The
International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a
system of
phonetic notation
based primarily on the
Latin
alphabet, devised by the
International Phonetic
Association as a standardized representation of the sounds of
spoken language. The IPA is used by
foreign language students and teachers,
linguists,
speech pathologists and
therapists,
singers,
actors,
lexicographers,
and
translator.
The IPA is designed to represent only those qualities of speech
that are distinctive in
spoken
language:
phonemes,
intonation, and the separation of
words and
syllables. To
represent additional qualities of speech such as tooth gnashing,
lisping, and sounds made with a
cleft palate, an extended set of
symbols called the
Extensions to
the IPA is used.
Occasionally symbols are added, removed, or modified by the
International Phonetic Association. As of 2008, there are 107
distinct letters, 52
diacritics, and four
prosody marks in the IPA
proper.
History
In 1886, a
group of French
and British
language teachers, led by the French linguist
Paul Passy, formed what would come to be
known (from 1897 onwards) as the International Phonetic
Association (in French, l’Association
phonétique internationale). The original alphabet
was based on a
spelling reform for
English known as the
Romic alphabet,
but in order to make it usable for other languages, the values of
the symbols were allowed to vary from language to language. For
example, the sound (the
sh in
shoe) was
originally represented with the letter ‹c› in English, but with the
letter ‹x› in French. However, in 1888, the alphabet was revised so
as to be uniform across languages, thus providing the base for all
future revisions.
Since its creation, the IPA has undergone a number of revisions.
After major revisions and expansions in
1900 and
1932, the IPA remained unchanged
until the
IPA Kiel Convention in
1989. A minor revision took place in 1993, with the addition of
four
mid-central vowels and the
removal of symbols for
voiceless
implosives. The alphabet was last revised in May 2005, with the
addition of a symbol for the
labiodental flap. Apart from the addition
and removal of symbols, changes to the IPA have consisted largely
in renaming symbols and categories and modifying typefaces.
Extensions of the alphabet are relatively recent; "
Extensions to the IPA" was created in
1990 and officially adopted by the
International
Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association in 1994.
Description

A chart of the full International
Phonetic Alphabet.
The general principle of the IPA is to provide one symbol for each
distinctive sound (or
speech
segment). This means that it does not use letter combinations
to represent single sounds, or single letters to represent multiple
sounds (the way represents or in English). There are no letters
that have context-dependent sound values (as does in English and
other European languages), and finally, the IPA does not usually
have separate letters for two sounds if no known language makes a
distinction between them (a property known as
"selectiveness").
Among the symbols of the IPA, 107 represent
consonants and
vowels, 31 are
diacritics that are used to further
specify these sounds, and 19 are used to indicate such qualities as
length,
tone,
stress, and
intonation.
Letterforms
The symbols chosen for the IPA are meant to harmonize with the
Latin alphabet. For this reason, most
symbols are either
Latin or
Greek letters, or modifications thereof.
However, there are symbols that are neither: for example, the
symbol denoting the
glottal stop, , has
the form of a "gelded"
question mark,
and was originally an
apostrophe. In
fact, there are a few symbols, such as that of the voiced
pharyngeal fricative, , which, though
modified to blend with the Latin alphabet, were inspired by
glyphs in other writing systems (in this case,
the
Arabic letter ,
`ain).
Despite its preference for letters that harmonize with the Latin
alphabet, the International Phonetic Association has occasionally
admitted symbols that do not have this property. For example,
before 1989, the IPA symbols for
click
consonants were , , , and , all of which were derived either
from existing symbols, or from Latin and Greek letters. However,
except for , none of these symbols was widely used among
Khoisanists or
Bantuists, and as a result they were
replaced by the more widespread symbols , , , , and at the IPA Kiel
Convention in 1989.
Symbols and sounds
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 most
consonants taken from the Latin alphabet would
correspond to “international usage”. Hence, the letters , , ,
(hard) , (non-silent) , (unaspirated) , , , , (unaspirated) ,
(voiceless) , (unaspirated) , , , and have the values used in
English; and the
vowels from the Latin
alphabet ( , , , , ) correspond to the sound values of Latin: is
like the vowel in
mach'i
ne, is as in
ru
le, etc. Other letters may differ from
English, but are used with these values in other European
languages, such as , , and .
This inventory was extended by using capital or cursive forms,
diacritics, and rotation. There are also several derived or taken
from the Greek alphabet, though the sound values may differ. For
example, is a vowel in Greek, but an only indirectly related
consonant in the IPA. Two of these ( and ) are used unmodified in
form; for others (including , , , , and ) subtly different glyph
shapes have been devised, which may be encoded in Unicode
separately from their "parent" letters.
The sound values of modified Latin letters can often be derived
from those of the original letters. For example, letters with a
rightward-facing hook at the bottom represent
retroflex consonants; and small capital
letters usually represent
uvular
consonants. Apart from the fact that certain kinds of
modification to the shape of a letter generally correspond to
certain kinds of modification to the sound represented, there is no
way to deduce the sound represented by a symbol from the shape of
the symbol (unlike, for example, in
Visible Speech).
Beyond the letters themselves, there are a variety of secondary
symbols which aid in transcription.
Diacritic
mark can be combined with IPA letters to transcribe modified
phonetic values or
secondary articulations. There are
also special symbols for
suprasegmental feature such as
stress and
tone that are often employed.
Brackets and phonemes
There are two principal types of
brackets
used to set off IPA transcriptions:
- [square brackets] are used for phonetic
details of the pronunciation, possibly including details that may
not be used for distinguishing words in the language being
transcribed, but which the author nonetheless wishes to
document.
- /slashes/ are used to mark
off phonemes, all of which 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, it is not meaningful in
English, but rather is an automatic variation due to one of the /p/
sounds being preceded by an /s/. Thus
phonemically
the words are and , with the same /p/ phoneme. However, if one
wishes to capture the difference between them (the
allophones of /p/), one can transcribe them
phonetically as and .
Two other conventions are less commonly seen:
- //Double slashes//, |pipes|, ||double pipes||, or {braces} may
be used for the theoretical underlying structure of a word, more
abstract even than that of phonemes. See [[morphophonology]] for
examples. *‹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, {{IPA|‹pin›}} and
{{IPA|‹spin›}} for our two words, which do not contain the ''ee''
sound {{IPA|[i]}} of the IPA letter {{IPA|‹i›}}. Italics are
perhaps more commonly used for this purpose when full words are
being written (as ''pin, spin'' above), but may not be considered
sufficiently clear for individual letters and digraphs. ==Usage==
{{further|[[Phonetic transcription]]}}
[[Image:Phonetik.svg|thumb|left|100px|[[Ébauche]] is a French term
meaning "outline" or "blank".]] Although the IPA offers over a
hundred symbols for transcribing speech, it is not necessary to use
all relevant symbols at the same time; it is possible to transcribe
speech with various levels of precision. A precise phonetic
transcription, in which sounds are described in a great deal of
detail, is known as a ''narrow transcription''. A coarser
transcriptions which ignores some of this detail is called a
''broad transcription.'' Both are relative terms, and both are
generally enclosed in square brackets. 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. [[Image:RPGA
international.svg|200px|thumb|Phonetic transcriptions of the word
''international'' in two English dialects. The square brackets
indicate that the differences between these dialects are not
necessarily sufficient to distinguish different words in English.]]
For example, the English word ''little'' may be transcribed broadly
using the IPA as {{IPA|[ˈlɪtəl]}}, and this broad (imprecise)
transcription is an accurate (approximately correct) description of
many pronunciations. A more narrow transcription may focus on
individual or dialectical details: {{IPA|[ˈlɪɾɫ]}} in [[General
American]], {{IPA|[ˈlɪʔo]}} in [[Cockney]], or {{IPA|[ˈlɪːɫ]}} in
Southern US English. It is customary to use simpler letters,
without a lot of 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 {{IPA|/i/}} (for the pairs {{IPA|/pik, piːk/}} or
{{IPA|/pɪk, pik/}}), and neither is identical to the vowel of the
French word ''pique'' which is also generally transcribed
{{IPA|/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:
{{IPA|[pʰɪk], [pʰiːk], [pik]}}. ===Linguists=== Although IPA is
popular for transcription by linguists, it is also common to use
[[Americanist phonetic notation]] or IPA together with some
[[Obsolete and nonstandard symbols in the International Phonetic
Alphabet|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.{{cite web
|url=http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/005287.html
|title=Why I Don't Love the International Phonetic Alphabet
|author=Sally Thomason |date=January 2, 2008 |work=Language Log }}
===Language study=== {{Expand section|date=November 2009}} Some
language study programs use the IPA to teach pronunciation. For
example, in Russia (and earlier in the Soviet Union) textbooks for
childrenFor example, the English school textbooks by
I.N.Vereshagina, K.A. Bondarenko and T.A. Pritykina. and adultsFor
example, "Le Français à la portée de tous" by K.K. Parchevsky and
E.B. Roisenblit (1995) and "English Through Eye and Ear" by L.V.
