IPA
From KneeQuickie
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is an alphabet designed to represent the sounds of speech. It has symbols for all the common sounds found across different languages, and nearly all the other sounds of language can be formed by adding diacritics to the basic symbols.
The IPA is widely used as a standard for comparing different languages, including conlangs; this is better than stating equivalents such as "like the vowel in English 'bed' ", because such equivalents may be different for different speakers, whereas the IPA values are fixed.
The following chart lists all the symbols of the IPA:
Contents |
Pulmonic Consonants
| Bilabial | Labiodental | Dental | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Pharyngeal | Glottal | ||||||||||||
| Plosive | p | b | t | d | ʈ | ɖ | c | ɟ | k | ɡ | q | ɢ | ʔ | |||||||||
| Nasal | m | ɱ | n | ɳ | ɲ | ŋ | ɴ | |||||||||||||||
| Trill | ʙ | r | ʀ | |||||||||||||||||||
| Tap or flap | ɾ | ɽ | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Fricative | ɸ | β | f | v | θ | ð | s | z | ʃ | ʒ | ʂ | ʐ | ç | ʝ | x | ɣ | χ | ʁ | ħ | ʕ | h | ɦ |
| Lateral fricative | ɬ | ɮ | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Approximant | ʋ | ɹ | ɻ | j | ɰ | |||||||||||||||||
| Lateral approximant | l | ɭ | ʎ | ʟ | ||||||||||||||||||
Non-pulmonic consonants
| Clicks | Voiced implosives | Ejectives | |||
| ʘ | Bilabial | ɓ | Bilabial | ʼ | as in: |
| ǀ | Dental | ɗ | Dental/alveolar | pʼ | Bilabial |
| ǃ | (Post)alveolar | ʄ | Palatal | tʼ | Dental/alveolar |
| ǂ | Palatoalveolar | ɠ | Velar | kʼ | Velar |
| ǁ | Alveolar lateral | ʛ | Uvular | sʼ | Alveolar fricative |
Vowels
Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a rounded vowel. Those in (parentheses) are unofficial.
| Front | Central | Back | |||
| Close | i·y | ɨ·ʉ | ɯ·u | ||
| ɪ·ʏ | ʊ | ||||
| Close-mid | e·ø | ɘ·ɵ | ɤ·o | ||
| ə | |||||
| Open-mid | ɛ·œ | ɜ·ɞ | ʌ·ɔ | ||
| æ | ɐ | ||||
| Open | a·ɶ | ɑ·ɒ |
Other symbols
| ʍ | Voiceless labial-velar fricative | ɕ ʑ | Alveolo-palatal fricatives |
| w | Voiced labial-velar approximant | ɺ | Alveolar lateral flap |
| ɥ | Voiced labial-palatal approximant | ɧ | Simultaneous ʃ and x |
| ʜ | Voiceless epiglottal fricative | Affricates and coarticulations can be represented by two symbols joined by a tie bar if necessary. | |
| ʢ | Voiced epiglottal fricative | ||
| ʡ | Epiglottal plosive | ||
Suprasegmentals
| ˈ | Primary stress | ˌfoʊnəˈtɪʃən |
| ˌ | Secondary stress | |
| ː | Long | eː |
| ˑ | Half-long | eˑ |
| ˘ | Extra short | ĕ |
| . | Syllable break | ɹi.ækt |
| | | Minor (foot) group | |
| ‖ | Major (intonation) group | |
| ‿ | Linking (absence of a break) | |
Tones and word accents
Due to the limitations of current technology, it is unlikely that the contour tone symbols will display correctly.
