Phonetic symbols |
This list includes phonetic symbols for the transcription of English sounds, plus others that are used in this class for transliterating or transcribing various languages, with the articulatory description of the sounds and some extra comments where appropriate.
These symbols do not always follow the standard IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) usage instead, they reflect the most common practices for the languages treated in this course, which are sometimes a bit idiosyncratic due to separate scholarly traditions. In some cases, a second line shows a different use of the same symbol, normally for another language or family of languages. Nevertheless, the list is by no means exhaustive; for example, most pinyin symbols for transcribing Mandarin are not listed here but are discussed in the lecture on Chinese languages.
You certainly don't need to memorize all these symbols, but you can use this page as a reference if you're not sure what a particular symbol means when you encounter it. Remember that you need a good Unicode font to see these symbols correctly. If you're not sure how to produce special symbols in your word processor, you can cut and paste from this page or from the course lecture notes.
See the bottom of the page for diacritic marks on vowels.
Symbol | Phonetic value | Example / Language |
---|---|---|
a | low central (or front) unrounded vowel | French la |
ä | central vowel ranging between [ɛ] and [ə] | Ethiopic |
ɑ | low back unrounded vowel; often written [a] | spa |
ɒ | low back rounded vowel | British hot |
æ | low front unrounded vowel | cat, laugh, plaid |
b | voiced bilabial stop | bib |
ḇ | spirantized [b]; historically [β], modern [v] | Hebrew |
β | voiced bilabial fricative | Spanish haber |
c | voiceless alveolar affricate; IPA [ʦ] or [ts] | Italian zucchero, German zu, Yiddish tsimmes |
č | voiceless palatoalveolar affricate; IPA [ʧ] or [tʃ] | church, watch |
ɔ | lax mid back rounded vowel | dog (for many speakers) |
ɕ | voiceless alveolopalatal fricative | Mandarin xi |
ç | voiceless palatal fricative | German ich |
d | voiced alveolar stop | dad |
ḏ | palatalized [dʸ]; can be pronounced [ǰ] | Egyptian |
or spirantized [d], same as [ð] | Ancient Hebrew | |
ḍ | voiced retroflex stop; IPA [ɖ] | Indic |
or emphatic, i.e. pharyngealized [dˁ] | Semitic | |
ð | voiced dental fricative | this, either |
e | tense mid front unrounded vowel | bait, made |
ə | lax mid central vowel (unstressed in English); "schwa" | about, sofa |
ɚ | rhotacized schwa, essentially [ər] | butter, actor |
ɛ | lax mid front unrounded vowel | bet, head |
ɝ | stressed [ɚ] in English; often transcribed the same way | bird, learn |
f | voiceless labiodental fricative | fife, laugh |
g | voiced velar stop | gag |
ḡ | spirantized [g]; same as [ɣ] | Ancient Hebrew |
h | voiceless glottal fricative | hit |
ʰ | aspiration of preceding sound | top vs. stop |
ḥ | voiceless pharyngeal fricative; IPA [ħ] | Arabic hummus |
ḫ | voiceless uvular fricative; same as [χ] | Egyptian, Semitic |
ẖ | voiceless fricative; probably palatal [ç] | Egyptian |
i | tense high front unrounded vowel | see, diva |
ɪ | lax high front unrounded vowel | hit |
ỉ | special transcriptional symbol; also [j] | Egyptian |
ɨ | high central unrounded vowel | roses |
j | voiced palatal glide; same as [y] in other systems | standard IPA; Mycenaean Greek |
or alternate transliteration for [ỉ] | Egyptian | |
ʲ | palatalization of preceding sound; also [ʸ] | roughly canyon vs. cannon |
ǰ | voiced palatoalveolar affricate; IPA [ʤ] or [dʒ] | judge |
k | voiceless velar stop | kick, cake |
ḳ | voiceless uvular stop; same as [q] | Egyptian |
ḵ | spirantized [k]; same as [x] | Ancient Hebrew |
l | voiced alveolar lateral liquid | lip |
ḷ | voiced retroflex lateral liquid; IPA [ɭ] | Indic |
ɬ | voiceless alveolar lateral fricative | Semitic; Welsh "ll" |
ɫ | velarized voiced alveolar lateral liquid | hull |
m | voiced bilabial nasal | mom |
n | voiced alveolar nasal | none |
ŋ | voiced velar nasal; don't confuse with sequence [ŋg] | singer |
ṇ | voiced retroflex nasal; IPA [ɳ] | Indic |
ɲ | voiced palatal nasal | Spanish ñ, Italian gn |
ɴ | voiced uvular nasal | Japanese word-final "n" |
o | tense mid back rounded vowel | go, hope, boat |
ŏ | mid central unrounded vowel, similar to [ə] | Korean "eo" |