Bankevich (1975). for studying English and French consistently used
the IPA. ===Dictionaries=== ====English==== Many British
dictionaries, among which are [[Monolingual learner's
dictionary|learner's dictionaries]] such as the [[Advanced
learner's dictionary|Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary]] and the
[[Advanced learner's dictionary|Cambridge Advanced Learner's
Dictionary]], now use [[Pronunciation respelling for
English#International Phonetic Alphabet|the International Phonetic
Alphabet]] to represent the pronunciation of words.{{cite
web|url=http://dictionary.cambridge.org/help/phonetics.htm
|title=Phonetics |year=2002 |publisher=Cambridge Dictionaries
Online|accessdate=2007-03-11}} However, most American (and some
British) volumes use one of a variety of [[Pronunciation respelling
for English|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 {{IPA|[j]}} and ‹sh› for IPA {{IPA|[ʃ]}},
reflecting common representations of those sounds in written
English,{{cite web
|url=http://mw1.merriam-webster.com/pronsymbols.html
|title=Merriam-Webster Online Pronunciation Symbols
|accessdate=2007-06-04 |work=}}
{{cite book |first=Michael |last=Agnes|title=Webster's New World
College Dictionary|year=1999|publisher=Macmillan USA|location=New
York, NY|isbn=0-02-863119-6|pages=xxiii|nopp=true}}
''[[Pronunciation respelling for English]]'' has detailed
comparisons. using only letters of the English [[Latin
alphabet|Roman alphabet]] and variations of them. (In IPA,
{{IPA|[y]}} represents the sound of the French ‹u› (as in ''tu''),
and {{IPA|[sh]}} represents the pair of sounds in
''gra'''ssh'''opper''.) One of the benefits of using an alternative
to the IPA is the ability to use a single symbol for a sound
pronounced differently in different dialects. For example, [[The
American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language]] uses ‹ŏ› for
the vowel in ''cot'' [http://www.bartleby.com/61/46/C0674600.html
(kŏt)] but ‹ô› for the one in ''caught''
[http://www.bartleby.com/61/14/C0171400.html (kôt)].{{cite
web|title=Pronunciation Key|work=The American Heritage Dictionary
of the English Language |url=http://www.bartleby.com/61/12.html
|year=2000 |publisher=Bartleby.com|accessdate=2006-09-19 }} Some
American speakers [[phonological history of English low back
vowels|pronounce these the same way]] (for example, like IPA
{{IPA|[ɒ]}} in the [[Boston accent|Boston dialect]]); for those
speakers who maintain the distinction, depending on the accent, the
vowel in ''cot'' may vary from {{IPA|[ɑ]}} to {{IPA|[a]}}, while
the vowel in ''caught'' may vary from {{IPA|[ɔ]}} to {{IPA|[ɑ]}},
or may even be a diphthong. Using one symbol for the vowel in
''cot'' (instead of having different symbols for different
pronunciations of the ''o'') enables the dictionary to provide
meaningful pronunciations for speakers of most dialects of English.
====Other languages==== The IPA is also not universal among
dictionaries in languages other than English. Monolingual
dictionaries of languages with generally [[phonemic
orthography|phonemic orthographies]] generally don't 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 alphabet]] for transcription of foreign
words. Monolingual Hebrew dictionaries use pronunciation respelling
for words with unusual spelling; for example, [[Even-Shoshan
Dictionary]] respells תָּכְנִית as תּוֹכְנִית because this word
uses [[kamatz katan]]. Bilingual dictionaries that translate from
foreign languages into [[Russian language|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
language|French]] word ''пенсне'' ([[Pince-nez]]) to indicate that
the ''[[е]]'' doesn't [[Iotation|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]].{{cs icon}} {{cite book
|last=Fronek|first=J.|title=Velký anglicko-český
slovník|year=2006|publisher=Leda|location=Praha|language=Czech|isbn=80-7335-022-X|quote=In
accordance with long-established Czech lexicographical tradition, a
modified version of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is
adopted in which letters of the Czech alphabet are employed.}}
===Standard orthographies and capital variants=== {{See also|Latin
characters in Unicode}} IPA symbols have been incorporated into the
standard orthographies of various languages, notably in
[[Sub-Saharan Africa]] but in other regions as well. These include
for example: [[Hausa language|Hausa]]; [[Fula language|Fula]];
[[Akan language|Akan]]; [[Gbe languages]]; and [[Manding
languages]]. An example of capital letter forms for IPA symbols is
[[Kabiyé language|Kabiyé]] of northern [[Togo]], which has
{{unicode|[[Open O|Ɔ]] [[Latin epsilon|Ɛ]] [[African D|Ɖ]] [[Eng
(letter)|Ŋ]] [[Latin gamma|Ɣ]] [[Esh (letter)|Ʃ]] [[Ʊ]] (or [[Ʋ]])
}} (capital {{IPA|ɔ ɛ ɖ ŋ ɣ ʃ ʊ (or ʋ)}}): ''{{Unicode|MBƱ AJƐYA
KIGBƐNDƱƱ ŊGBƐYƐ KEDIƔZAƔ SƆSƆƆ TƆM SE}}.'' Other IPA-paired
capitals include {{unicode|[[Latin alpha|Ɑ]] [[Ɓ]] [[Ƈ]] [[Ɗ]]
[[Ə]]/[[Ə|Ǝ]] [[G with hook|Ɠ]] [[Ħ]] [[Ɯ]] [[M with hook|Ɱ]] [[Ɲ]]
[[Ɵ]] [[Ʈ]] [[Ezh (letter)|Ʒ]] [[R with tail|Ɽ]]}}. The
abovementioned and other capital forms are supported by
[[Unicode]], but appear in Latin ranges other than the IPA
extensions. ===Classical singing=== IPA has widespread use among
classical singers for preparation, especially among
English-speaking singers who rarely sing in their native language.
Opera librettos are authoritatively transcribed in IPA, such as
[[Nico Castel]]'s volumes{{cite web |
url=http://www.castelopera.com/libretti.htm | title=Nico Castel's
Complete Libretti Series | publisher=Castel Opera Arts |
accessdate=2008-09-29}} and Timothy Cheek's book ''Singing in
Czech''.{{cite book |
url=http://scarecrowpress.com/Catalog/SingleBook.shtml?command=Search&db=%5EDB/CATALOG.db&eqSKUdata=0810840030
| last=Cheek | first=Timothy | title=Singing in Czech | year=2001 |
pages=392 | isbn=0-8108-4003-0 ISBN 978-0-8108-4003-4 |
publisher=The Scarecrow Press}} Opera singers' ability to read IPA
was recently used by the
[http://www.visualthesaurus.com/howitworks/ 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."{{cite web |
url=http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=155 | title=Operatic
IPA and the Visual Thesaurus | last=Zimmer | first=Benjamin |
authorlink=Benjamin Zimmer | work=[[Language Log]] |
publisher=[[University of Pennsylvania]] | accessdate=2009-09-29 |
date=2008-05-14}} ==Letters== The International Phonetic Alphabet
divides its letter symbols into three categories:
[[Egressive|pulmonic]] consonants, non-pulmonic consonants, and
vowels."Segments can usefully be divided into two major categories,
consonants and vowels." (International Phonetic Association,
''Handbook'', p. 3)International Phonetic Association,
''Handbook'', p. 6. Each character is assigned a number, to
prevent confusion between similar letters (such as {{IPA|ɵ}} and
{{IPA|θ}}), for example in printing manuscripts. Different
categories of sounds are assigned different ranges of numbers.
