IPA in Unicode

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It has been proposed that this article or section be merged with International Phonetic Alphabet. This request may be discussed on the article's talk page.

Note: This article contains special characters.

The International Phonetic Alphabet can be represented in Unicode, with symbols not used in other alphabets assigned range U+0250–02AD. The following is a representation of the IPA chart encoded in Unicode.

There also exist systems for representing the information contained in IPA in ASCII, including SAMPA, Kirshenbaum and other ad hoc systems to work around the difficulty of displaying IPA on computers.

See also: Table of Unicode characters, 128 to 999, Unicode and HTML

Contents

1 Consonants (pulmonic) 2 Consonants (non-pulmonic) 3 Vowels 4 Other symbols 5 Suprasegmentals 5.1 Tone and intonation 6 Diacritics 7 Names of the symbols 7.1 The Letters 7.2 The diacritic marks 8 History 8.1 1887 8.2 1900 8.3 1932 8.4 1989 9 See also 10 External links 11 Special characters

Consonants (pulmonic)

	Labial				Coronal										Dorsal						Radical				—
	Blab.		Ldent.		Dent.		Alv.		Palv.		Apal.		Ret.		Pal.		Velar		Uvular		Phar.		Epig.		Glot.
Plosive	p	b			t			d					ʈ	ɖ	c	ɟ	k	ɡ	q	ɢ			ʡ		ʔ
Nasal stop	m		ɱ		n								ɳ		ɲ		ŋ		ɴ
Trill	ʙ				r														ʀ				*
Tap or Flap	*		*		ɾ								ɽ										*
Lateral Flap					ɺ								*
Fricative	ɸ	β	f	v	θ	ð	s	z	ʃ	ʒ	ɕ	ʑ	ʂ	ʐ	ç	ʝ	x	ɣ	χ	ʁ	ħ	ʕ	ʜ	ʢ	h	ɦ
Lateral Fricative					ɬ			ɮ					*		*		*
Approximant	*		ʋ		ɹ								ɻ		j		ɰ		(ʁ)		(ʕ)		(ʢ)
Lateral Approximant					l								ɭ		ʎ		ʟ

Notes:

• Where symbols appear in pairs (the obstruents), the one to the right represents a voiced consonant (except for breathy-voiced ɦ). Otherwise (the sonorants), the single symbol is voiced.
• Shaded areas indicate articulations judged impossible.
• Asterisks (*) mark reported sounds that do not (yet) have official IPA symbols. See the articles on the appropriate manner for ad hoc symbols found in the literature.
• The voiced fricative symbols, especially [ʁ, ʕ, ʢ], may be used for either voiced fricatives or approximants.
• 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.

Consonants (non-pulmonic)

Click releases		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 alveolar ("lateral")	ʛ	Uvular	sʼ	Alveolar fricative

Notes:

• Clicks are doubly articulated and require two symbols: a velar or uvular stop, plus a symbol for the release: [k͡ǂ, g͡ǂ, ŋ͡ǂ, q͡ǂ, ɢ͡ǂ, ɴ͡ǂ], etc.
• Symbols for the voiceless implosives [ƥ, ƭ, ƈ, ƙ, ʠ] are no longer supported by the IPA. Instead, the voiced equivalent is used with a voiceless diacritic: [ɓ̥, ʛ̥], etc.
• Although not reported from any language, the retroflex implosive, [ᶑ], is supported in the Unicode Phonetic Extensions Supplement.
• The ejective symbol is also used for glottalized but pulmonic sonorants, such as [mʼ], [lʼ], [wʼ], [aʼ].

Vowels

	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

Notes:

• Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a rounded vowel. [ʊ] also represents a rounded vowel.
• [ɶ] is not confirmed as a distinct phoneme in any language.

Other symbols

Symbols for consonants with double or secondary articulation

ʍ	Voiceless labial-velar approximant
w	Voiced labial-velar approximant
ɥ	Voiced labial-palatal approximant
ɧ	Voiceless "dorso-palatal" fricative

Note:

• The nature of [ɧ] is disputed. See the article for discussion.

