Hausa, Fula, Akan, Gbe languages, Manding languages, Lingala, etc. This has created the need for capital variants.
For example, Kabiyé of northern Togo has Ɔ ɔ, Ɛ ɛ, Ɖ ɖ, Ŋ ŋ, Ɣ ɣ, Ʃ ʃ, Ʊ ʊ (or Ʋ ʋ):
MBƱ AJƐYA KIGBƐNDƱƱ ŊGBƐYƐ KEDIƔZAƔ SƆSƆƆ TƆM SE.
These, and others, are supported by Unicode, but appear in Latin ranges other than the IPA extensions.
In the IPA itself, only lower-case letters are used. The 1949 edition of the IPA handbook indicated that an asterisk ⟨*⟩ may
be prefixed to indicate that a word is a proper name, but this convention has not been included in recent editions.
Classical singing
IPA has widespread use among classical singers for preparation, especially among English-speaking singers who are
expected to sing in a variety of foreign languages. Operalibrettos are authoritatively transcribed in IPA, such as Nico Castel's
volumes and Timothy Cheek's book Singing in Czech. Opera singers' ability to read IPA was used by the site 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."
Letters
The International Phonetic Association organizes the letters of the IPA into three categories: pulmonic consonants, non-
pulmonic consonants, and vowels.
Pulmonic consonant letters are arranged singly or in pairs of voiceless (tenuis) and voiced sounds, with these then grouped in
columns from front (labial) sounds on the left to back (glottal) sounds on the right. In official publications by the IPA, two
columns are omitted to save space, with the letters listed among 'other symbols', and with the remaining consonants arranged
in rows from full closure (occlusives: stops and nasals), to brief closure (vibrants: trills and taps), to partial closure
(fricatives) and minimal closure (approximants), again with a row left out to save space. In the table below, a slightly
different arrangement is made: All pulmonic consonants are included in the pulmonic-consonant table, and the vibrants and
laterals are separated out so that the rows reflect the common lenition pathway of stop → fricative → approximant, as well
as the fact that several letters pull double duty as both fricative and approximant; affricates may be created by joining stops
and fricatives from adjacent cells. Shaded cells are judged to be implausible.
Vowel letters are also grouped in pairs—of unrounded and rounded vowel sounds—with these pairs also arranged from front
on the left to back on the right, and from maximal closure at top to minimal closure at bottom. No vowel letters are omitted
from the chart, though in the past some of the mid central vowels were listed among the 'other symbols'.
Each character is assigned a number, to prevent confusion between similar letters (such as ɵ and θ, ɤ and ɣ, or ʃ and ʄ) in
such situations as the printing of manuscripts. The categories of sounds are assigned different ranges of numbers.
Consonants
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. [44]
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.

IPA pulmonic consonants

Place → Labial Coronal Dorsal Laryngeal

Bilabia Labi Lingu Denta Alveola Palato- Retrofle Alveolo Palata Vela Uvula Pharyngea Glotta
l o- olabial l r alveola x - l r r l l
dental r palatal / Epiglotta
↓ Manner l
Nasal m̥ m ɱ n̼̊ n̼ n̥ n ɳ̊ ɳ ɲ̊ ɲ ŋ̊ ŋ ɴ̥ ɴ
Stop p b p̪ b̪ t̼ d̼ t d ʈ ɖ c ɟ k ɡ q ɢ ʡ ʔ
Sibilant affricate ts dz tʃ dʒ ʈʂ ɖʐ tɕ dʑ
Non-sibilant affrica ɡ
pɸ bβ p̪ f b̪ v tθ dð tθ̠ dð̠ t̠ ɹ̠̊ ˔ d̠ ɹ̠ ˔ cç ɟʝ kx qχ ɢʁ ʡħ ʡʕ ʔh
te ɣ
Sibilant fricative s z ʃ ʒ ʂ ʐ ɕ ʑ
Non-sibilant fricati
ɸ f v θ̼ θ θ̱ ð̠ ɹ̠̊ ˔ ɹ̠ ˔ ç ʝ x ɣ χ ħ
ve β ð̼ ð ʁ ʕ h ɦ ʔ̞
Approximant ɸ˕ ʋ θ̞ ɹ̥ ɹ ɻ̊ ɻ j̊ j ɰ̊ ɰ
Flap or tap ⱱ̟ ⱱ ɾ̼ ɾ̥ ɾ ɽ̊ ɽ ɢ̆ ʡ̮
Trill ʙ r̼ r̥ r ɽr̥ ɽr ʀ̥ ʀ ʜ ʢ
Lateral affricate tɬ dɮ ʈɭ̊ ˔ cʎ̥ ˔ kʟ̝̊ ɡʟ̝
Lateral fricative ɬ ɮ ɭ̊ ˔ ʎ̥ ˔ ʎ̝ ʟ̝̊ ʟ̝
Lateral approximan
l̼ l̥ l ɭ̊ ɭ ʎ̥ ʎ ʟ ʟ̠
t
Lateral flap ɺ̼ ɺ ɭ̆ ʎ̮ ʟ̆