===Pulmonic consonants=== {{Main|Consonant}} A
[[Egressive|pulmonic]] consonant is a consonant made by obstructing
the [[glottis]] (the space between the vocal cords) or [[Mouth|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.{{cite
book|last=Fromkin|first=Victoria|authorlink=Victoria
Fromkin|coauthors=Rodman, Robert|title=An Introduction to
Language|origyear=1974|year=1998|publisher=Harcourt Brace College
Publishers|location=Fort Worth, TX |edition=
6th|isbn=0-03-018682-X}} 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. {|
class="IPA wikitable" style="text-align: center" ! colspan=17 |
[[Media:IPA consonants 2005.png|View this table as an image.]] |-
|- style="vertical-align: center; font-size: x-small; height: 2em"
| rowspan="2" style="font-size: 90%;" | [[Place of articulation]] →
! colspan="2" | [[Labial consonant|Labial]] ! colspan="4" |
[[Coronal consonant|Coronal]] ! colspan="4" | [[Dorsal
consonant|Dorsal]] ! colspan="4" | [[Radical consonant|Radical]] !
colspan="2" rowspan="3" style="width: 4em;" | [[Glottal
consonant|Glottal]] |- style="vertical-align: center; font-size:
x-small; height: 3em" ! rowspan="2" style="width: 4em;" |
[[Bilabial consonant|Bilabial]] ! rowspan="2" style="width: 4em;"
| [[Labiodental consonant|Labiodental]] ! rowspan="2"
style="width: 4em;" | [[Dental consonant|Dental]] ! rowspan="2"
style="width: 4em;" | [[Alveolar consonant|Alveolar]] !
rowspan="2" style="width: 4em;" | [[Postalveolar
consonant|Postalveolar]] ! rowspan="2" style="width: 4em;" |
[[Retroflex consonant|Retroflex]] ! rowspan="2" style="width:
4em;" | [[Palatal consonant|Palatal]] ! rowspan="2" style="width:
4em;" | [[Velar consonant|Velar]] ! rowspan="2" colspan="2"
style="width: 4em;" | [[Uvular consonant|Uvular]] ! rowspan="2"
colspan="2" style="width: 4em;" | [[Pharyngeal
consonant|Pharyngeal]] ! rowspan="2" colspan="2" style="width:
4em;" | [[Epiglottal consonant|Epiglottal]] |-
style="vertical-align: center; font-size: x-small; height: 3em" |
style="font-size: 90%;" | [[Manner of articulation]] ↓ |-
style="font-size: 120%;" ! style="font-size: x-small;
text-align:left" | [[Nasal consonant|Nasal]] |
[[bilabial nasal|{{IPA|m}}]] |
[[labiodental nasal|{{IPA|ɱ}}]] | colspan="3"
| [[alveolar nasal|{{IPA|n}}]] |
[[retroflex nasal|{{IPA|ɳ}}]] |
| [[palatal nasal|{{IPA|ɲ}}]] |
[[velar nasal|{{IPA|ŋ}}]] | colspan="2" |
[[uvular nasal|{{IPA|ɴ}}]] | colspan="6"
style="background:#ccc" | |- style="font-size: 120%;" !
style="font-size: x-small; text-align:left" | [[Stop
consonant|Plosive]] | [[voiceless bilabial plosive|{{IPA|p}}]]
[[voiced bilabial plosive|{{IPA|b}}]] | [[voiceless labiodental
plosive|{{IPA|p̪}}]] [[voiced labiodental plosive|{{IPA|b̪}}]] |
colspan="3" |[[voiceless alveolar plosive|{{IPA|t}}]] [[voiced
alveolar plosive|{{IPA|d}}]] | [[voiceless retroflex
plosive|{{IPA|ʈ}}]] [[voiced retroflex plosive|{{IPA|ɖ}}]] |
[[voiceless palatal plosive|{{IPA|c}}]] [[voiced palatal
plosive|{{IPA|ɟ}}]] | [[voiceless velar plosive|{{IPA|k}}]]
[[voiced velar plosive|{{IPA|ɡ}}]] | colspan="2" | [[voiceless
uvular plosive|{{IPA|q}}]] [[voiced uvular plosive|{{IPA|ɢ}}]] |
colspan="2" style="background:#ccc" | | colspan="2" |
[[epiglottal plosive|{{IPA|ʡ}}]] | style="width: 1em;" | [[glottal
stop|{{IPA|ʔ}}]] | style="width: 1em; background:#ccc" | |-
style="font-size: 120%;" ! style="font-size: x-small;
text-align:left" | [[Fricative consonant|Fricative]] | [[voiceless
bilabial fricative|{{IPA|ɸ}}]] [[voiced bilabial
fricative|{{IPA|β}}]] | [[voiceless labiodental
fricative|{{IPA|f}}]] [[voiced labiodental fricative|{{IPA|v}}]] |
[[voiceless dental fricative|{{IPA|θ}}]] [[voiced dental
fricative|{{IPA|ð}}]] | [[voiceless alveolar fricative|{{IPA|s}}]]
[[voiced alveolar fricative|{{IPA|z}}]] | [[voiceless postalveolar
fricative|{{IPA|ʃ}}]] [[voiced postalveolar fricative|{{IPA|ʒ}}]] |
[[voiceless retroflex fricative|{{IPA|ʂ}}]] [[voiced retroflex
fricative|{{IPA|ʐ}}]] | [[voiceless palatal fricative|{{IPA|ç}}]]
[[voiced palatal fricative|{{IPA|ʝ}}]] | [[voiceless velar
fricative|{{IPA|x}}]] [[voiced velar fricative|{{IPA|ɣ}}]] |
style="width: 1em;" | [[voiceless uvular fricative|{{IPA|χ}}]] |
rowspan="2" style="width: 1em;" | [[voiced uvular
fricative|{{IPA|ʁ}}]] | style="width: 1em;" | [[voiceless
pharyngeal fricative|{{IPA|ħ}}]] | rowspan="2" style="width: 1em;"
| [[voiced pharyngeal fricative|{{IPA|ʕ}}]] | style="width: 1em;" |
[[voiceless epiglottal fricative|{{IPA|ʜ}}]] | rowspan="2"
style="width: 1em;" | [[voiced epiglottal fricative|{{IPA|ʢ}}]] |
rowspan="2" colspan="2" | [[voiceless glottal fricative|{{IPA|h}}]]
[[voiced glottal fricative|{{IPA|ɦ}}]] |- style="font-size: 120%;"
! style="font-size: x-small; text-align:left" | [[Approximant
consonant|Approximant]] | [[bilabial
approximant|{{IPA|β̞}}]] | [[labiodental
approximant|{{IPA|ʋ}}]] | colspan="3" |
[[alveolar approximant|{{IPA|ɹ}}]] |
[[retroflex approximant|{{IPA|ɻ}}]] |
[[palatal approximant|{{IPA|j}}]] |
[[velar approximant|{{IPA|ɰ}}]] | |
| |- style="font-size: 120%;" ! style="font-size: x-small;
text-align:left" | [[Trill consonant|Trill]] |
[[bilabial trill|{{IPA|ʙ}}]] | | colspan="3" |
[[alveolar trill|{{IPA|r}}]] |
[[retroflex trill| ]] | | style="background:#ccc"
| | colspan="2" | [[uvular trill|{{IPA|ʀ}}]] |
colspan="2" style="background:#ccc" | | colspan="2" |
[[epiglottal trill|{{IPA|я}}]]* | colspan="2"
style="background:#ccc" | |- style="font-size: 120%;" !
style="font-size: x-small; text-align:left" | [[Flap consonant|Tap
or Flap]] | | [[bilabial flap|ⱱ̟]]†
| [[labiodental flap|ⱱ]]†
| colspan="3" | [[alveolar tap|{{IPA|ɾ}}]] |
[[retroflex flap|{{IPA|ɽ}}]] | |
style="background:#ccc" | | colspan="2" |
[[Uvular flap|ɢ̆]] | colspan="2"
style="background:#ccc" | | colspan="2" |
[[epiglottal flap|{{IPA|ʡ̯}}]] | colspan="2"
style="background:#ccc" | |- style="font-size: 120%;" !