Affricates and doubly articulated stops are represented by two symbols joined by a tie bar either above or below the symbols, or optionally by a ligature for the six commonest affricates, though this is not current IPA usage:

Ligature	Tie bar	Description
ʦ	t͡s	voiceless alveolar affricate
ʧ	t͡ʃ	voiceless postalveolar affricate
ʨ	t͡ɕ	voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate
ʣ	d͡z	voiced alveolar affricate
ʤ	d͡ʒ	voiced postalveolar affricate
ʥ	d͡ʑ	voiced alveolo-palatal affricate
–	k͡p	voiceless labial-velar plosive
–	g͡b	voiced labial-velar plosive
–	ŋ͡m	labial-velar nasal stop

Note:

• Due to a bug in the Arial Unicode MS font, these incorrectly formed character combinations may look better in your browser: ts͡, tʃ͡, tɕ͡, dz͡, dʒ͡, dʑ͡, kp͡, gb͡, ŋm͡.

Extended IPA for disordered speech

ʩ	Velopharyngeal fricative
ʪ	Lateralized [s]
ʫ	Lateralized [z]
ʬ	Bilabial percussive
ʭ	Bidental percussive
¡	Sublaminal lower alveolar click

Suprasegmentals

ˈ	Primary stress
ˌ	Secondary stress
ː	Long (long vowel or geminate consonant)
ˑ	Half-long
˘	Extra-short
.	Syllable break
|	Minor (foot) group
‖	Major (intonation) group
‿	Linking (absence of a break)

Tone and intonation

e̋ or ˥	Extra high
é or ˦	High
ē or ˧	Mid
è or ˨	Low
ȅ or ˩	Extra low
ě	Rise
ê	Fall
↓e	Downstep
↑e	Upstep
↗	Global rise
↘	Global fall

Note:

• Unicode does not have separate encodings for most of the contour tones. Instead, sequences of level tone marks are used, with proper display dependent on the font, usually by means of OpenType font rendition: [é̄, ḕ̄] or [e˥˧, e˧˩˨]. (These are probably not displaying correctly in your browser.) Since very few fonts support such combinations of tone marks, a common solution is to use the old system of superscript numerals from '1' to '5', e.g. [e⁵³, e³¹²]. However, this depends on local linguistic tradition, with '5' generally being high and '1' being low for Asian languages, but '1' being high and '5' low for African languages. An old IPA convention sometimes still seen is to use sub-diacritics for low contour tones: [e̖, e̗] for low-falling and low-rising.
• The upstep and downstep diacritics are superscript arrows. Unicode currently does not have separate encodings for them.

Diacritics

Diacritics may be placed above a symbol with a descender, i.e. ŋ̊

n̥ d̥	Voiceless	b̤ a̤	Breathy voiced	t̪ d̪	Dental
s̬ t̬	Voiced	b̰ a̰	Creaky voiced	t̺ d̺	Apical
tʰ dʰ	Aspirated	t̼ d̼	Linguolabial	t̻ d̻	Laminal
ɔ̹	More rounded	tʷ dʷ	Labialized	ẽ	Nasalized
ɔ̜	Less rounded	tʲ dʲ	Palatalized	dⁿ	Nasal release
u̟	Advanced	tˠ dˠ	Velarized	dˡ	Lateral release
i̠	Retracted	tˁ dˁ	Pharyngealized	d̚	No audible release
ë	Centralized	l̴	Velarized or pharyngealized
e̽	Mid-centralized	e̝	Raised (ɹ̝ = voiced alveolar fricative)
ɹ̩	Syllabic	e̞	Lowered (β̞ = voiced bilabial approximant)
e̯	Non-syllabic	e̘	Advanced tongue root
ɚ	Rhoticity	e̙	Retracted Tongue Root

The state of the glottis can be finely transcribed. A series of alveolar plosives ranging from an open to a closed glottis phonation are:

[t] (voiceless)

[d̤] (breathy voice, also called murmured)

[d̥] (slack voice)

[d] (modal voice)

[d̬] (stiff voice)

[d̰] (creaky voice)

[ʔd or ʔt] (glottal closure).

