Ipa

Here is a basic key to the symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet.

Ipa بو مقاله‌ده سس فایللارینا ایچری-باغلانتیسی وار. اگر بو فایللارین ایشلتماقینا گوره موشکول اولسا Wikipedia Media help باخ.
Ipa
The latest official IPA chart, revised to 2020

For the smaller set of symbols that is sufficient for English, see Help:IPA/English. Several rare IPA symbols are not included; these are found in the main IPA article or on the extensive IPA chart. For the Manual of Style guideline for pronunciation, see Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation.

For each IPA symbol, an English example is given where possible; here "RP" stands for Received Pronunciation. The foreign languages that are used to illustrate additional sounds are primarily the ones most likely to be familiar to English speakers, French, Standard German, and Spanish. For symbols not covered by those, recourse is taken to the populous languages Standard Chinese, Hindustani, Arabic, and Russian. For sounds still not covered, other smaller but better analyzed languages are used, for example Swahili and Zulu (for the Bantu branch) or Turkish (for Turkic branch) for their respective related languages.

The left-hand column displays the symbols like this: [a] (About this sound listen). Click on "listen" to hear the sound; click on the symbol itself for a dedicated article with a more complete description and examples from multiple languages. Consonant sounds are spoken once followed by a vowel and once between vowels.

Main symbols

The symbols are arranged by similarity to letters of the Latin alphabet. Symbols which do not resemble any Latin letter are placed at the end.