style="font-size: x-small; text-align:left" | [[Lateral
consonant|Lateral Fricative]] | colspan="2" style="background:#ccc"
| | colspan="3" | [[voiceless alveolar lateral
fricative|{{IPA|ɬ}}]] [[voiced alveolar lateral
fricative|{{IPA|ɮ}}]] | [[voiceless retroflex lateral
fricative|]]*
| [[voiceless palatal lateral fricative|]]*
| [[voiceless velar lateral fricative|]]*
| colspan="2" | | colspan="7" style="background:#ccc" |
|- style="font-size: 120%;" ! style="font-size: x-small;
text-align:left" | [[Lateral consonant|Lateral Approximant]] |
colspan="2" style="background:#ccc" | | colspan="3" |
[[alveolar lateral approximant|{{IPA|l}}]] |
[[retroflex lateral approximant|{{IPA|ɭ}}]] |
[[palatal lateral approximant|{{IPA|ʎ}}]] |
[[velar lateral approximant|{{IPA|ʟ}}]] |
colspan="2" | | colspan="7" style="background:#ccc" | |-
style="font-size: 120%;" ! style="font-size: x-small;
text-align:left" | [[Lateral consonant|Lateral Flap]] | colspan="2"
style="background:#ccc" | | colspan="3" |
[[alveolar lateral flap|{{IPA|ɺ}}]] |
[[retroflex lateral flap|]]* |
[[palatal lateral flap|{{IPA|ʎ̯}}]] |
[[velar lateral flap|{{IPA|ʟ̆}}]] | colspan="2" |
| colspan="7" style="background:#ccc" | |} ;Notes
*Asterisks (*) next to symbols mark reported sounds that do not
(yet) have official IPA symbols. See the respective articles for
''ad hoc'' symbols found in the literature. * Daggers (†) mark IPA
symbols that have recently been added to [[Unicode]]. As of Unicode
5.1.0, this is the case of the [[labiodental flap]], symbolized by
a ''v'' with a right-hook: [[Image:Labiodental flap
(Gentium).svg|10px]]. These display properly with a recent version
of [[Charis SIL]], [[Doulos SIL]] or [[DejaVu fonts]] installed.
*In rows where some symbols appear in pairs (the
''[[obstruent]]s''), the symbol to the right represents a [[voice
(phonetics)|voiced consonant]] (except [[breathy
voice|breathy-voiced]] {{IPA|[ɦ]}}). However, {{IPA|[ʔ]}} cannot be
voiced, and the voicing of {{IPA|[ʡ]}} is ambiguous.Ladefoged and
Maddieson, 1996, ''Sounds of the World's Languages,'' §2.1. In the
other rows (the ''[[sonorant]]s''), the single symbol represents a
voiced consonant. *Although there is a single symbol for the
coronal places of articulation for all consonants but fricatives,
when dealing with a particular language, the symbols may be treated
as specifically dental, alveolar, or post-alveolar, as appropriate
for that language, without diacritics. *Shaded areas indicate
articulations judged to be impossible. *The symbols {{IPA|[ʁ, ʕ,
ʢ]}} represent either voiced fricatives or approximants. *In many
languages, such as English, {{IPA|[h]}} and {{IPA|[ɦ]}} are not
actually glottal, fricatives, or approximants. Rather, they are
bare [[phonation]].Ladefoged and Maddieson, 1996, ''Sounds of the
World's Languages,'' §9.3. *It is primarily the shape of the tongue
rather than its position that distinguishes the fricatives {{IPA|[ʃ
ʒ]}}, {{IPA|[ɕ ʑ]}}, and {{IPA|[ʂ ʐ]}}.
====Coarticulation==== [[Co-articulated consonant|Coarticulated
consonants]] are sounds that involve two simultaneous [[Place of
articulation|places of articulation]] (are pronounced using two
parts of the [[vocal tract]]). In English, the [w] in "went" is a
coarticulated consonant, because it is pronounced by rounding the
lips and raising the back of the tongue. Other languages, such as
[[French language|French]] and [[Swedish language|Swedish]], have
different coarticulated consonants. {| class="IPA wikitable" !
colspan=2 | [[media:IPA co-articulated 2005.png|View this table as
an image]] |- | style="text-align:center; font-size:larger;
width:2em;" | [[voiceless labio-velar approximant|ʍ]] | Voiceless
labialized velar approximant |- | style="text-align:center;
font-size:larger;" | [[Voiced labio-velar approximant|w]] | Voiced
labialized velar approximant |- | style="text-align:center;
font-size:larger;" | [[labial-palatal approximant|ɥ]] | Voiced
labialized palatal approximant |- | style="text-align:center;
font-size:larger;" | [[voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative|ɕ]] |
Voiceless palatalized postalveolar (alveolo-palatal) fricative |- |
style="text-align:center; font-size:larger;" | [[voiced
alveolo-palatal fricative|ʑ]] | Voiced palatalized postalveolar
(alveolo-palatal) fricative |- | style="text-align:center;
font-size:larger;" | [[voiceless palatal-velar fricative|ɧ]] |
Voiceless "palatal-velar" fricative |} ;Note *{{IPA|[ɧ]}} is
described as a "simultaneous {{IPA|[ʃ]}} and {{IPA|[x]}}".{{cite
book |last=Ladefoged |first=Peter |coauthors=[[Ian
Maddieson]]|year=1996 |title=The sounds of the world's languages
|location=Oxford
|publisher=Blackwell|pages=329–330|isbn=0-631-19815-6}} However,
this analysis is disputed. (See [[voiceless palatal-velar
fricative]] for discussion.) ====Affricates and double
articulation==== [[Affricate consonant|Affricate]]s and [[Doubly
articulated consonant|doubly articulated]] stops are represented by
two symbols joined by a tie bar, either above or below the symbols.
The six most common affricates are optionally represented by
[[Typographic ligature|ligatures]], though this is no longer
official IPA usage, 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 {{IPA|tˢ}} for {{IPA|t͡s}},
paralleling {{IPA|kˣ}} ~ {{IPA|k͡x}}. The symbols for the palatal
plosives, {{IPA|‹c ɟ›}}, are often used as a convenience for
{{IPA|[t͡ʃ d͡ʒ]}} or similar affricates, even in official IPA
publications, so they must be interpreted with care. {| class="IPA
wikitable" ! colspan=3 | [[Media:Affricate ligatures.png|View this
table as an image.]] |- ! Tie bar ! Ligature ! Description |- |
style="text-align:center; font-size:larger;" | [[voiceless alveolar
affricate|{{IPA|t͡s}}]] | style="text-align:center;
font-size:larger;" | {{IPA|ʦ}} | voiceless alveolar affricate |- |
style="text-align:center; font-size:larger;" | [[voiced alveolar
affricate|{{IPA|d͡z}}]] | style="text-align:center;
font-size:larger;" | {{IPA|ʣ}} | voiced alveolar affricate |- |
style="text-align:center; font-size:larger;" | [[voiceless
postalveolar affricate|{{IPA|t͡ʃ}}]] | style="text-align:center;
font-size:larger;" | {{IPA|ʧ}} | voiceless postalveolar affricate
|- | style="text-align:center; font-size:larger;" | [[voiced
postalveolar affricate|{{IPA|d͡ʒ}}]] | style="text-align:center;
font-size:larger;" | {{IPA|ʤ}} | voiced postalveolar affricate |- |
style="text-align:center; font-size:larger;" | [[voiceless
alveolo-palatal affricate|{{IPA|t͡ɕ}}]] | style="text-align:center;
font-size:larger;" | {{IPA|ʨ}} | voiceless alveolo-palatal
affricate |- | style="text-align:center; font-size:larger;" |
[[voiced alveolo-palatal affricate|{{IPA|d͡ʑ}}]] |
style="text-align:center; font-size:larger;" | {{IPA|ʥ}} | voiced
alveolo-palatal affricate |- | style="text-align:center;
font-size:larger;" | [[voiceless alveolar lateral
affricate|{{IPA|t͡ɬ}}]] | style="text-align:center;
font-size:larger;" | – | voiceless alveolar lateral affricate
|- | style="text-align:center; font-size:larger;" | [[voiceless
labial-velar plosive|{{IPA|k͡p}}]] | style="text-align:center;
font-size:larger;" | – | voiceless labial-velar plosive |- |
style="text-align:center; font-size:larger;" | [[voiced
labial-velar plosive|{{IPA|ɡ͡b}}]] | style="text-align:center;
font-size:larger;" | – | voiced labial-velar plosive |- |
style="text-align:center; font-size:larger;" | [[labial-velar
nasal|{{IPA|ŋ͡m}}]] | style="text-align:center; font-size:larger;"
| – | 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: {{IPA|ts͡, tʃ͡, tɕ͡, dz͡, dʒ͡, dʑ͡, tɬ͡, kp͡, ɡb͡, ŋm͡}}.