| Level | Contour | ||||
| e̋ or | ˥ | Extra high | ě or | ˩˥ | Rising |
| é | ˦ | High | ê | ˥˩ | Falling |
| ē | ˧ | Mid | e | ˦˥ | High rising |
| è | ˨ | Low | e | ˩˨ | Low rising |
| ȅ | ˩ | Extra low | e | ˦˥˦ | Rising-falling, etc. |
| ↓ | Downstep | ↗ | Global rise | ||
| ↑ | Upstep | ↘ | Global fall | ||
Diacritics
Diacritics may be placed above a symbol with a descender, e.g. ŋ̊
| ̥ | Voiceless | n̥ | d̥ | ̤ | Breathy voiced | b̤ | a̤ | ̪ | Dental | t̪ | d̪ |
| ̬ | Voiced | s̬ | t̬ | ̰ | Creaky voiced | b̰ | a̰ | ̺ | Apical | t̺ | d̺ |
| ʰ | Aspirated | tʰ | dʰ | ̼ | Linguolabial | t̼ | d̼ | ̻ | Laminal | t̻ | d̻ |
| ̹ | More rounded | ɔ̹ | ʷ | Labialized | tʷ | dʷ | ˜ | Nasalized | ẽ | ||
| ̜ | Less rounded | ɔ̜ | ʲ | Palatalized | tʲ | dʲ | ⁿ | Nasal release | dⁿ | ||
| ̟ | Advanced | u̟ | ˠ | Velarized | tˠ | dˠ | ˡ | Lateral release | dˡ | ||
| ̠ | Retracted | i̠ | ˤ | Pharyngealized | tˤ | dˤ | ̚ | No audible release | d̚ | ||
| ¨ | Centralized | ë | ~ | Velarized or pharyngealized | ɫ | ||||||
| ̽ | Mid-centralized | e̽ | ̝ | Raised | e̝ | (ɹ̝ = voiced alveolar fricative) | |||||
| ̩ | Syllabic | ɹ̩ | ̞ | Lowered | e̞ | (β̞ = voiced bilabial approximant) | |||||
| ̯ | Non-syllabic | e̯ | ̘ | Advanced tongue root | e̘ | ||||||
| ˞ | Rhoticity | ɚ | ̙ | Retracted tongue root | e̙ | ||||||
ExtIPA
ExtIPA is an extension of the basic IPA chart. The ExtIPA chart can be viewed here. Z-Sampa contains equivalents for all the symbols in the ExtIPA chart.
Consonants
(other than those on the chart above)
| Bilabial | Labiodental | Dentolabial | Labioalveolar | Linguolabial | Interdental | Bidental | Alveolar | Velar | Velopharyngeal | |||||||||||
| Plosive | p̪ | b̪ | p͆ | b͆ | p͇ | b͇ | t̼ | d̼ | t̪͆ | d̪͆ | ||||||||||
| Nasal | m͆ | m͇ | n̼ | n̪͆ | ||||||||||||||||
| Trill | r̼ | r̪͆ | ||||||||||||||||||
| Fricative: central | f͆ | v͆ | f͇ | v͇ | θ̼ | ð̼ | θ̪͆ | ð̪͆ | h̪͆ | ɦ̪͆ | ʩ | |||||||||
| Fricative: lateral+ central | ʪ | ʫ | ||||||||||||||||||
| Fricative: nareal | m͋ | n͋ | ŋ͋ | |||||||||||||||||
| Percussive: | ʬ | ʭ | ||||||||||||||||||
| Approximant: lateral | l̼ | l̪͆ | ||||||||||||||||||
Diacritics
| ͍ | Labial spreading | s͍ | ͈ | Strong articulation | f͈ | ͊ | Denasal | m͊ |
| ͆ | Dentolabial | v͆ | ͉ | Weak articulation | v͉ | ͋ | Nasal escape | v͋ |
| ̪͆ | Interdental/bidental | n̪͆ | \ | Reiterated articulation | p\p\p | ͌ | Velopharyngeal friction | s͌ |
| ͇ | Alveolar | t͇ | ͎ | Whistled articulation | s͎ | ↓ | Ingressive airflow | p↓ |
| ̼ | Linguolabial | d̼ | ͢ | Sliding articulation | θ͢s | ↑ | Egressive airflow | ǃ↑ |
Connected Speech
| (.) | Short pause |
| (..) | Medium pause |
| (...) | Long pause |
| f | Loud speech [{f lɑʊd f}] |
| ff | Louder speech [{ff lɑʊdɚ ff}] |
| p | Quiet speech [{p kwaɪət p}] |
| pp | Quieter speech [{pp kwaɪətɚ pp}] |
| allegro | Fast speech [{allegro fɑːst allegro}] |
| lento | Slow speech [{lento sloʊ lento}] |
| crescendo, rallentando, etc. may also be used | |
Voicing
| ˬ | Pre-voicing | ˬz |
| ˬ | Post-voicing | zˬ |
| ( ̥) | Partial devoicing | (z̥) |
| ( ̥ | Initial partial devoicing | (z̥ |
| ̥) | Final partial devoicing | z̥) |
| ( ̬) | Partial voicing | (s̬) |
| ( ̬ | Initial partial voicing | (s̬ |
| ̬) | Final partial voicing | s̬) |
| ˭ | Unaspirated | p˭ |
| h | Preaspriation | hp |
Kirshenbaum
Kirshenbaum is a scheme of representing IPA symbols in the ASCII character set, developed by Usenet users. The majority of ZBBers, however, choose to use X-SAMPA or Z-SAMPA, itself and extension of X-SAMPA.