سیمبول میثال توضیحلر
A
[a] (Ipa  listen) German Mann, French gare For many English speakers, the first part of the ow sound in cow. Found in some dialects of English in cat or father.
[ä] (Ipa  listen) Mandarin 他 tā, American English father, Spanish casa, French patte
[ɐ] (Ipa  listen) RP cut, German Kaiserslautern (In transcriptions of English, [ɐ] is usually written ⟨ʌ⟩.)
[ɑ] (Ipa  listen) RP father, French pâte, Dutch bad
[ɑ̃] (Ipa  listen) French Caen, sans, temps Nasalized [ɑ].
[ɒ] (Ipa  listen) RP cot Like [ɑ], but with the lips slightly rounded.
[ʌ] (Ipa  listen) American English cut Like [ɔ], but without the lips being rounded. (When ⟨ʌ⟩ is used for English, it may really be [ɐ] or [ɜ].)
[æ] (Ipa  listen) RP cat
B
[b] (Ipa  listen) English babble
[ɓ] (Ipa  listen) Swahili bwana Like a [b] said with a gulp. See implosive consonants.
[β] (Ipa  listen) Spanish la Bamba, Kinyarwanda abana "children", Korean 무궁화 [muɡuŋβwa̠] mugunghwa Like [b], but with the lips not quite closed.
[ʙ] (Ipa  listen) Nias simbi [siʙi] "lower jaw" Sputtering.
C
[c] (Ipa  listen) Turkish kebap "kebab", Czech stín "shadow", Greek και "and" Between English tune (RP) and cute. Sometimes used instead for [tʃ] in languages like Hindi.
[ç] (Ipa  listen) German Ich More of a y-coloration (more palatal) than [x]. Some English speakers have a similar sound in huge. To produce this sound, try whispering loudly the word "ye" as in "Hear ye!".
[ɕ] (Ipa  listen) Mandarin 西安 Xi'an, Polish ściana More y-like than [ʃ]; something like English she.
[ɔ] (Ipa  listen) see under O
D
[d] (Ipa  listen) English dad
[ɗ] (Ipa  listen) Swahili Dodoma Like [d] said with a gulp.
[ɖ] (Ipa  listen) American English harder Like [d] with the tongue curled or pulled back.
[ð] (Ipa  listen) English the, bathe
[dz] (Ipa  listen) English adds, Italian zero
[dʒ] (Ipa  listen) English judge
[dʑ] (Ipa  listen) Polish niewiedź "bear" Like [dʒ], but with more of a y-sound.
[dʐ] (Ipa  listen) Polish em "jam" Like [dʒ] with the tongue curled or pulled back.
E
[e] (Ipa  listen) Spanish fe; French clé, German Klee Similar to English hey, before the y sets in.
[ɘ] (Ipa  listen) Australian English bird
[ə] (Ipa  listen) English above, Hindi ठग [ʈʰəɡ] (thug) "thief" (Only occurs in English when not stressed.)
[ɚ] (Ipa  listen) American English runner
[ɛ] (Ipa  listen) English bet
[ɛ̃] (Ipa  listen) French Saint-Étienne, vin, main Nasalized [ɛ].
[ɜ] (Ipa  listen) RP bird (long)
[ɝ] (Ipa  listen) American English bird
F
[f] (Ipa  listen) English fun
[ɟ] (Ipa  listen) see under J
[ʄ] (Ipa  listen) see under J
G
[ɡ] (Ipa  listen) English gag (Should look like Ipa . No different from a Latin "g")
[ɠ] (Ipa  listen) Swahili Uganda Like [ɡ] said with a gulp.
[ɢ] (Ipa  listen) Like [ɡ], but further back, in the throat. Found in Persian and some Arabic dialects for /q/, as in Muammar Gaddafi.
[ʒ] (Ipa  listen) see under Z English beige.
H
[h] (Ipa  listen) American English house
[ɦ] (Ipa  listen) English ahead, when said quickly.
[ʰ] The extra puff of air in English top [tʰɒp] compared to stop [stɒp], or to French or Spanish [t].
[ʱ] The extra puff of air in English dob [dʱɒb] compared to zdob [zdɒb], or to French or Spanish [d].
[ħ] (Ipa  listen) Arabic ‏مُحَمَّدMuhammad Far down in the throat, like [h], but stronger.
[ɥ] see under Y
[ɮ] (Ipa  listen) see under L
I
[i] (Ipa  listen) English sea, French ville, Spanish Valladolid
[ɪ] (Ipa  listen) English sit
[ɨ] (Ipa  listen) Russian ты "you" Often used for unstressed English roses.
J
[j] (Ipa  listen) English yes, hallelujah, German Junge
[ʲ] In Russian Ленин [ˈlʲenʲɪn] Indicates a sound is more y-like.