===Non-pulmonic consonants=== Non-pulmonic consonants are sounds
whose airflow is not dependent on the lungs. These include clicks
(found in the [[Khoisan languages]] of Africa), [[Implosive
consonant|implosives]] (found in languages such as [[Swahili
language|Swahili]]) and [[ejective consonant|ejectives]] (found in
many [[Indigenous languages of the Americas|Amerindian]] and
[[Languages of the Caucasus|Caucasian languages]]). {| class="IPA
wikitable" ! colspan=6 | [[media:IPA non-pulmonic 2005.png|View
this table as an image]] |- valign=top ! colspan="2" | [[Click
consonant|Clicks]] ! colspan="2" | [[Implosive
consonant|Implosives]] ! colspan="2" | [[Ejective
consonant|Ejectives]] |- valign=top | style="text-align:center;
font-size:larger; width:2em;" | [[bilabial click|{{IPA|ʘ}}]] |
Bilabial | style="text-align:center; font-size:larger; width:2em;"
| [[voiced bilabial implosive|{{IPA|ɓ}}]] | Bilabial |
style="text-align:center; font-size:larger; width:2em;" | {{IPA|ʼ}}
| ''For example:'' |- valign=top | style="text-align:center;
font-size:larger;" | [[dental click|{{IPA|ǀ}}]] | Laminal alveolar
("dental") | style="text-align:center; font-size:larger;" |
[[voiced alveolar implosive|{{IPA|ɗ}}]] | Alveolar |
style="text-align:center; font-size:larger;" | [[bilabial
ejective|{{IPA|pʼ}}]] | Bilabial |- valign=top |
style="text-align:center; font-size:larger;" | [[postalveolar
click|{{IPA|ǃ}}]] | Apical (post-) alveolar ("retroflex") |
style="text-align:center; font-size:larger;" | [[voiced palatal
implosive|{{IPA|ʄ}}]] | Palatal | style="text-align:center;
font-size:larger;" | [[alveolar ejective|{{IPA|tʼ}}]] | Alveolar |-
valign=top | style="text-align:center; font-size:larger;" |
[[palatal click|{{IPA|ǂ}}]] | Laminal postalveolar ("palatal") |
style="text-align:center; font-size:larger;" | [[voiced velar
implosive|{{IPA|ɠ}}]] | Velar | style="text-align:center;
font-size:larger;" | [[velar ejective|{{IPA|kʼ}}]] | Velar |-
valign=top | style="text-align:center; font-size:larger;" |
[[alveolar lateral click|{{IPA|ǁ}}]] | Lateral coronal ("lateral")
| style="text-align:center; font-size:larger;" | [[voiced uvular
implosive|{{IPA|ʛ}}]] | Uvular | style="text-align:center;
font-size:larger;" | [[alveolar ejective fricative|{{IPA|sʼ}}]] |
Alveolar fricative |} ;Notes *Clicks are double articulated and
have traditionally been described as having a forward 'release' and
a rear 'accompaniment', with the click letters representing the
release. Therefore all clicks would require two letters for proper
notation: {{IPA|‹k͡ǂ, ɡ͡ǂ, ŋ͡ǂ, q͡ǂ, ɢ͡ǂ, ɴ͡ǂ›}} ''etc.'', or
{{IPA|‹ǂ͡k, ǂ͡ɡ, ǂ͡ŋ, ǂ͡q, ǂ͡ɢ, ǂ͡ɴ›}}. When the dorsal
articulation is omitted, a {{IPA|[k]}} may usually be assumed.
However, recent research disputes the concept of
'accompaniment'.Amanda L. Miller ''et al.'',
[http://ling.cornell.edu/plab/amanda/amiller_jipa.pdf "Differences
in airstream and posterior place of articulation among Nǀuu lingual
stops"]. Submitted to the ''Journal of the International Phonetic
Association''. Retrieved 2007-05-27. In these approaches, the click
letter represents both articulations, there is no velar-uvular
distinction, and the accompanying letter represents the manner of
the click: {{IPA|‹ǂ, ɡǂ, ŋǂ›}} ''etc.''
*Symbols for the [[voiceless]] implosives {{IPA|‹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: {{IPA|‹ɓ̥, ʛ̥›}}, ''etc''. *Although not
confirmed as contrastive in any language, and therefore not
explicitly recognized by the IPA, a letter for the [[Voiced
retroflex implosive|retroflex implosive]], {{Unicode|‹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 {{IPA|‹ɗ̢›}}. *The
ejective symbol often stands in for a superscript glottal stop in
[[Glottalic consonant|glottalized]] but pulmonic [[sonorant]]s,
such as {{IPA|[mˀ], [lˀ], [wˀ], [aˀ]}}. These may also be
transcribed as creaky {{IPA|[m̰], [l̰], [w̰], [a̰]}}. ===Vowels===
{{Main|Vowel}} [[Image:Cardinal vowels-Jones
x-ray.jpg|thumb|200px|An [[Radiography|X-ray film]] shows the
sounds {{IPA|[i, u, a, ɑ]}}]] [[Image:Cardinal vowel tongue
position-front.svg|thumb|200px|Tongue positions of [[Cardinal
vowel|cardinal]] front vowels with highest point indicated. The
position of the highest point is used to determine vowel height and
backness]] The IPA defines a vowel as a sound which occurs at a
syllable center.International Phonetic Association, ''Handbook'',
p. 10. 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|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, {{IPA|[ɑ]}} (said as the "a" in "palm") is at the bottom
because the tongue is lowered in this position. However,
{{IPA|[i]}} (said as the vowel in "meet") is at the top because the
sound is said with the tongue raised to the roof of the mouth. In a
similar fashion, the horizontal axis of the chart is determined by
[[vowel|vowel backness]]. Vowels with the tongue moved towards the
front of the mouth (such as {{IPA|[ɛ]}}, the vowel in "met") are to
the left in the chart, while those in which it is moved to the back
(such as {{IPA|[ʌ]}}, the vowel in "but") are placed to the right
in the chart. In places where vowels are paired, the right
represents a [[Roundedness|rounded vowel]] (in which the lips are
rounded) while the left is its unrounded counterpart. *[[media:IPA
vowel chart 2005.png|View the vowel chart as an image]] {{CSS IPA
vowel chart}} ;Notes *{{IPA|‹a›}} officially represents a front
vowel, but there is little distinction between front and central
open vowels, and {{IPA|‹a›}} is frequently used for an open central
vowel. However, if disambiguation is required, the [[Relative
articulation#Retracted|retraction diacritic]] or the [[Relative
articulation#Centralized vowels|centralized diacritic]] may be
added to indicate an open central vowel, as in {{IPA|‹a̠›}} or
{{IPA|‹ä›}}. ==Diacritics== [[Diacritic]]s are small markings which
are placed around the IPA letter in order to show a certain
alteration or more specific description in the letter's
pronunciation.International Phonetic Association, ''Handbook'',
pp. 14–15. Sub-diacritics (markings normally placed below a
letter or symbol) may be placed above a symbol having a descender
(informally called a tail), e.g. {{IPA|ŋ̊, ȷ̈}}. The dotless ''i,''
{{Unicode|‹ı›}}, is used when the dot would interfere with the
diacritic. Other IPA symbols may appear as diacritics to represent
phonetic detail: {{IPA|tˢ}} (fricative release), {{IPA|bʱ}}
(breathy voice), {{IPA|ˀa}} (glottal onset), {{Unicode|ᵊ}}
(epenthetic [[schwa]]), o{{IPA|ʊ}} ([[Vowel
breaking|diphthongization]]). Additional diacritics were introduced
in the [[Extensions to the IPA]], which were designed principally
for speech pathology. {| class="IPA wikitable" !