Non-pulmonic consonants
ʘ ʘ̬ ʘ̃ ǀ ǀ̬ ǀ̃ ǃ ǃ̬ ǃ̃
Simple clicks
ǂ ǂ̬ ǂ̃ ǁ ǁ̬ ǁ̃ ǃ˞ ǃ̬˞ ǃ̃˞
Other clicks ʘ̃ ˀ ʘˀ ˀʘ̃ ʘ͡ q ʘ͡ qχ ʘ͡ qʼ ʘ͡ qχʼ ¡ ʞ
 ɓ ɗ ᶑ ʄ ɠ ʛ
Implosives
ɓ̥ ɗ̥ ᶑ̥ ʄ̊ ɠ̊ ʛ̥
pʼ tʼ ʈʼ cʼ kʼ qʼ ʡʼ
Ejectives fʼ θʼ sʼ ɬʼ ʃʼ ʂʼ ɕʼ xʼ χʼ
tsʼ tɬʼ tʃʼ ʈʂʼ tɕʼ cʎ̝̥ ʼ kxʼ kʟ̝̊ ʼ qχʼ

Co-articulated consonants

Continuants ʍ w ɥ̊ ɥ ɫ

k͡ p ɡ͡ b ŋ͡ m ɧ
Occlusives
t͡ p d͡ b n͡ m q͡ ʡ
— These tables contain phonetic symbols, which may not display correctly in some browsers.
— Where symbols appear in pairs, left–right represent the voiceless–voiced consonants.
— Shaded areas denote pulmonic articulations judged to be impossible or not distinctive.
Notes

 In rows where some letters appear in pairs (the obstruents), the letter to the right represents a voiced
consonant (except breathy-voiced [ɦ]). However, [ʔ] cannot be voiced, and the voicing of [ʡ] is ambiguous. In the other rows
(the sonorants), the single letter represents a voiced consonant.
 Although there is a single letter for the coronal places of articulation for all consonants but fricatives, when dealing with a
particular language, the letters 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 letters [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.
 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.
Affricates and co-articulated consonants
Co-articulated 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, being pronounced by rounding the lips and raising
the back of the tongue. Similar sounds are [ʍ] and [ɥ].
Affricates and doubly articulated stops are represented by two letters joined by a tie bar, either above or below the letters.
[48]
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 t͡ s, paralleling kˣ ~ k͡ x. The
letters for the palatal plosives c and ɟ, are often used as a convenience for t͡ ʃ and d͡ ʒ or similar affricates, even in official IPA
publications, so they must be interpreted with care.

View this table as an image

Tie bar Ligature Description

t͡ s ʦ voiceless alveolar affricate

d͡ z ʣ voiced alveolar affricate

 t͡ ʃ ʧ voiceless postalveolar affricate

d͡ ʒ ʤ voiced postalveolar affricate

t͡ ɕ ʨ voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate

d͡ ʑ ʥ voiced alveolo-palatal affricate

t͡ ɬ – voiceless alveolar lateral affricate

k͡ p – voiceless labial-velar plosive

ɡ͡ b – voiced labial-velar plosive

ŋ͡ m – labial-velar nasal stop

Note

 On browsers that use 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 .
 [ɧ] is described as a "simultaneous [ʃ] and [x]".[49] However, this analysis is disputed. (See voiceless palatal-velar
fricative for discussion.)
 Multiple tie bars can be used: ⟨a͡ b͡ c⟩ or ⟨a͜ b͜ c⟩. For instance, if a prenasalized stop is transcribed ⟨m͡ b⟩, and a doubly articulated
stop ⟨ɡ͡ b⟩, then a prenasalized doubly articulated stop would be ⟨ŋ͡ m͡ ɡ͡ b⟩
Non-pulmonic consonants[edit]
Non-pulmonic consonants are sounds whose airflow is not dependent on the lungs. These include clicks (found in
the Khoisan languages of Africa), implosives (found in languages such as Sindhi, Saraiki, Swahili and Vietnamese),
and ejectives (found in many Amerindian and Caucasian languages).

View this table as an image

Clicks 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

 Clicks have traditionally been described as double articulation of a forward 'release' and a rear 'accompaniment', with the
click letters representing only the release. Therefore, all clicks require two letters for proper notation: ⟨k͡ ǂ, ɡ͡ ǂ, ŋ͡ ǂ, q͡ ǂ, ɢ͡ ǂ,
ɴ͡ ǂ⟩ 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' and the idea that clicks are doubly articulated, with the rear occlusion
instead simply being part of the airstream mechanims.[50] In these approaches, the click letter represents both articulations,
with the different letters representing different click 'types', there is no velar-uvular distinction, and the accompanying letter
represents the manner, phonation, or airstream contour of the click: ⟨ǂ, ᶢǂ, ᵑǂ⟩ etc.
 Letters for the voiceless implosives ⟨ƥ, ƭ, ƈ, ƙ, ʠ ⟩ are no longer supported by the IPA, though they remain in Unicode.
Instead, the IPA typically uses the voiced equivalent with a voiceless diacritic: ⟨ɓ̥ , ʛ̥ ⟩, etc..
 Although not confirmed as contrastive in any language, and therefore not explicitly recognized by the IPA, a letter for
the retroflex implosive, ⟨ᶑ ⟩, has been assigned an IPA number.
 The ejective diacritic 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. Below is a chart depicting the vowels of the IPA. The
IPA maps the vowels according to the position of the tongue.
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] (the first vowel in father) is at the bottom because
the tongue is lowered in this position. However, [i] (the vowel in "meet") is at the top because the sound is said with the
tongue raised to the roof of the mouth.
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.
Diphthongs
Diphthongs are typically specified with a non-syllabic diacritic, as in ⟨uɪ̯ ⟩ or ⟨u̯ ɪ⟩, or with a superscript for the on- or off-
glide, as in ⟨uᶦ⟩ or ⟨ᵘɪ⟩. Sometimes a tie bar is used, especially if it is difficult to tell if the diphthong is characterized by an
on-glide, an off-glide or is variable: ⟨u͡ ɪ⟩.
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. However, if disambiguation is required, the retraction diacritic or the centralized
diacritic may be added to indicate an open central vowel, as in ⟨a̠ ⟩ or ⟨ä⟩.