ɸ | voiceless bilabial fricative | (like blowing out a match) |
θ | voiceless dental fricative | thing, myth |
p | voiceless bilabial stop | pep |
p̅ | spirantized [p]; historically [ɸ], modern [f] | Hebrew |
þ | runic letter equivalent to [θ] | Icelandic |
or runic letter that can be read as either [θ] or [ð] | Old English, some Scandinavian | |
q | voiceless uvular stop | Arabic Qatar |
r | voiced alveolar trill (often used for other types of "r") | Spanish perro |
ɹ | voiced (post)alveolar liquid, the English "r"; often just written [r] | run, sorry |
ɾ | voiced alveolar tap; sometimes written [ᴅ] | Am Engl city; Spanish pero |
ʀ | voiced uvular trill | some French dialects, etc. |
ʁ | voiced uvular fricative | French, German, Modern Hebrew "r" |
ṛ | voiced retroflex flap; IPA [ɽ] | Indic |
s | voiceless alveolar fricative | sit, hiss, rice, cent |
š | voiceless postalveolar fricative; IPA [ʃ] | ship, push, delicious |
ś | voiceless alveolopalatal fricative; IPA [ɕ] | Indic |
or voiceless alveolar fricative; historically distinct from [z] | Egyptian (often just "s") | |
or voiceless fricative; historically distinct from [s] | Hebrew, other Semitic | |
ṣ | voiceless retroflex fricative; IPA [ʂ] | Indic, Mandarin ("sh") |
or emphatic, i.e. pharyngealized [sˁ] | Semitic | |
ʃ | voiceless postalveolar fricative; same as [š] | ship, push, delicious |
t | voiceless alveolar stop | stop |
ṭ | voiceless retroflex stop; IPA [ʈ] | Indic |
or emphatic, i.e. pharyngealized [tˁ] | Semitic | |
ṯ | palatalized [tʸ]; can be pronounced [č] | Egyptian |
or spirantized [t], same as [θ] | Ancient Hebrew | |
ʨ | voiceless alveolopalatal affricate | Mandarin ji (cf. aspirated qi) |
tʂ | voiceless retroflex affricate | Mandarin zhi (cf. aspirated chi) |
u | tense high back rounded vowel | ooze, prune |
ʊ | lax high back rounded vowel | put, book |
ŭ | high central unrounded vowel, similar to [ɨ] | Korean "eu" |
ü | tense high front rounded vowel | French, German, Mandarin |
v | voiced labiodental fricative | verve |
ʌ | mid central unrounded vowel; stressed in English | cut, love |
ɣ | voiced velar fricative | Spanish haga |
w | voiced labial-velar glide | witch |
ʍ | voiceless labial-velar fricative | which for some speakers |
x | voiceless velar fricative | chutzpah, German ach |
χ | voiceless uvular fricative | Semitic, Egyptian |
y | voiced palatal glide (in many transcription systems); IPA [j] | yes |
high front rounded vowel (in IPA) | French u, German ü | |
ʸ | palatalization of preceding sound; IPA [ʲ] | roughly canyon vs. cannon |
ʎ | voiced palatal lateral | Italian gli, Castilian ll |
z | voiced alveolar fricative | fizz, his, rose |
ẓ | voiced retroflex fricative; IPA [ʐ] | Indic, Mandarin ("r") |
or emphatic, i.e. pharyngealized [zˁ] or [ðˁ] | Semitic | |
ž | voiced palatoalveolar fricative; IPA [ʒ] | rouge, vision |
ʒ | voiced palatoalveolar fricative; same as [ž] | rouge, vision |
| glottalization of preceding sound (ejective) | Mayan, Ethiopic |
| aspiration of preceding sound; same as [ʰ] | Chinese (not Pinyin) |
ʔ | glottal stop; also written or ʾ | medial sound in uh-oh |
ʕ | voiced pharyngeal fricative; also written or ʿ | Arabic ayn |
The following examples illustrate diacritic marks that can be added to other symbols, in particular vowels. The same accent or other mark may in some cases appear with more than the vowel symbols shown, or with a subset for cases where more than one function is encountered.
Examples | Phonetic value | Languages |
---|---|---|
ā ē ī ō ū ǖ | high level tone (= Mandarin "tone 1") | Chinese |
or long vowel | Japanese, Greek, etc. | |
á é í ó ú ǘ | rising tone (= Mandarin "tone 2") | Chinese |
or primary stress | Modern Greek, Spanish, etc. | |
or "acute accent" | Classical Greek | |
or equivalent to subscript 2 for distinguishing homophones | Sumerian | |
ǎ ě ǐ ǒ ǔ ǚ | falling-rising tone (= Mandarin "tone 3") | Chinese |
à è ì ò ù ǜ | falling tone (= Mandarin "tone 4") | Chinese |
or secondary stress | many transcriptions | |
or "grave accent" | Classical Greek | |
or word-final stress | Italian | |
or equivalent to subscript 3 for distinguishing homophones | Sumerian | |
â ê î ô û | long vowel that results from two short vowels | Akkadian, other Semitic |
or any long vowel | Cree, etc. | |
or "circumflex accent" | Classical Greek |