[ʝ] (Ipa  listen) Spanish cayo (some dialects) Like [j], but stronger.
[ɟ] (Ipa  listen) Turkish gör "see", Czech díra "hole" Between English dew (RP) and argue. Sometimes used instead for [dʒ] in languages like Hindi.
[ʄ] (Ipa  listen) Swahili jambo Like [ɟ] said with a gulp.
K
[k] (Ipa  listen) English kick, skip
L
[l] (Ipa  listen) English leaf
[ɫ] (Ipa  listen) English wool
Russian малый [ˈmɑɫɨj] "small"
"Dark" el.
[ɬ] (Ipa  listen) Welsh llwyd [ɬʊɪd] "grey"
Zulu hlala [ɬaːla] "sit"
By touching roof of mouth with tongue and giving a quick breath out. Found in Welsh placenames like Llangollen and Llanelli and Nelson Mandela's Xhosa name Rolihlahla.
[ɭ] (Ipa  listen) Like [l] with the tongue curled or pulled back.
[ɺ] A flapped [l], like [l] and [ɾ] said together.
[ɮ] (Ipa  listen) Zulu dla "eat" Rather like [l] and [ʒ], or [l] and [ð], said together.
[ʟ] (Ipa  listen)
M
[m] (Ipa  listen) English mime
[ɱ] (Ipa  listen) English symphony Like [m], but lips touch teeth as they do in [f].
[ɯ] (Ipa  listen) see under W
[ʍ] (Ipa  listen) see under W
N
[n] (Ipa  listen) English nun
[ŋ] (Ipa  listen) English sing, Māori nga
[ɲ] (Ipa  listen) Spanish Peña, French champagne Rather like English canyon (/nj/ said quickly).
[ɳ] (Ipa  listen) Hindi वरुण [ʋəruɳ] Varuna Like [n] with the tongue curled or pulled back.
[ɴ] (Ipa  listen) Castilian Spanish Don Juan [doɴˈχwan] Like [ŋ], but further back, in the throat.
O
[o] (Ipa  listen) Spanish no, French eau, German Boden Somewhat reminiscent of American English no.
[ɔ] (Ipa  listen) German Oldenburg, French Garonne
[ɔ̃] (Ipa  listen) French Lyon, son Nasalized [ɔ].
[ø] (Ipa  listen) French feu, bœufs, German Goethe Like [e], but with the lips rounded like [o].
[ɵ] (Ipa  listen) Dutch hut, French je, Swedish dum Halfway between [o] and [ø]. Similar to [ʊ] but with the tongue slightly more down and front. The Dutch vowel is often transcribed with ⟨ʏ⟩ or ⟨œ⟩, whereas the French vowel is typically transcribed with ⟨ə⟩.
[œ] (Ipa  listen) French bœuf, seul, German Göttingen Like [ɛ], but with the lips rounded like [ɔ].
[œ̃] (Ipa  listen) French brun, parfum Nasalized [œ].
[ɶ] (Ipa  listen)
[θ] (Ipa  listen) see under Others
[ɸ] (Ipa  listen) see under Others
P
[p] (Ipa  listen) English pip
Q
[q] (Ipa  listen) Arabic ‏قُرْآنQur’ān Like [k], but further back, in the throat.
R
[r] (Ipa  listen) Spanish perro, Scots borrow "Rolled R". (Often used for other rhotics, such as English [ɹ], when there's no ambiguity.)
[ɾ] (Ipa  listen) Spanish pero, Tagalog daliri, Malay kabar, American English kitty/kiddie "Flapped R".
[ʀ] (Ipa  listen) Dutch rood and German rot (some speakers) A trill in the back of the throat. Found for /r/ in some conservative registers of French.
[ɽ] (Ipa  listen) Hindi साड़ी [sɑːɽiː] "sari" Like flapped [ɾ], but with the tongue curled back.
[ɹ] (Ipa  listen) RP borrow
[ɻ] (Ipa  listen) Mandarin 人民日报 Rénmín Rìbào "People's Daily", American English borrow, butter Like [ɹ], but with the tongue curled or pulled back, as pronounced by many English speakers.
[ʁ] (Ipa  listen) French Paris, German Riemann (some dialects) Said back in the throat, but not trilled.
S
[s] (Ipa  listen) English sass
[ʃ] (Ipa  listen) English shoe
[ʂ] (Ipa  listen) Mandarin 少林 (Shàolín), Russian Пушкин (Pushkin) Acoustically similar to [ʃ], but with the tongue curled or pulled back.
T
[t] (Ipa  listen) English tot, stop
[ʈ] (Ipa  listen) Hindi ठग [ʈʰəɡ] (thug) "thief" Like [t], but with the tongue curled or pulled back.
[ts] (Ipa  listen) English cats, Russian царь tsar
[tʃ] (Ipa  listen) English church
[tɕ] (Ipa  listen) Mandarin 北京 Běijīng (Ipa  listen), Polish ciebie "you" Like [tʃ], but with more of a y-sound.