Diacritics and prosodic notation

Diacritics are used for phonetic detail. They are added to IPA letters to indicate a modification or specification of that letter's
normal pronunciation. By being made superscript, any IPA letter may function as a diacritic, conferring elements of its
articulation to the base letter. (See secondary articulation for a list of superscript IPA letters supported by Unicode.) Those
superscript letters listed below are specifically provided for by the IPA; others include ⟨tˢ⟩ ([t] with fricative
release), ⟨ᵗs⟩ ([s] with affricate onset), ⟨ⁿd⟩ (prenasalized [d]), ⟨bʱ⟩ ([b] with breathy voice),
⟨mˀ⟩ (glottalized [m]), ⟨sᶴ⟩ ([s] with a flavor of [ʃ]), ⟨oᶷ⟩ ([o] with diphthongization), ⟨ɯᵝ⟩ (compressed [ɯ]). Superscript
diacritics placed after a letter are ambiguous between simultaneous modification of the sound and phonetic detail at the end
of the sound. For example, labialized ⟨kʷ⟩ may mean either simultaneous [k] and [w] or else [k] with a labialized release.
Superscript diacritics placed before a letter, on the other hand, normally indicate a modification of the onset of the sound
(⟨mˀ⟩ glottalized [m], ⟨ˀm⟩ [m] with a glottal onset).

View the diacritic table as an image

 Syllabicity diacritics

◌̩ ɹ̩ n̩ Syllabic ◌̯ e̯ ʊ̯ Non-syllabic

Consonant-release diacritics

◌ʰ tʰ Aspirated[a] ◌̚ p̚ No audible release

◌ⁿ dⁿ Nasal release ◌ˡ dˡ Lateral release

Voiceless dental fricative

◌ᶿ tᶿ ◌ˣ tˣ Voiceless velar fricative release
release

◌ᵊ dᵊ Mid central vowel release

Phonation diacritics

◌̥ n̥ d̥ Voiceless ◌̬ s̬ t̬ Voiced

◌̤ b̤ a̤ Breathy voiced[a] ◌̰ b̰ a̰ Creaky voiced

Articulation diacritics

◌̪ t̪ d̪ Dental ◌̼ t̼ d̼ Linguolabial

◌̺ t̺ d̺ Apical ◌̻ t̻ d̻ Laminal

◌̟ u̟ t̟ Advanced ◌̠ i̠ t̠ Retracted

◌̈ ëä Centralized ◌̽ e̽ ɯ̽ Mid-centralized

◌̝ e̝ r̝ Raised ◌̞ e̞ β̞ Lowered
(r̝ is a voiced alveolar ([β̞] is a bilabial
fricative trill) approximant)

◌˔ ɭ˔ ◌˕ ɣ˕
 Co-articulation diacritics

ɔ̜
◌̹ ɔ̹ x̹ More rounded ◌̜ Less rounded
xʷ̜

◌ʷ tʷ dʷ Labialized or labio-velarized ◌ʲ tʲ dʲ Palatalized

Labialized without protrusion of the lips or

◌ᶣ tᶣ dᶣ Labio-palatalized ◌ᶹ tᶹ
velarization

◌ˠ tˠ dˠ Velarized ◌ˤ tˤ aˤ Pharyngealized

Velarized, uvularized
◌̴ ɫᵶ
or pharyngealized[b]

◌̘ e̘ o̘ Advanced tongue root ◌̙ e̙ o̙ Retracted tongue root

◌̃ ẽ z̃ Nasalized ◌˞ ɚ ɝ Rhotacized

Notes
^a With aspirated voiced consonants, the aspiration is usually also voiced (voiced aspirated – but see aspirated voiced).
Many linguists prefer one of the diacritics dedicated to breathy voice over simple aspiration, such as ⟨b̤ ⟩. Some linguists
restrict this diacritic to sonorants, and transcribe obstruents as ⟨bʱ⟩.
^b The overstruck tilde is not recommended where it would be typographically unclear. It is also deprecated in Unicode,
with precomposed letters preferred. (Seepharyngealization for available combinations.)
Subdiacritics (diacritics normally placed below a letter) may be moved above a letter to avoid conflict with a descender, as in
voiceless ⟨ŋ̊ ⟩.[52] The raising and lowering diacritics have optional forms ⟨˔⟩, ⟨˕⟩ that avoid descenders.
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:

Open glottis [t] voiceless

[d̤ ] breathy voice, also called murmured

[d̥ ] slack voice

Sweet spot [d] modal voice

 [d̬ ] stiff voice

[d̰ ] creaky voice

Closed glottis [ʔ͡ t] glottal closure

Additional diacritics are provided by the Extensions to the IPA for speech pathology.
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. 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. Various ligatures of tone letters are used in the IPA Handbook despite not being found on the
simplified official IPA chart.