Extended IPA for disordered speech.

s͍	Labial spreading		Strong articulation	m͊	Denasal
v͆	Dentolabial	v͉	Weak articulation	v͋	Nasal escape
	Interdental/bidental		Reiterated articulation	s͌	Velopharyngeal friction
s͇	Alveolar	s͎	Whistled articulation	p↓	Ingressive airflow
s̼	Linguolabial	s͢θ	Slurred/sliding articulation	!↑	Egressive airflow
ʰp	Pre-aspiration	p⁼	Unaspirated	ạ	Whispery
₍s̬₎	Partial voicing	₍s̬	Initial partial voicing	s̬₎	Final partial voicing
₍z̥₎	Partial devoicing	₍z̥	Initial partial devoicing	z̥₎	Final partial devoicing
̬z	Pre-voicing	z ̬	Post-voicing	a ̰	Creaky

Names of the symbols

It is often desirable to distinguish an IPA symbol from the sound it's intended to represent, since there is not a one-to-one correspondance between symbol and sound in broad transcription. The names are not official, but they've become standardized through usage.

The Letters

The traditional names of the Latin and Greek letters are used for unmodified symbols: b bee, x ex, ʀ capital ar, β beta, ɛ epsilon, ɣ gamma, θ theta, χ chi, ɸ phi, etc. Although the typeface of the Greek letters is less cursive in IPA usage than is usual, the names don't change. Likewise, it is not necessary to specify that ʀ is a 'small' capital, although it is common to abbreviate the name to cap ar.

A few letters have the forms of cursive script: ɑ cursive a, ʋ cursive vee [some might call this upsilon].

Ligatures are called precisely that: œ o-e ligature, ɮ el-yogh ligature, although æ is frequently called by its traditional runic name ash in addition to an a-e ligature.

Many letters are turned, or rotated 180 degrees: ʎ turned wye, ɥ turned aitch, ʁ turned capital ar, ɒ turned cursive a, ɔ turned cee [often called open o, which describes both its articulation and its shape], ʌ turned vee [often called caret from its similarity to the diacritic ^].

A few letters are reversed (flipped on a vertical axis): ɘ reversed e, ɜ reversed epsilon, ʕ reversed glottal stop [often called by its Arabic name, ain].

One letter is inverted (flipped on a horizontal axis): ʁ inverted ar. (ʍ could also be called an inverted double-u, but turned double-u is more common.)

When a horizontal stroke is added, it is called a bar: ħ barred aitch, ɵ barred o, ʢ reversed barred glottal stop, ɟ barred dotless jay or barred gelded jay [apparently never 'turned ef'], ǂ double-barred pipe, etc.

One letter instead has a slash through it: ø slashed o.

The implosives have hook tops: ɓ hook-top bee, as does ɦ hook-top aitch.

Such an extension at the bottom of a letter is called a tail. It may be specified as left or right depending on which direction it turns: ɳ right-tail en, ɻ right-tail turned ar, ɲ left-tail en [note that ŋ has its own traditional name, engma], ɱ left-tail em, ʐ tail zed [or just retroflex zed], etc.

When the tail loops over itself, it's called curly: ʝ curly-tail jay, ɕ curly-tail cee.

There are also a few unique modifications: ɬ belted el, ɞ closed reversed epsilon [there was once also a ɷ closed omega], ɰ right-leg turned em, ɺ turned long-leg ar, ǁ double pipe, and the obsolete ʗ stretched cee.

Several non-English letters have traditional names: ç cee cedilla, ð eth (also spelled edh), ŋ engma, ʒ yogh, ə schwa, ǃ exclamation mark, ǀ pipe.

Other symbols are unique to the IPA, and have developed their own quirky names: ɾ fish-hook ar, ɤ ram's horns, ʘ bull's eye, ʊ horse-shoe u, ʃ esh [apparently never 'stretched ess'], ɧ hook-top heng.