[tʂ] (Ipa  listen) Mandarin 真正 zhēnzhèng, Polish czas Like [tʃ] with the tongue curled or pulled back.
U
[u] (Ipa  listen) American English food, French vous "you", German Schumacher
[ʊ] (Ipa  listen) English foot, German Bundesrepublik
[ʉ] (Ipa  listen) Australian English food (long) Like [ɨ], but with the lips rounded as for [u].
[ɥ] see under Y
[ɯ] (Ipa  listen) see under W
V
[v] (Ipa  listen) English verve
[ʋ] (Ipa  listen) Hindi वरुण [ʋəruɳə] "Varuna" Between [v] and [w]. Used by some Germans and Russians for v/w, and by some speakers of British English for r.
[ɤ] (Ipa  listen) see under Y
[ɣ] (Ipa  listen) see under Y
[ʌ] (Ipa  listen) see under A
W
[w] (Ipa  listen) English wow
[ʷ] Indicates a sound has lip rounding, as in English rain
[ʍ] (Ipa  listen) what (some dialects) like [h] and [w] said together
[ɯ] (Ipa  listen) Turkish kayık "caïque", Scottish Gaelic gaol Like [u], but with the lips flat; something like [ʊ].
[ɰ] (Ipa  listen) Spanish agua Like [w], but with the lips flat.
X
[x] (Ipa  listen) Scottish English loch, German Bach, Russian хороший [xɐˈroʂɨj] "good", Spanish joven between [k] and [h]
[χ] (Ipa  listen) northern Standard Dutch Scheveningen, Castilian Spanish Don Juan [doɴˈχwan] Like [x], but further back, in the throat. Some German and Arabic speakers have [χ] for [x].
Y
[y] (Ipa  listen) French rue, German Bülow Like [i], but with the lips rounded as for [u].
[ʏ] (Ipa  listen) German Düsseldorf Like [ɪ], but with the lips rounded as for [ʊ].
[ɣ] (Ipa  listen) Arabic ‏غَالِيghālī and Swahili ghali "expensive", Spanish suegro Sounds rather like French [ʁ] or between [ɡ] and [h].
[ɤ] (Ipa  listen) Mandarin 河南 Hénán, Scottish Gaelic taigh Like [o] but without the lips rounded, something like a cross of [ʊ] and [ʌ].
[ʎ] (Ipa  listen) Italian tagliatelle Like [l], but more y-like. Rather like English volume.
[ɥ] French lui Like [j] and [w] said together.
Z
[z] (Ipa  listen) English zoo
[ʒ] (Ipa  listen) English vision, French journal
[ʑ] (Ipa  listen) old-styled Russian позже [ˈpoʑːe] "later", Polish źle More y-like than [ʒ], something like beigey.
[ʐ] (Ipa  listen) Russian жир "fat" Like [ʒ] with the tongue curled or pulled back.
[ɮ] (Ipa  listen) see under L
Others
[θ] (Ipa  listen) English thigh, bath
[ɸ] (Ipa  listen) Japanese 富士 [ɸɯdʑi] Fuji, Māori [ˌɸaːɾeːˈnuiː] wharenui Like [p], but with the lips not quite touching
[ʔ] (Ipa  listen) English uh-oh, Hawaii, German die Angst The 'glottal stop', a catch in the breath. For some people, found in button [ˈbʌʔn̩], or between vowels across words: Deus ex machina [ˌdeɪəsˌʔɛksˈmɑːkɪnə]; in some nonstandard dialects, in a apple [əˈʔæpl̩].
[ʕ] (Ipa  listen) Arabic ‏عَرَبِيّʻarabī "Arabic" A light sound deep in the throat.
[ǀ] (Ipa  listen) English tsk-tsk! or tut-tut!, Zulu icici "earring" (The English click used for disapproval.) Several distinct sounds, written as digraphs, including [kǀ], [ɡǀ], [ŋǀ]. The Zimbabwean MP Ncube has this click in his name, as did Cetshwayo.
[ǁ] (Ipa  listen) English tchick! tchick!, Zulu ixoxo "frog" (The English click used to urge on a horse.) Several distinct sounds, written as digraphs, including [kǁ], [ɡǁ], [ŋǁ]. Found in the name of the Xhosa.
[ǃ] (Ipa  listen) Zulu iqaqa "polecat" (The English click used to imitate the trotting of a horse.) A hollow popping sound, like a cork pulled from a bottle. Several distinct sounds, written as digraphs, including [kǃ], [ɡǃ], [ŋǃ].
[ʘ] (Ipa  listen) ǂ’Amkoe ʘoa "two" Like a kissing sound.
[ǂ] (Ipa  listen) Khoekhoe ǂgā-amǃnâ [ǂàʔám̀ᵑǃã̀] "to put in the mouth" Like an imitation of a chewing sound.