View this table as an image

Length, stress, and rhythm

Primary stress (symbol

Secondary stress (symbol goes
ˈa goes ˌa
before stressed element)
before stressed element)

aˑ Half-long
Long (long vowel or
aː kː
geminate consonant)
ə̆ Extra-short

a.a Syllable break s‿a Linking (absence of a break)

Intonation

| Minor (foot) break ‖ Major (intonation) break

↗ [54] Global rise ↘ [54] Global fall

Tone diacritics and tone letters

ŋ̋ e̋ e˥ Extra high / top ꜛke Upstep

 ŋ́ é e˦ High ŋ̌ ě Rising (generic)

ŋ̄ ē e˧ Mid

ŋ̀ è e˨ Low ŋ̂ ê Falling (generic)

ŋ̏ ȅ e˩ Extra low / bottom ꜜke Downstep

Finer distinctions of tone may be indicated by combining the tone diacritics and tone letters shown above, though not all IPA
fonts support this. The four additional rising and falling tones tones supported by diacritics are high/mid rising ɔ᷄ , ɔ˧˥, low
rising ɔ᷅ , ɔ˩˧, high falling ɔ᷇ , ɔ˥˧, and low/mid falling ɔ᷆ , ɔ˧˩. That is, tone diacritics only support contour tones across three levels
(high, mid, low), despite supporting five levels for register tones. For other contour tones, tone letters must be used: ɔ˨˦, ɔ˥˦,
etc. For more complex (peaking and dipping) tones, though it is theoretically possible to combine the three tone diacritics in
any permutation, in practice only generic peaking ɔ᷈ and dipping ɔ᷉ combinations are used. For finer detail, tone letters are
again required (ɔ˧˥˧, ɔ˩˨˩, ɔ˦˩˧, ɔ˨˩˦, etc.) The correspondence between tone diacritics and tone letters is therefore only
approximate.
A work-around for diacritics sometimes seen when a language has more than one rising or falling tone, and the author
wishes to avoid the poorly legible diacritics ɔ᷄ , ɔ᷅ , ɔ᷇ , ɔ᷆ but does not wish to completely abandon the IPA, is to restrict generic
rising ɔ̌ and falling ɔ̂ to the higher-pitched of the rising and falling tones, say ɔ˥˧ and ɔ˧˥, and to use the old (retired) IPA
subscript diacritics ɔ̗ and ɔ̖ for the lower-pitched rising and falling tones, say ɔ˩˧ and ɔ˧˩. When a language has four or six level
tones, the two mid tones are sometimes transcribed as high-mid ɔ̍ (non-standard) and low-mid ɔ̄ .
A stress mark typically appears before the stressed syllable, and thus marks the syllable break as well as stress. Where the
syllable onset is a geminate consonant, e.g. in Italian, the consonant is commonly split by the stress mark, which means that
the length sign is not used for gemination. (Thus ⟨avˈvɔlse⟩ not *⟨aˈvvɔlse⟩, *⟨aˈvːɔlse⟩, or *⟨avˈːɔlse⟩.) However,
occasionally the stress mark is placed immediately before the stressed vowel, after any syllable onset (⟨avvˈɔlse⟩ or ⟨avː
ˈɔlse⟩).[55] In such transcriptions, the stress mark does not function as a mark of the syllable boundary.
Tone letters generally appear after each syllable, for a language with syllable tone (⟨a˧vɔ˥˩⟩), or after the phonological word,
for a language with word tone (⟨avɔ˧˥˩⟩). However, in older versions of the IPA, ad hoc tone marks were placed before the
syllable, the same position as used to mark stress, and this convention is still sometimes seen (⟨˧a˥˩vɔ⟩,⟨˧˥˩avɔ⟩).
Comparative degree
IPA diacritics may be doubled to indicate an extra degree of the feature indicated. This is a productive process, but apart
from extra-high and extra-low tones ⟨ə̋ , ə̏ ⟩ being marked by doubled high- and low-tone diacritics, and the major prosodic
break ⟨‖⟩ being marked as a double minor break ⟨|⟩, it is not specifically regulated by the IPA. (Note that transcription marks
are similar: double slashes indicate extra (morpho)-phonemic, double square brackets especially precise, and double
parentheses especially unintelligible.)
For example, the stress mark may be doubled to indicate an extra degree of stress such prosodic stress in English. [56] An
example in French, with a single stress mark for normal prosodic stress at the end of each prosodic unit (marked as a minor
prosodic break), and a double stress mark for contrastive/emphatic stress:
[ˈˈɑ̃ːˈtre | məˈsjø || ˈˈvwala maˈdam ||] Entrez monsieur, voilà madame. [57] Similarly, a doubled secondary stress mark ⟨ˌˌ⟩ is
commonly used for tertiary stress.
Length is commonly extended by repeating the length mark, as in English shhh! [ʃːːː], or for "overlong" segments
in Estonian:

 vere /vere/ 'blood [gen.sg.]', veere /veːre/ 'edge [gen.sg.]', veere /veːːre/ 'roll [imp. 2nd sg.]'
 lina /linɑ/ 'sheet', linna /linːɑ/ 'town [gen. sg.]', linna /linːːɑ/ 'town [ine. sg.]'
(Normally additional degrees of length are handled by the extra-short or half-long diacritics, but in the Estonian examples,
the first two cases are analyzed as simply short and long.)
Occasionally other diacritics are doubled:

 Rhoticity in Badaga /be/ "mouth", /be˞/ "bangle", and /be˞˞/ "crop".[58]

 Aspiration, for example contrasting Korean mild aspiration [kʰ] with strong aspiration [kʰʰ].[59]
 Nasalization, as in Palantla Chinantec /ẽ/ vs /e͌ /.[60]
 Weak vs strong ejectives, [kʼ], [k”][61]
 Especially lowered, e.g. [t̞̞ ] for /t/ as a weak fricative in some pronunciations of register.[62]
 Especially retracted (at least on a vowel), e.g. [ø̠̠ ],[63] though, depending on the font, on a consonant this could be confused
with alveolar or alveolarized notation from theextIPA.
 The transcription of strident and harsh voice as extra-creaky /a᷽/ may be motivated by the similarities of these phonations.