colspan=4|[[media:IPA diacritics 2005.png|View the diacritic table
as an image]] |- ! colspan=4|Syllabicity diacritics |- |
style="text-align:center; font-size:larger;" | {{IPA|ɹ̩ n̩}} |
[[Syllabic consonant|Syllabic]] | style="text-align:center;
font-size:larger;" | {{IPA|e̯ ʊ̯}} | [[Semivowel|Non-syllabic]] |-
! colspan=4|Consonant-release diacritics |- |
style="text-align:center; font-size:larger;" | {{IPA|tʰ dʱ}} |
[[Aspiration (phonetics)|Aspirated]]{{ref label|Aspirated|a|}} |
style="text-align:center; font-size:larger;" | {{IPA|d̚}} |
[[Unreleased stop|No audible release]] |- |
style="text-align:center; font-size:larger;" | {{IPA|dⁿ}} | [[Nasal
release]] | style="text-align:center; font-size:larger;" |
{{IPA|dˡ}} | [[Lateral release (phonetics)|Lateral release]] |- !
colspan=4|Phonation diacritics |- | style="text-align:center;
font-size:larger; width:4em;" | {{IPA|n̥ d̥}} | [[Voiceless]] |
style="text-align:center; font-size:larger;" | {{IPA|s̬ t̬}} |
[[Voice (phonetics)|Voiced]] |- | style="text-align:center;
font-size:larger; width:4em;" | {{IPA|b̤ a̤}} | [[Breathy
voice]]d{{ref label|Breathy|b|}} | style="text-align:center;
font-size:larger;" | {{IPA|b̰ a̰}} | [[Creaky voice]]d |- !
colspan=4|Articulation diacritics |- | style="text-align:center;
font-size:larger; width:4em;" | {{IPA|t̪ d̪}} | [[Dental
consonant|Dental]] | style="text-align:center; font-size:larger;" |
{{IPA|t̼ d̼}} | [[Linguolabial consonant|Linguolabial]] |- |
style="text-align:center; font-size:larger;" | {{IPA|t̺ d̺}} |
[[Apical consonant|Apical]] | style="text-align:center;
font-size:larger;" | {{IPA|t̻ d̻}} | [[Laminal consonant|Laminal]]
|- | style="text-align:center; font-size:larger;" | {{IPA|u̟ t̟}} |
[[Relative articulation|Advanced]] | style="text-align:center;
font-size:larger;" | {{IPA|i̠ t̠}} | [[Relative
articulation|Retracted]] |- | style="text-align:center;
font-size:larger;" | {{IPA|ë ä}} | [[Relative
articulation|Centralized]] | style="text-align:center;
font-size:larger;" | {{IPA|e̽ ɯ̽}} | [[Relative
articulation|Mid-centralized]] |- | style="text-align:center;
font-size:larger;" | {{IPA|e̝ ɹ̝ ˔}} | colspan=3 | [[Relative
articulation#Raised_and_lowered|Raised]] ({{IPA|ɹ̝}} = [[Voiced
alveolar fricative#Voiced alveolar non-sibilant fricative|voiced
alveolar nonsibilant fricative]]) |- | style="text-align:center;
font-size:larger;" | {{IPA|e̞ β̞ ˕}} | colspan=3 | [[Relative
articulation#Raised_and_lowered|Lowered]] ({{IPA|β̞}} = [[Voiced
bilabial fricative|bilabial approximant]]) |- !
colspan=4|Co-articulation diacritics |- | style="text-align:center;
font-size:larger;" | {{IPA|ɔ̹ x̹}} | More [[Roundedness|rounded]] |
style="text-align:center; font-size:larger;" | {{IPA|ɔ̜ x̜ʷ}} |
Less [[Roundedness|rounded]] |- | style="text-align:center;
font-size:larger;" | {{IPA|tʷ dʷ}} | [[Labialisation|Labialized]]
or labio-velarized | style="text-align:center; font-size:larger;" |
{{IPA|tʲ dʲ}} | [[Palatalization|Palatalized]] |- |
style="text-align:center; font-size:larger;" | {{IPA|tˠ dˠ}} |
[[Velarization|Velarized]] | style="text-align:center;
font-size:larger;" | {{IPA|tˁ aˁ}} |
[[Pharyngealization|Pharyngealized]] |- | style="text-align:center;
font-size:larger;" | {{IPA|tɥ dɥ}} |
[[Labio-palatalization|Labio-palatalized]] |
style="text-align:center; font-size:larger;" | {{IPA|[[Velarized
alveolar lateral approximant|ɫ]] z̴}} | Velarized ''or''
pharyngealized |- | style="text-align:center; font-size:larger;" |
{{IPA|e̘ o̘}} | [[Advanced and retracted tongue root|Advanced
tongue root]] | style="text-align:center; font-size:larger;" |
{{IPA|e̙ o̙}} | [[Advanced and retracted tongue root|Retracted
tongue root]] |- | style="text-align:center; font-size:larger;" |
{{IPA|ẽ z̃}} | [[Nasalization|Nasalized]] |
style="text-align:center; font-size:larger;" | {{IPA|ɚ ɝ}} |
[[R-colored vowel|Rhotacized]] |} ;Notes
:'''a'''{{note|Aspirated}}With aspirated voiced consonants, the
aspiration is also voiced. Many linguists prefer one of the
diacritics dedicated to breathy voice. :'''b'''{{note|Breathy}}Some
linguists restrict this breathy-voice diacritic to [[sonorant]]s,
and transcribe obstruents as {{IPA|bʱ}}. The state of the
[[glottis]] can be finely transcribed with diacritics. A series of
alveolar plosives ranging from an open to a closed glottis
[[phonation]] are: {| class="IPA wikitable" |- |
style="text-align:center; font-size:larger; width:2em;" |
{{IPA|[t]}} | [[voiceless]] | style="text-align:center;
font-size:larger;" | {{IPA|[d̤]}} | [[breathy voice]], also called
''murmured'' |- | style="text-align:center; font-size:larger;" |
{{IPA|[d̥]}} | [[slack voice]] | style="text-align:center;
font-size:larger;" | {{IPA|[d]}} | [[modal voice]] |- |
style="text-align:center; font-size:larger;" | {{IPA|[d̬]}} |
[[stiff voice]] | style="text-align:center; font-size:larger;" |
{{IPA|[d̰]}} | [[creaky voice]] |- |style="text-align:center;
font-size:larger;" | {{IPA|[ʔ͡t]}} | glottal closure |}
==Suprasegmentals== These symbols describe the features of a
language above the level of individual consonants and vowels, such
as [[prosody (linguistics)|prosody]], [[tone (linguistics)|tone]],
[[length (phonetics)|length]], and [[stress (linguistics)|stress]],
which often operate on syllables, words, or [[phrase]]s: that is,
elements such as the intensity, pitch, and gemination of the sounds
of a language, as well as the [[rhythm]] and [[Intonation
(linguistics)|intonation]] of speech.International Phonetic
Association, ''Handbook'', p. 13. Although most of these
symbols indicate distinctions that are phonemic at the word level,
symbols also exist for intonation on a level [[Phonological
hierarchy|greater than that of the word]]. {| class="IPA wikitable"
! colspan=5|[[media:IPA suprasegmentals 2005.png|View this table as
an image]] |- ! colspan=5|Length, stress, and rhythm |- | colspan=2
style="text-align:center; font-size:larger;" | {{IPA|ˈa}} | Primary
[[stress (linguistics)|stress]] (symbol goes
before stressed syllable) | style="text-align:center;
font-size:larger;" | {{IPA|ˌa}} | [[Secondary stress]] (symbol
goes
before stressed syllable) |- | colspan=2 style="text-align:center;
font-size:larger;" | {{IPA|aː kː}} | [[Length (phonetics)|Long]]
([[Vowel length|long vowel]] or
[[gemination|geminate consonant]]) | style="text-align:center;
font-size:larger;" | {{IPA|aˑ}} | Half-long |- | colspan=2
style="text-align:center; font-size:larger;" | {{IPA|ə̆}} |
[[Extra-short]] | style="text-align:center; font-size:larger;" |
{{IPA|a.a}} | [[Syllable]] break |- | colspan=2
style="text-align:center; font-size:larger;" | {{IPA|s‿a}} |
colspan=3 | [[Liaison (French)|Linking (absence of a break)]] |- !