Marks added to letters

Several marks can be added above, below, before or after letters. These are here shown on a carrier letter such as the vowel a. A more complete list is given at International Phonetic Alphabet § Diacritics and prosodic notation.

Symbol Example Description
Signs above a letter
[ã] French vin blanc [vɛ̃ blɑ̃] "white wine" A nasal vowel, as with a Texas twang.
[ä] Portuguese vá [vä] "go" A central vowel pronounced with the tongue position in the middle of the mouth; neither forward nor back.
Signs below a letter
[a̯] English cow [kʰaʊ̯], koi [kʰɔɪ̯] This vowel does not form a syllable of its own, but runs into the vowel next to it. (In English, the diacritic is generally left off: [kaʊ].)
[n̥] English boy [b̥ɔɪ̯], doe [d̥oʊ̯]

(see also)

Sounds like a loud whisper; [n̥] is like a whispered breath through the nose. [l̥] is found in Tibetan Lhasa.
[n̩] English button A consonant without a vowel. (English [n̩] is often transcribed /ən/.)
[d̪] Spanish dos, French deux The tongue touches the teeth more than it does in English.
Signs next to a letter
[kʰ] English come Aspirated consonant, pronounced with a puff of air. Similarly [tʰ pʰ tsʰ tʃʰ tɕʰ].
[ɡʱ] English gome Breathy voice, pronounced with a puff of air. Similarly [dʱ bʱ dzʱ dʒʱ dʑʱ].
[k’] Zulu ukuza "come" Ejective. Like a popped [k], pushed from the throat. Similarly [tʼ pʼ qʼ tʃʼ tsʼ tɬʼ].
[aː] English shh! [ʃː] Long. Often used with English vowels or diphthongs: Mayo /ˈmeːoː/ for [ˈmeɪ̯ɜʊ̯], etc.
[aˑ] RP caught [ˈkʰɔˑt] Semi-long. (Although the vowel is different, this is also longer than cot [ˈkʰɒt].)
[ˈa] pronunciation
[pɹ̥əʊ̯ˌnɐnsiˈeɪʃn̩]
Main stress. The mark denotes the stress of the following syllable.
[ˌa] Weaker stress. The mark denotes the stress of the following syllable.
[.] English courtship [ˈkʰɔrt.ʃɪp] Syllable break. (this is often redundant and therefore left off)

Brackets

Two types of brackets are commonly used to enclose transcriptions in the IPA:

  • /Slashes/ indicate sounds that are distinguished as the basic units of words in a language by native speakers; these are called phonemes. Changing the symbols between these slashes would either change the identity of the word or produce nonsense. For example, since there is no meaningful difference to a native speaker between the two sounds written with the letter L in the word lulls, they are considered the same phoneme, and so, using slashes, they are given the same symbol in IPA: /ˈlʌlz/. Similarly, Spanish la bamba is transcribed phonemically with two instances of the same b sound, /la ˈbamba/, despite the fact that they sound different to a speaker of English. Thus a reader who is not familiar with the language in question might not know how to interpret these transcriptions more narrowly.
  • [Square brackets] indicate the narrower or more detailed phonetic qualities of a pronunciation, not taking into account the norms of the language to which it belongs; therefore, such transcriptions do not regard whether subtly different sounds in the pronunciation are actually noticeable or distinguishable to a native speaker of the language. Within square brackets is what a foreigner who does not know the structure of a language might hear as discrete units of sound. For instance, the English word lulls may be pronounced in a particular dialect more specifically as [ˈlɐɫz], with different letter L sounds at the beginning and end. This may be obvious to speakers of languages that differentiate between the sounds [l] and [ɫ]. Likewise, Spanish la bamba (pronounced without a pause) has two different b-sounds to the ears of foreigners or linguists—[la ˈβamba]—though a native Spanish speaker might not be able to hear it. Omitting or adding such detail does not make a difference to the identity of the word, but helps to give a more precise pronunciation.