Obsolete and nonstandard symbols

The IPA once had parallel symbols from alternative proposals, but in most cases eventually settled on one for each sound.
The rejected symbols are now considered obsolete. An example is the vowel letter ⟨ɷ⟩, rejected in favor of ⟨ʊ⟩. Letters for
affricates and sounds with inherent secondary articulation have also been mostly rejected, with the idea that such features
should be indicated with tie bars or diacritics: ⟨ƍ⟩ for [zʷ] is one. In addition, the rare voiceless implosives, ⟨ƥ ƭ ƈ ƙ ʠ⟩, have
been dropped and are now usually written ⟨ɓ̥ ɗ̥ ʄ̊ ɠ̊ ʛ̥ ⟩. A retired set of click letters, ⟨ʇ, ʗ, ʖ⟩, is still sometimes seen, as the
official pipe letters ⟨ǀ, ǃ, ǁ⟩ may cause problems with legibility, especially when used with brackets ([ ] or / /), the letter ⟨l⟩, or
the prosodic marks ⟨|, ‖⟩ (for this reason, some publications which use the current IPA pipe letters disallow IPA brackets). [64]
Individual non-IPA letters may find their way into publications that otherwise use the standard IPA. This is especially
common with:

 Affricates, such as the Americanist barred lambda ⟨ƛ⟩ for [t͜ ɬ] or ⟨č⟩ for [t͡ ʃ]. Some authors find the tie bars displeasing but the
lack of tie bars confusing (i.e. ⟨č⟩ for /t͡ ʃ/ as distinct from /tʃ/), while others simply prefer to have one letter for each
segmental phoneme in a language.
 Digits for tonal phonemes that have conventional numbers in a local tradition, such as the four tones of Chinese. This may be
more convenient for comparison between languages and dialects than a phonetic transcription because tones often vary more
than segmental phonemes do.
 Digits for tone levels, though the lack of standardization can cause confusion (with e.g. "1" for high tone in some languages
but for low tone in others).
 Iconic extensions of standard IPA letters that can be readily understood, such as retroflex ⟨ᶑ ⟩ and ⟨ꞎ⟩.
In addition, there are typewriter substitutions for when IPA support is not available, such as capital ⟨I, E, U, O, A⟩ for [ɪ, ɛ,
ʊ, ɔ, ɑ].

IPA extensions
The "Extensions to the IPA", often abbreviated as "extIPA" and sometimes called "Extended IPA", are 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 extensions, which were based on the previous work of the PRDS (Phonetic Representation of Disordered
Speech) Group in the early 1980s. The extensions were first published in 1990, then modified, and published again in 1994
in the Journal of the International Phonetic Association, when they were officially adopted by the ICPLA. While the
original purpose was to transcribe disordered speech, linguists have used the extensions to designate a number of unique
sounds within standard communication, such as hushing, gnashing teeth, and smacking lips. The extensions have also been
used to record certain peculiarities in an individual's voice, such as nasalized voicing.
The Extensions to the IPA do not include symbols used for voice quality (VoQS), such as whispering.

Segments without letters

The remaining blank cells on the IPA chart can be filled without too much difficulty if the need arises. Some ad hoc letters
have appeared in the literature for the retroflex lateral flap, the voiceless lateral fricatives, the epiglottal trill, and the
labiodental plosives. (See the grey letters in the PDF chart.) Diacritics can supply much of the remainder. If a sound cannot
be transcribed, an asterisk ⟨*⟩ may be used, either as a letter or as a diacritic (as in ⟨k*⟩ sometimes seen for the Korean 'fortis'
velar).
Consonants
Representations of consonant sounds outside of the core set are created by adding diacritics to letters with similar sound
values. The Spanish bilabial and dental approximants are commonly written as lowered fricatives, [β̞] and [ð̞ ] respectively.
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 letter and the advanced diacritic, [ⱱ̟].
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 letters sometimes found in the literature. Other taps can be written as extra-short plosives or laterals, e.g. [ɟ̆
ɢ̆ /ʀ̆ 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
The vowels are similarly 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 only known vowels that cannot be represented in this scheme are vowels with
unexpected roundedness, which would require a dedicated diacritic, such as ⟨ʏʷ⟩ and ⟨uᵝ⟩ (or ⟨ɪʷ⟩ and ⟨ɯᵝ⟩).

