| Phonetic symbols | |
Below is a list of phonetic symbols for the transcription of English and other sounds, with the articulatory description of the sounds and some extra comments where appropriate. These symbols do not always reflect the standard IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) usage — rather, they reflect the practices for the languages treated in this course, which are sometimes a bit idiosyncratic. In some cases, a second line shows a different use for the same symbol, normally for another language or family of languages. Nevertheless, the list is by no means exhaustive.
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 Unicode-compatible browser to see these symbols correctly.
See the bottom of the page for diacritic marks on vowels.
| Symbol | Phonetic value | Example |
|---|---|---|
| a | low central (or front) unrounded vowel | French la |
| 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 |
| β | voiced bilabial fricative | Spanish haber |
| c | voiceless alveolar affricate; IPA [ts] | 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 |
| ḍ | voiced retroflex stop; IPA [ɖ] | Indic |
| 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 |
| 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] | Semitic |
| i | tense high front unrounded vowel | see, diva |
| ɪ | lax high front unrounded vowel | hit |
| ɨ | high central unrounded vowel | roses |
| j | same as [y] | standard IPA |
| ǰ | voiced palatoalveolar affricate; IPA [ʤ] or [dʒ] | judge |
| k | voiceless velar stop | kick, cake |
| l | voiced alveolar lateral liquid | lip |
| ḷ | voiced retroflex lateral liquid; IPA [ɭ] | Indic |
| ɬ | voiceless alveolar lateral fricative | Welsh "ll"; Native American |
| 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 |
| 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, 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 |
| ṣ | voiceless retroflex fricative; IPA [ʂ] | Indic, Mandarin ("sh") |
| emphatic, i.e. pharyngealized [sˁ] | Semitic | |
| t | voiceless alveolar stop | stop |
| ṭ | voiceless retroflex stop; IPA [ʈ] | Indic |
| emphatic, i.e. pharyngealized [tˁ] | Semitic | |
| 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; IPA [y] | 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 |
| y | voiced palatal glide | yes |
| ʸ | palatalization of preceding sound | canyon vs. cannon |
| ʎ | voiced palatal lateral | Italian gli, Castillian ll |
| z | voiced alveolar fricative | fizz, his, rose |
| ẓ | voiced retroflex fricative; IPA [ʐ] | Indic, Mandarin ("r") |
| emphatic, i.e. pharyngealized [zˁ] or [ðˁ] | Semitic | |
| ž | voiced palatoalveolar fricative; IPA [ʒ] | rouge, vision |
| ’ | glottalization of preceding sound (ejective) | various languages |
| ‘ | aspiration of preceding sound; same as [ʰ] | Chinese (not pinyin) |
| glottal stop in the conventional spelling of Hawaiian words | Hawai‘i | |
| ʔ | glottal stop; also written ’ | medial sound in uh-oh |
| ʕ | voiced pharyngeal fricative; also written ‘ | Arabic ‘ayn |
The following examples illustrate some diacritic marks that can be added to vowels. The same accent or other mark may in some cases appear with more than the vowel symbols shown.
| Examples | Phonetic value | Languages |
|---|---|---|
| ā ē ī ō ū ǖ | high level tone (= Mandarin "tone 1") | Chinese |
| long vowel; IPA [a: e: i:] etc. | Japanese, Greek, etc. | |
| mid tone | some African and other tone languages | |
| á é í ó ú ǘ | rising tone (= Mandarin "tone 2") | Chinese |
| high tone | African and most other tone languages | |
| primary stress; IPA ['a 'e 'i] etc. | Modern Greek, Spanish, etc. | |
| "acute accent" | Classical Greek | |
| ǎ ě ǐ ǒ ǔ ǚ | falling-rising tone (= Mandarin "tone 3") | Chinese |
| rising tone | African and most other tone languages | |
| à è ì ò ù ǜ | falling tone (= Mandarin "tone 4") | Chinese |
| low tone | African and most other tone languages | |
| secondary stress | many transcriptions | |
| "grave accent" | Classical Greek | |
| word-final stress | Italian | |
| â ê î ô û | long vowel that results from two short vowels | Akkadian, other Semitic |
| any long vowel | Cree, etc. | |
| falling tone | African and most other tone languages | |
| "circumflex accent" | Classical Greek |