colspan=5|Intonation |- | colspan=2 style="text-align:center;
font-size:larger;" | {{IPA||}} | [[Prosody (linguistics)|Minor
(foot) break]] | style="text-align:center; font-size:larger;" |
{{IPA|‖}} | [[Prosody (linguistics)|Major (intonation) break]] |- |
colspan=2 style="text-align:center; font-size:larger;" | {{IPA|↗}}
| [[Intonation (linguistics)#Transcription|Global rise]] |
style="text-align:center; font-size:larger;" | {{IPA|↘}} |
[[Intonation (linguistics)#Transcription|Global fall]] |- !
colspan=5|Tone diacritics and [[tone letter]]s |- |
style="text-align:center; font-size:larger; width:2em;" | {{IPA|ŋ̋
e̋}} || style="text-align:center; font-size:larger; width:2em;" |
{{IPA|e˥}} | Extra high / top | style="text-align:center;
font-size:larger;" | {{IPA|ꜛke}} | colspan=3 | [[Upstep
(phonetics)|Upstep]] |- | style="text-align:center;
font-size:larger;" | {{IPA|ŋ́ é}} | style="text-align:center;
font-size:larger;" | {{IPA|e˦}} | High | style="text-align:center;
font-size:larger;" | {{IPA|ŋ̌ ě}} | Rise |- |
style="text-align:center; font-size:larger;" | {{IPA|ŋ̄ ē}} |
style="text-align:center; font-size:larger;" | {{IPA|e˧}} | Mid | |
|- | style="text-align:center; font-size:larger;" | {{IPA|ŋ̀ è}} |
style="text-align:center; font-size:larger;" | {{IPA|e˨}} | Low |
style="text-align:center; font-size:larger;" | {{IPA|ŋ̂ ê}} | Fall
|- | style="text-align:center; font-size:larger;" | {{IPA|ŋ̏ ȅ}} |
style="text-align:center; font-size:larger;" | {{IPA|e˩}} | Extra
low / bottom | style="text-align:center; font-size:larger;" |
{{IPA|ꜜke}} | [[Downstep (phonetics)|Downstep]] |} Finer
distinctions of tone may be indicated by combining the tone
diacritics and letters shown here, though not many fonts support
this. The primary examples are high (mid) rising {{IPA|ɔ᷄, ɔ˧˥}};
low rising {{IPA|ɔ᷅, ɔ˩˧}}; high falling {{IPA|ɔ᷇, ɔ˥˧}}; low (mid)
falling {{IPA|ɔ᷆, ɔ˧˩}}; peaking {{IPA|ɔ᷈, ɔ˧˥˧}}; and dipping
{{IPA|ɔ᷉, ɔ˧˩˧}}. A work-around for diacritics sometimes seen when
a language has more than one rising or falling tone, and the author
does not wish to completely abandon the IPA, is to restrict generic
rising {{IPA|ɔ̌}} and falling {{IPA|ɔ̂}} for the higher-pitched of
the rising and falling tones, {{IPA|ɔ˥˧}} and {{IPA|ɔ˧˥}}, and to
use the non-standard subscript diacritics {{IPA|ɔ̗}} and {{IPA|ɔ̖}}
for the lower-pitched rising and falling tones, {{IPA|ɔ˩˧}} and
{{IPA|ɔ˧˩}}. When a language has four level tones, the two mid
tones are sometimes transcribed as high-mid {{IPA|ɔ̍}}
(non-standard) and low-mid {{IPA|ɔ̄}}. ==Obsolete symbols and
nonstandard symbols== {{Main|Obsolete and nonstandard symbols in
the International Phonetic Alphabet}} The IPA inherited alternate
symbols from various traditions, but eventually settled on one for
each sound. The other symbols are now considered obsolete. An
example is {{IPA|‹ɷ›}} which has been standardised to {{IPA|‹ʊ›}}.
Several symbols indicating secondary articulation have been dropped
altogether, with the idea that such things should be indicated with
diacritics: {{IPA|‹ƍ›}} for {{IPA|‹zʷ›}} is one. In addition, the
rare voiceless implosive series {{IPA|‹ƥ ƭ ƈ ƙ ʠ›}} has been
dropped; they are now written {{IPA|‹ɓ̥ ɗ̥ ʄ̊ ɠ̊ ʛ̥›}} or
{{IPA|‹pʼ↓ tʼ↓ cʼ↓ kʼ↓ qʼ↓›}} respectively. A rejected competing
proposal for transcribing clicks, {{IPA|‹ʇ, ʗ, ʖ›}}, is still
sometimes seen, as the official letters {{IPA|‹ǀ, ǃ, ǁ›}} may cause
problems with legibility, especially when used with brackets, the
letter {{IPA|‹l›}}, or the [[Prosody (linguistics)|prosodic]] marks
{{IPA|‹|, ‖›}}.
There are also unsupported or
ad hoc
symbols from local traditions that find their way into publications
that otherwise use the standard IPA. This is especially common with
affricates such as the "
barred lambda"
for .
IPA extensions
Extensions to the IPA, also often abbreviated as extIPA, is a group
of symbols whose original purpose was to accurately transcribe
disordered speech. At the
IPA Kiel Convention in 1989, a group of
linguists drew up the initial set of symbols for the Extended IPA.
Extensions to the IPA were first published in 1990, and modified
over the next few years before its official publication in the
Journal of the International Phonetic Association in 1994
allowed it to be officially adopted by the
ICPLA.
While its original purpose was to transcribe disordered speech,
linguists have used it to designate a number of unique sounds
within standard communication, such as hushing, gnashing teeth, and
smacking lips. The Extensions to the IPA have also been used to
record certain peculiarities in an individual's voice, such as
nasalized voicing.
Aside from the extIPA, another set of symbols is used for voice
quality (VoQS), such as whispering.
Segments that have no symbols
The remaining blank cells on the IPA chart can be filled without
too much difficulty if the need arises. Some
ad hoc symbols have appeared in the literature,
for example for the retroflex lateral flap and the voiceless
lateral fricative series, the epiglottal trill, and the labiodental
plosives. (See the grey symbols in the PDF chart.) Diacritics can
supply much of the remainder, which would indeed be appropriate if
the sounds were allophones.
Consonants without letters
Representations of consonant sounds outside of the core set are
created by adding diacritics to symbols for similar sound values.
The Spanish bilabial and dental approximants are commonly written
as lowered fricatives, and respectively. Similarly, voiced lateral
fricatives would be written as raised lateral approximants, . 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, .
Similarly, a labiodental trill would be written (bilabial trill and
the dental sign), and labiodental stops rather than with the
ad
hoc symbols sometimes found in the literature. Other taps can
be written as extra-short plosives or laterals, e.g. , though in
some cases the diacritic would need to be written below the letter.
A retroflex trill can be written as a retracted , just as retroflex
fricatives sometimes are. The remaining consonants, the uvular
laterals (
etc.) and the palatal trill, while not strictly
impossible, are very difficult to pronounce and are unlikely to
occur even as allophones in the world's languages.
Vowels without letters
The vowels are similarly manageable by using diacritics for
raising, lowering, fronting, backing, centering, and mid-centering.
For example, the unrounded equivalent of can be transcribed as
mid-centered , and the rounded equivalent of as raised . True mid
vowels are lowered , while centered and 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 or .
Symbol names
An IPA symbol is often distinguished from the sound it is intended
to represent since there is not a one-to-one correspondence between
symbol and sound in broad transcription. While the
Handbook of
the International Phonetic Association states that no official
names exist for symbols, it admits the presence of one or two
common names for each character that are commonly used. 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 "epsilon", but Unicode calls it
"small letter open E".
The traditional names of the Latin and Greek letters are usually
used for unmodified symbols. Letters which are not directly derived
from these alphabets, such as , may have a variety of names,
sometimes based on the appearance of the symbol, and sometimes
based on the sound that it represents. In Unicode, some of the
symbols of Greek origin have Latin forms for use in IPA; the others
use the symbols from the Greek section.