A third kind of bracket is occasionally seen:

  • Either //double slashes// or |pipes| (or occasionally other conventions) show that the enclosed sounds are theoretical constructs that are not actually heard. (This is part of morphophonology.) For instance, most phonologists argue that the -s at the ends of verbs, which surfaces as either /s/ in talks /tɔːks/ or as /z/ in lulls /lʌlz/, has a single underlying form. If they decide this form is an s, they would write it //s// (or |s|) to claim that phonemic /tɔːks/ and /lʌlz/ are essentially //tɔːks// and //lʌls// underneath. If they were to decide it was essentially the latter, //z//, they would transcribe these words //tɔːkz// and //lʌlz//.

Lastly,

  • Angle brackets are used to set off orthography, as well as transliteration from non-Latin scripts. Thus lulls, la bamba, the letter a. Angle brackets are not supported by all fonts, so a template {{angle bracket}} (shortcut {{angbr}}) is used to ensure maximal compatibility. (Comment there if you're having problems.)

Rendering issues

IPA typeface support is increasing, and is now included in several typefaces such as the Times New Roman versions that come with various recent computer operating systems. Diacritics are not always properly rendered, however. IPA typefaces that are freely available online include Gentium, several from the SIL (such as Charis SIL, and Doulos SIL), Dehuti, 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 typeface capable of doing so is available to the operating system.

Particularly, the following symbols may be shown improperly depending on your font:

Voiced velar plosive

These two characters should look similar:

If in the box to the left you see the symbol Ipa  rather than a lower-case open-tail g, you may be experiencing a well-known bug in the font MS Reference Sans Serif; switching to another font may fix it.

On your current font: [ɡ],

and in several other fonts:

شابلون:MFSample

Affricates and double articulation

The tie bar is intended to cover both letters of an affricate or doubly articulated consonant. However, if your browser uses Arial Unicode MS to display IPA characters, the following incorrectly formed sequences may look better than the correct order (letter, tie bar, letter) due to a bug in that font:

    ts͡, tʃ͡, tɕ͡, dz͡, dʒ͡, dʑ͡, tɬ͡, kp͡, ɡb͡, ŋm͡.

Here is how the proper configuration displays in your default IPA font:

    t͡s, d͡z, t͡ʃ, d͡ʒ, t͡ɕ, d͡ʑ, t͡ɬ, k͡p, ɡ͡b, ŋ͡m,

and in several other fonts: شابلون:MFSample

Angle brackets

True angle brackets, ⟨ ⟩, are unsupported by several common fonts. Here is how they display in your default settings:

    ⟨...⟩ (unformatted)
    ⟨...⟩ (default IPA font)
    ⟨...⟩ (default Unicode font),

and in several specific fonts:

شابلون:MFSample

Computer input using on-screen keyboard

Online IPA keyboard utilities are available and they cover a range of IPA symbols and diacritics:


For iOS there are free IPA keyboard layouts, e.g. IPA Phonetic Keyboard.

See also

  • Extensions to the International Phonetic Alphabet
  • IPA charts for diphthongs in various languages
  • Wiki: Manual of Style (pronunciation)#Entering IPA characters

شابلون:IPA navigation

Tags:

International Phonetic Alphabetکؤمک:IPA/English

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