Symbol names
An IPA symbol is often distinguished from the sound it is intended to represent, since there is not necessarily a one-to-one
correspondence between letter and sound in broad transcription, making articulatory descriptions such as 'mid front rounded
vowel' or 'voiced velar stop' unreliable. While the Handbook of the International Phonetic Associationstates that no official
names exist for its symbols, it admits the presence of one or two common names for each. 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 letters. 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 or
on the sound that it represents. In Unicode, some of the letters of Greek origin have Latin forms for use in IPA; the others
use the letters from the Greek section.
For diacritics, there are two methods of naming. For traditional diacritics, the IPA notes the name in a well known language;
for example, é is acute, based on the name of the diacritic in English and French. Non-traditional diacritics are often named
after objects they resemble, so d̪ is called bridge.
Pullum and Ladusaw list a variety of names in use for IPA symbols, both current and retired, in addition to names of many
other non-IPA phonetic symbols. Their collection is extensive enough that the Unicode Consortium used it in the
development of Unicode.

Fonts
IPA font support is increasing, and is now included in several fonts such as the Times New Roman versions that come with
various recent computer operating systems. Diacritics are not always properly rendered, however. IPA fonts that are freely
available online include Gentium, several from the SIL (such as Charis SIL, and Doulos SIL), DejaVu Sans, and TITUS
Cyberbit, which are all freely available; as well as commercial typefaces such as Brill, available from Brill Publishers,
and Lucida Sans Unicode and Arial Unicode MS, shipping with various Microsoft products. These all include several ranges
of characters in addition to the IPA. Modern Web browsers generally do not need any configuration to display these
symbols, provided that a font capable of doing so is available to the operating system.

ASCII and keyboard transliterations

Several systems have been developed that map the IPA symbols to ASCII characters. Notable systems
include Kirshenbaum, Arpabet, 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 layout
Pronunciation Guide
This list contains the main sounds of standard British English (the one that’s associated with southern England, also often
called Received Pronunciation). The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) symbols appear on my Web pages; the text
equivalents are for my weekly e-mail newsletters. See the bottom of the page for some important notes.
Consonants
The following letters have their usual values in English:
b, d, f, h, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, w, z.

IPA Text Examples IPA Text Examples

ɡ g get, go, guard tʃ tS chip, chin, nature

dʒ dZ judge, soldier x x Scots loch

 ŋ N sing, ring, finger θ T thin, thick, strength

ð D then, bathe, lather ʃ S she, sugar, machine

ʒ Z pleasure, vision j j yet, use, beauty

Short vowels
IPA Text Examples IPA Text Examples

æ a cat, bad, trap ɛ e bed, net, dress

ə @ about, comma ɪ I kit, bid, hymn

i i happy, glorious ɒ Q hot, odd, wash

ʌ V dug, run, strut ʊ U book, put, foot

Long vowels
IPA Text Examples IPA Text Examples

ɑː A: cart, arm, father iː i: meet, see, fleece

ɜː 3: her, nurse, learn uː u: boot, too, group

ɔː O: port, saw, thaw

Diphthongs/triphthongs
IPA Text Examples IPA Text Examples

aɪ aI bite, my, price aʊ aU brow, how, mouth

eɪ eI fate, day, break əʊ @U goat, show, no

ɪə I@ pier, near, weary ɔɪ OI boil, choice, boy

ʊə U@ tour, cure, jury eə e@ hair, dare, various

aʊə aU@ sour, cower, flour aɪə aI@ fire, buyer, liar

Other symbols
IPA Text Purpose

ˈ ’ Precedes the syllable which has the primary stress

ˌ , Precedes a syllable which has a secondary stress

() () Surround an optional sound

ʔ ? Glottal stop
Some French vowel sounds
IPA Text Examples IPA Text Examples

ø 2 jeu ɔ O bottes, bol

œ 9 oeuf, soeur y y sucre, tu

ɑ̃ a~ banque, sans ɛ̃ e~ cinq, saint

ɔ̃ o~ bonbons, son œ̃ 9~ un, lundi, brun

Notes

With minor changes, the IPA scheme is that of the Oxford English Dictionary,Collins Dictionaries and the Longman

Pronunciation Dictionary, while the text symbols are those of the European SAMPA scheme, with minor changes to aid

comprehension by non-linguists.

To view IPA you must have a font on your computer that includes the IPA extensions, such as Lucida Sans Unicode, Doulos

SIL or Arial Unicode MS. If the symbols are visible in the IPA column above, then you already have such a font installed.

The site preference is for Lucida Sans Unicode, a font which is widely installed on Windows systems. See your system help

files for how to install fonts.

chart of International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)

This is a chart of International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) pronunciations, arranged by symbol. For an explanation of IPA, see
the International Phonetic Alphabet article on Wikipedia.
The bold letter or letters in each word shown represent the sound that corresponds to the IPA symbol. If no letter is bold
now, check back later, as they are being added (a work in progress).

Vowels

I Sp Ita Sw Viet Ko G Cr Jap Port Fin

Englis Ger Fre Cat Rus
P Dutch ani lia edi nam re re oat ane ugu nis
h man nch alan sian
A sh n sh ese an ek ian se ese h

Mikr ήλ
ziet,psychis cit pi, оди ひ ami mi
i easy1 osko sí vie - ri - ιο sin
ch tà mil н と go nä
p ς