For diacritics, there are two methods of naming. For traditional
diacritics, the IPA uses the name of the symbol from a certain
language, for example, is
acute, based on the name of the symbol in
English and French. In non-traditional diacritics, the IPA often
names a symbol according to an object it resembles, as is called
bridge.
ASCII transliterations, IPA influence on other phonetic
alphabets
Since the IPA uses symbols that are outside the
ASCII character set, several systems have been
developed that map the IPA symbols to ASCII characters. Notable
systems include
Kirshenbaum,
SAMPA, and
X-SAMPA. The usage
of mapping systems in on-line text has to some extent been adopted
in the context input methods, allowing convenient keying of IPA
characters that would be otherwise unavailable on standard keyboard
layouts.
See also
Notes
- "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic
Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the
acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself (from the phrase
'International Phonetic Alphabet') that resistance seems pedantic.
Context usually serves to disambiguate the two usages." (Laver
1994:561)
- International Phonetic Association (IPA),
Handbook.
- International Phonetic Association, Handbook,
pp. 194–196
- "Originally, the aim was to make available a set of phonetic
symbols which would be given different articulatory
values, if necessary, in different languages." (International
Phonetic Association, Handbook, pp. 195–196)
- Pullum and Ladusaw, Phonetic Symbol Guide,
pp. 152, 209
- International Phonetic Association, Handbook,
p. 186
- “From its earliest days...the International Phonetic
Association has aimed to provide ‘a separate sign for each
distinctive sound; that is, for each sound which, being used
instead of another, in the same language, can change the meaning of
a word’.” (International Phonetic Association, Handbook,
p. 27)
- In contrast, English sometimes uses combinations of two
letters to represent single sounds, such as the digraphs
sh and th for the sounds and ~ ,
respectively.
- For instance, flaps and taps are two different kinds of
articulation, but since no language
has (yet) been found to make a distinction between, say, an
alveolar flap
and an alveolar tap, the IPA does not provide such sounds with
dedicated symbols. Instead, it provides a single symbol (in this
case, ) for both sounds. Strictly speaking, this makes the
IPA a phonemic alphabet, not a phonetic one.
- There are five basic tone marks, which are combined for contour
tones; six of these combinations are in common use.
- "The non-roman letters of the International Phonetic Alphabet
have been designed as far as possible to harmonize well with the
roman letters. The Association does not recognise makeshift
letters; It recognises only letters which have been carefully cut
so as to be in harmony with the other letters." (IPA 1949)
- Technically, the symbol could be considered Latin-derived,
since the question mark may have originated as "Qo", an
abbreviation of the Latin word quæstio, "question".
- Laver, Principles of Phonetics,pp. 174–175
- "The new letters should be suggestive of the sounds they
represent, by their resemblance to the old ones." (International
Phonetic Association, Handbook, p. 196)
- John Wells's phonetic blog
- "At the 1989 Kiel Convention of the IPA, a sub-group was
established to draw up recommendations for the transcription of
disordered speech." ("Extensions to the IPA: An ExtIPA Chart"
in International Phonetic Association, Handbook,
pp. 186.)
- "Extensions to the IPA: An ExtIPA Chart" in
International Phonetic Association, Handbook,
pp. 186–187.
- "Diacritics may also be employed to create symbols for
phonemes, thus reducing the need to create new letter shapes."
(International Phonetic Association, Handbook, p. 27)
- Olson, Kenneth S.; & Hajek, John. (1999). The phonetic
status of the labial flap. Journal of the International
Phonetic Association, 29 (2), pp. 101–114.
- "The diacrtics...can be used to modify the lip or tongue
position implied by a vowel symbol." (International Phonetic
Association, Handbook, p. 16)
- "...the International Phonetic Association has never officially
approved a set of names..." (International Phonetic Association,
Handbook, p. 31)
- For example, [p] is called "Lower-case P" and [χ] is "Chi."
(International Phonetic Association, Handbook,
p. 171)
References
- "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic
Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the
acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself (from the phrase
'International Phonetic Alphabet') that resistance seems pedantic.
Context usually serves to disambiguate the two usages." (Laver
1994:561)
- International Phonetic Association (IPA),
Handbook.
- International Phonetic Association, Handbook,
pp. 194–196
- "Originally, the aim was to make available a set of phonetic
symbols which would be given different articulatory
values, if necessary, in different languages." (International
Phonetic Association, Handbook, pp. 195–196)
- Pullum and Ladusaw, Phonetic Symbol Guide,
pp. 152, 209
- International Phonetic Association, Handbook,
p. 186
- “From its earliest days...the International Phonetic
Association has aimed to provide ‘a separate sign for each
distinctive sound; that is, for each sound which, being used
instead of another, in the same language, can change the meaning of
a word’.” (International Phonetic Association, Handbook,
p. 27)
- In contrast, English sometimes uses combinations of two
letters to represent single sounds, such as the digraphs
sh and th for the sounds and ~ ,
respectively.
- For instance, flaps and taps are two different kinds of
articulation, but since no language
has (yet) been found to make a distinction between, say, an
alveolar flap
and an alveolar tap, the IPA does not provide such sounds with
dedicated symbols. Instead, it provides a single symbol (in this
case, ) for both sounds. Strictly speaking, this makes the
IPA a phonemic alphabet, not a phonetic one.
- There are five basic tone marks, which are combined for contour
tones; six of these combinations are in common use.
- "The non-roman letters of the International Phonetic Alphabet
have been designed as far as possible to harmonize well with the
roman letters. The Association does not recognise makeshift
letters; It recognises only letters which have been carefully cut
so as to be in harmony with the other letters." (IPA 1949)
- Technically, the symbol could be considered Latin-derived,
since the question mark may have originated as "Qo", an
abbreviation of the Latin word quæstio, "question".
- Laver, Principles of Phonetics,pp. 174–175
- "The new letters should be suggestive of the sounds they
represent, by their resemblance to the old ones." (International
Phonetic Association, Handbook, p. 196)
- John Wells's phonetic blog
- "At the 1989 Kiel Convention of the IPA, a sub-group was
established to draw up recommendations for the transcription of
disordered speech." ("Extensions to the IPA: An ExtIPA Chart"
in International Phonetic Association, Handbook,
pp. 186.)
- "Extensions to the IPA: An ExtIPA Chart" in
International Phonetic Association, Handbook,
pp. 186–187.
- "Diacritics may also be employed to create symbols for
phonemes, thus reducing the need to create new letter shapes."
(International Phonetic Association, Handbook, p. 27)
- Olson, Kenneth S.; & Hajek, John. (1999). The phonetic
status of the labial flap. Journal of the International
Phonetic Association, 29 (2), pp. 101–114.
- "The diacrtics...can be used to modify the lip or tongue
position implied by a vowel symbol." (International Phonetic
Association, Handbook, p. 16)
- "...the International Phonetic Association has never officially
approved a set of names..." (International Phonetic Association,
Handbook, p. 31)
- For example, [p] is called "Lower-case P" and [χ] is "Chi."
(International Phonetic Association, Handbook,
p. 171)
Further reading
External links
Sites to learn the IPA
IPA font downloads
- Charis SIL, a very complete international font (Latin,
Greek, Cyrillic) in roman, italic, and bold typefaces that includes tone
letters and pre-composed tone diacritics on IPA vowels, the new
labiodental flap, and many non-standard phonetic symbols. Based on
Bitstream Charter, this font suffers from extremely bad hinting
when rendered by FreeType on Linux.
- DejaVu fonts [1959] have full Unicode IPA support.[1960]
- Doulos SIL, a Times/Times New Roman style font. It
contains the same characters as Charis SIL, but only in a single
face, roman.
- Gentium, a professionally designed international font
(Latin, Greek, Cyrillic) in roman and
italic typefaces that includes the IPA,
but not yet tone letters or the new labiodental flap. For bold
typefaces but only the most basic IPA letters, Gentium Basic may be
used.
- TIPA, a font and system for entering IPA
phonetic transcriptions in LaTeX
documents.
Keyboard input
Sound files
Unicode charts