The ʔ is usually called by the sound it represents, glottal stop. This is not normally a problem, because this symbol is seldom used to represent anything else. However, to specify the symbol itself, it is sometimes called a gelded question mark.

The diacritic marks

Diacritics with traditional names: é acute, ē macron, è grave, ê caron or circumflex, ě wedge, ë umlaut or trema, ĕ breve, ẽ (superscript) tilde, ḛ subscript tilde, ɫ superimposed tilde.

And so forth: the voicing diacritic, for example, is a subscript wedge.

Non-traditional diacritics:

e̼ seagull, e˞ hook, e̽ over-cross, d ̚ corner, d̪ bridge, d̺ inverted bridge, d̻ square, e̥ under-ring, e̊ over-ring, e̜ left half-ring, e̹ right half-ring, e̟ plus, e̠ under-bar, e̯ arch, e̝ up tack, e̞ down tack, e̘ left tack, e̙ right tack, d͡z tie bar, ẹ under-dot, n̩ under-stroke.

Diacritics are also named after their function: the bridge is also called the dental sign, etc.

History

The International Phonetic Association was founded in Paris in 1886 under the name Dhi Fonètik Tîcerz' Asóciécon (The Phonetic Teachers' Association), a development of L'Association Phonétique des Professeurs d'Anglais (The English Teachers' Phonetic Association), to create an international phonetic alphabet. The sources for many of the symbols was Henry Sweet's Revised Romic system, which was in turn based on Pitman and Alexander Ellis's Phonotypic Alphabet. Several of the symbols, such as [ŋ] and [ʇ], had been used since the early 17th century.

1887

Note: this early version of the IPA was presented as a list (with examples from European languages) instead of the now common articulatory chart used today.

	Blab.		Ldent.		Dent.		Alv.		Palv.		Pal.		Velar		Uvular		Glot.
Plosive	p	b					t	d					k	g			'
Nasal	m						n				ɴ		ɴ
Lateral							l				ʎ
Rhotic							r								ʀ
Semivowel	w	ɥ	U								j
Fricative			f	v	θ	ð	s	z	c	ʒ	ç		x	q			h

	Front		Central		Back
Close	i • y				u
Close-mid	e • ɶ				o
			ə
Open-mid	ɛ • œ				ɔ
	æ
Open	a		A

Diacritics

hl, lh	voiceless l
u:	long u
ã	nasal a
û	long and narrow u
-u, u-	weak stressed u
·u, u·, ù	strong stressed u

1900

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		Laryn- gales	Gutturales	Uvulaires	Vélaires	Palatales	Linguales	Labiales
C O N S O N N E S	Plosives	ʔ		q G	k ɡ	c ɟ	t d	p b
	Nasales				ŋ	ɲ	n	m
	Latérales				ɫ	ʎ	l
	Roulées		Q	ᴙ ʀ			r
	Fricatives	h	H ɦ	ᴚ ʁ	(ʍ w) x ɡ̸	(ɥ)  ç j	ɹ, θ ð, ʃ ʒ, s z, * *	f v       F ʋ  ʍ w   ɥ
V O Y E L L E S	Fermées                        Mi-fermées Moyennes Mi-ouvertes Ouvertes				u   ɯ    ü       ï    y   i   ᴜ                  Y   I     o   ∀   ö   ë   ø   e                 ə       ɔ     ʌ ɔ̈    ä œ   ɛ                 ɐ      æ           ɑ        a			(u ü y) (o ö ø) (ɔ ɔ̈ œ)

* no Unicode character (?)

1932

	Bi-labial		Labio- dental		Dental and Alveolar					Retroflex		Palato- alveolar		Alveolo- palatal		Palatal							Velar							Uvular		Pharyngal [sic]		Glottal
Plosive	p b				t d					ʈ ɖ						c ɟ							k g							q ɢ				ʔ
Nasal	m		ɱ		n					ɳ