ひ
pri phi c い siil
iː seen - Biene - dire - - sil - - - -
ma ơ ら i
ぎ

vite пер
ɪ city zit Tisch - 10 - - sill linh - - - - - -
о

e - legen,zee6 Etage él ann fet desp шея - chê - μέ red へ eu eläi

rés,c
 ée ta ec λι び n

e ret へ
- - Ehre - - - - hel - - - - い - tee
ː e き

e sei sei
- - - - dei rei - - - - - - - -
i s nä

e
play zee5 - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
ɪ

Eu seu
e
- eeuw - - - ro neu - - - - - - - - rat
u
pa a

ɛ
- - - - - - peu - - - - - - - - -
u

desp
met fer häl
ɛ bed - Erde - rès,c это te - - - - ela -
tre ro l
el

mèr be
ɛː - bij6 Ähre - - - häl - - - - - - -
e ne

serv
ɛi - bij5 - - - sei - - - - - - - - -
ei

ɛ
there1 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
ə

пят her set

æ cat leggen - - - - - xa - - - - -
ь r ä

æ pä
- - - - - - - - här - - - - - -
ː ä

yks
y - duur,luren Büro - du - - - - - - - - - -
i
y py
- - über - mur - - - syl - - - - - -
ː y

Glüc chu
ʏ - - - - - - syll - - - - - - -
k te10

Ökon deu ölj

ø - deur - - - - - - - - - - -
om x y

insi
ø Höhl neu
- - - - - - nöt - - - - - - nö
ː e tre
öri

neu nöt
œ - hun Hölle - - - - - - - - - - -
f t

мы vint
ɨ - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
шь e9

about, gevaar,avo
per, мал
ə winner nd,een,gev bitte - de - - - - - - - - -
1 hola о
aarlijk

soc
winner
ɚ 2 - - - cer1 - - - - - - - - - - -
1

бол
besse para
ɐ cut1 - - - - - ьшо - ăn - - - - 9 -
r
й

ɜ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

ɜː bird1 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

ɝ bird2 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

lac, мал
alg fat ma άν か
a - aan, lager hat bate pa еньк ra - dan fala -
o to tt ω お
au ий
 お
a pag fat か
last1 - Bahn - - - - - - - - あ - -
ː e o さ
ん

vai
a fête
fight aai sein nill 11 - mai - - - - - - - - -
ɪ
a

ʉ - - - - - - - чуть - - - - - - - -

ʉ
- - - - - - - - ful - - - - - - -
ː

ɵ - - - - - - - тётя full - - - - - - -

す
ɯ - - - - - - - - - như 으 - - じ7 - -

ɯ す
- - - - - - - - - - - - - う - -
ː じ7

ɤ - - - - - - - - - hơn 어 - - - - -

ʌ run hut - - - - - - - ân - - - - - -

ʌ
- zout6 - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
ː

ʌ
- nauw,zout5 - - - - - - - câu - - - - - -
u

âne,
пал tal
ɑ - lat - - fâc - - - - - - - - -
ка o
her

ɑ arm,la ma saa
- - - pâte - - - - - - - - -
ː w2 t ri

a - - - aut - pa - - - cao - - - - - -
 us
u o
a

a
now - auf - - - pau - - - - - - - - -
ʊ

m
kulan goû μο
u do hoed tú us suc муж - thu - - - tu tuli
t t υ
eo

m
u rou uu
soon - Kuh - usi - - bot - - - - - -
ː ge ni
ca

trou муж
Mutt bot trun
ʊ put - - sse1 - - чин - - - - - -
er 0 t g
а

uo dón πά ぼ
Moti bea вош kot
o - zo, oor yo m a,go - cô - ν - た todo
v u ь ん i
o s ω

ぼ
う mo
o jau do må
- - Boot - - - - - - - り - ott
ː ne ve l ょ ori
く

don
trock bott ott mo mol
ɔ - zot - a,ro - có - - - - -
nen e o ll a
c

saw,so uo
ɔ
re1,cau - - - or m - - - - - - - - - -
ː
ght1 o

ə
go1 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
ʊ

o jau
go2 - - - - pou - - - - - - - - -
ʊ ne11

ɔ
- - - - - - bou - - - - - - - - -
ʊ
ɔ coil,boi
boiler Eule - - - noi - - - - - - - - -
ɪ ler

o do
- - - - - coi - - - - - - - - -
ɪ y

ɪ
here1 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
ə

not1,co
ɒ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
ugh

an,
ɑ̃ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
en

ɛ̃ - - Teint - vin - - - - - - - - - - -

ɔ̃ - - - - on - - - - - - - - - - -

œ
- - - - un - - - - - - - - - - -
̃

sint
ĩ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
o

vin1 sent
ẽ - - - - 0 - - - - - - - - - -
o

sant
ɐ̃ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
o

ũ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - dum -

Cha
õ - - mpig - son - - - - - - - - - dom -
non4

Cha ma
ã - - mpig - ma - - - - - - - - - - -
non4 n11
Consonants and semivowels

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Ja Por
I Ge Sp Ru Sw Vietn Ko Gr Ar
Engli Frenc Ital Catala pa tug Fin
P Dutch rm an ssia edi ames re ee ab
sh h ian n nes ues nish
A an ish n sh e an k ic
e e

sp πα さ
Pra pa pap па poik
p spin pen paix papa ott pin 바 πά - ん pato
cht pa a па ぽ a
a ς

Pos pot
pʰ pin - - - - - - - 파 - - - - -
t ta

ぼ
баб μπ う
but, b Bal be ben bile
b best boule bo уш bil - - ύρ - り bato
utt l so e ょ et
ка α
く

тел μη
Tre toc tem た
t stop tot tarif tot еф tå tự 다 τέ - け tato lista
ppe ar po
он ρα

Tie
tʰ top - - - - - - stå thu 타 - - - - -
r

ντ
do
don до da ομ だ disk
d do dode die nd dent dau - - - dato
na ма m άτ け o
e
α

chair, De mu
t͡ ʃ tsjilp,c Tcha cen tche
pictur uts ch - - - - - - - - -
hips4 d a co
e ch o

Dsc
gin, j gior
d͡ ʒ jeans hun - jazz - - - - - - - - dia -
oy no
gel

κα
c - - - - - - - - - cha - - - - yhtä
ι
 γκι
ɟ - - - - - - - - - - - όν - - - -
ης

scan,t kom, c Kra car cap ка skå κά か ken

k coq cop ca 가 -
く
cato
ake afé ft ro o к l τω kä

cat, cr
ko khác
kʰ y,que - - - - - - kål 카 - - - - -
mm h
en

гов
go, ge zakdoe geh ga gauch grill γκ が geno
ɡ gat ори går - - - gato
t k,goal t nar e o άζι く mi
ть

‫قا‬
q - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
‫ف‬

ふ
く
ろ
ɸ - - - - - - - - - - - - - う, - -
富
士
山

き
ぼ
ca う sabr
4
β - - - - - bava - - - - - - , -
bo e
ラ
イ
ヴ

fool,e fün фа
fue fres φέ fyrk
f noug fiets f, vi fort fort ми fas phở - - - fato
rte co τα ka
h er лия

We вод βό viisi
v voice vogel - vivre via afganès vas vũ - - - vela 4
lt а δι

caz θέ
θ thing - - - - - - - - - - - - -
a3 μα

ca δέ
ð this - - - - fada - - - - - - - -
da3 μα
 see,pa steen,r gro sal, ce, さ
suo себ xanh μι い
s ss, cit ecent,a ß, f sí sauter piscina, sil 사 -
だ
sela sinä
no я xao σώ
y ctie luss massa, ん

mi rosa зоо μα ざ
zoo,ro zèle,r casa,zo い
z zee See sm ,sba пар - giữa - ζεύ - zela -
ses ose na だ
o rra к ω ん

she,su meisje, Ges

chemi sce caixa,x sju chel šeik
ʃ re,em sheriff, chä - - 4 - - - - -
n ndo arxa a ki
otion chips4 ft

pleas Eta gent,joi

ʒ genre - jour - - - - - - - - gela -
ure ge a

ша sju
4
ʂ - - - - - - - хм ,k sắc - - - - - -
аты ors

тя
жё
ʐ - - - - - - - - ra - - - - - -
лы
й

licht, χέ ひ
ç huge- ich - - - - - - - - - - -
weg ρι と

же
시 し
ɕ - - - - - - - нщ kär - - - - -
ина 각 る

сж 富
ʑ - - - - - - - им - - - - - 士 - -
ать 山

say
ʝ - - - - - - - - - - για - - - -
a

хар
lach, d Buc khác χά kaht
x loch4 ajo - - - акт - - - - -
ag h h νω a
ер

ɧ - - - - - - - - sju - - - - - - -
 mi γά は
ɣ - gaan6 - - - vaga - - gà - - - -
ga τα げ4

は hein
h ham - - - - - - - hel hay 함 - -
げ
-
ä

ahead Ha mah
ɦ 4 hand - - - - - - - - - - - -
nd a

め
ma ma mes ма αί ん, mat mus
m mare man dame mot mil máy 마 - さ
n no e ма μα o ta
ん
ぽ

inf έμ info
emph omvall enf
ɱ - ier - amfibi - - - - φα - - - rma
asis en6 asi
no ση atio

の
nac not но no άν う
n no nu no nez nas nó 나 - り nato kani
h a чь s ω ょ
く

nhan
canyo añ oigno gno πα rain
ɲ kanjer - canya - - h, sin - - - -
n2 o n cchi νιά ha
h

あ
ん
parki ご
xẻng, άγ
singer ring, pi Fin ten ng,ca anc rin う, sank
ŋ llengua - ngon, 앙 χο -
あ
-
,ring nk ger go mpin he g o
nghĩ ς ん
g
ご
う4

ふ
じ
さ
enj ん,
ɴ - - - - - - - - - - - - あ - -
uto
ん
ち
ゃ
ん

l left leeft lauf lar leur larg laboral - pil lễ - κα - - calo kala
t go o λό
 ς

ell agli llarg,co κιά calh

ʎ - - - - - - - - - - -
a3 o lla,vell λια o

пал calo
ɫ pill - - - - - - - - - - - - 8 -
ка

better pe per 우 πά car

ɾ - - - cara - - - - - -
리
2
ro ò4 ρα o

pe rot
rata,so кор carr
r - riet4 - rr - ond ros - - - - - raha
rra а o
o o

run, v
ɻ - - - - - - - - răng - - - - - -
ery2

dor carr
ʁ - - - - - - - - - - - - -
t o
air, r
ond
hier, ri Rei
ʀ - - - - - - - - - - - - -
et4 ch

あ
り
ɺ - - - - - - - - - - - - - が - -
と
う

hu uov
w we wie - oui dau - - oanh 와 - - わ pau -
eso o

ɥ - - - - huit - - - - - - - - - - -

тол ゆ
yaour caix jalk
j yes ja ja pie ieri iot сты jag da 야 - - う
t き a a
й

viisi
ʋ - wang4 - - - - - - - - - - - - - 4