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The International Phonetic Alphabet is a phonetic alphabet used by linguists to accurately and uniquely represent each of the wide variety of sounds (phones or phonemes) the human vocal apparatus can produce. It is intended as a notational standard for the phonetic representation of all languages. Most of its symbols are taken from the Roman alphabet or derived from it, some are taken from the Greek alphabet, and some are apparently unrelated to any standard alphabet.
HistoryIt was originally developed by British and French language teachers (led by Paul Passy) under the auspices of the International Phonetic Association, established in Paris in 1886 (both the organisation and the phonetic script are best known as IPA). The first official version of the alphabet appears in Passy (1888). These teachers based the IPA upon the Romic alphabet of Henry Sweet (1880-1881, 1971), which was formed from the Phonotypic Alphabet of Isaac Pitman and Alexander John Ellis (Kelly 1981). The alphabet has undergone a number of revisions during its history, including some major ones codified by the IPA Kiel Convention (1989); the most recent revision was in 1993, updated again in 1996. The extIPA was first created in 1991, revised to 1997; the VoQS (Voice Quality Symbols) was proposed in 1995 to provide a system for more detailed transcription of voice production (Ball et al. 1995). DescriptionThe sound-values of the consonants that are identical to those in the Latin alphabet in most cases correspond to usage in most European languages including English. [p], [b], [t], [d], [k], [g], [m], [n], [f], [v], [s], [h], [z], [l], [w]. The vowel symbols that are identical to those in the Latin alphabet ([a], [e], [i], [o], [u]) correspond roughly to the vowels of Spanish, or Italian. [i] is like the vowel in piece, [u] like the vowel in food, etc. Most of the other symbols that are shared with the Latin alphabet, like [j], [r], [c], and [y], correspond to sounds those letters represent in other languages. [j] has the sound value of English y in yoke (= German or Dutch j); whereas [y] has the Scandinavian or Old English value of the letter (= Finnish y, German y or ü, French u, or Dutch uu). The general principle is to use one symbol for one speech segment, avoiding letter combinations such as sh and th in English orthography. Letters that have shapes that are modified Latin letters correspond to a similar sound. For example, all the retroflex consonants have the same symbol as the equivalent alveolar consonants, except with a rightward pointing hook coming out of the bottom. Diacritic marks can be combined with IPA signs to transcribe slightly modified phonetic values or secondary articulations. There are also special symbols for suprasegmental features such as stress and tone. The International Phonetic Association recommends that a phonetic transcription should be enclosed in square brackets ("[" and "]"). A transcription that only denotes phonological contrasts (a "broad transcription") may be enclosed in slashes ("/"). For example the English word pretzel in a phonetic (or "narrow") transcription would be [pʰɹ̥ɛʔtsɫ̩], which notes several phonetic features that are not contrasted phonologically. An equivalent phonological (or "broad") transcription could be /pɹɛtsl̩/ or even /prɛtsəl/. ChartA text approximation of this page is available at IPA in Unicode.
Download the IPA chart in PDF 1000 pixel wide PNG of the entire chart Comparison to Other Phonetic NotationThe IPA is not the only phonetic transcription system in use. There exist somewhat similar alphabets in use by linguists working on Native American languages, Indic languages, Finno-Ugric languages and Slavic languages. The difference between these alphabets and IPA is relatively small. Some phonetic notation differs considerably more from IPA. Examples of these include iconic notation, such as the Visible Speech system created by Scottish phonetician, Alexander Melville Bell (Ellis 1869:15). In iconic phonetic notation, the shapes of the phonetic characters visually represent the position of articulators in the vocal tract. This notation is potentially more flexible than IPA in showing more shades of pronuciation (MacMahon 1996:838-841). Another type of phonetic notation that is more flexible than IPA is analphabetic phonetic notation. Instead of IPA's general principle of one symbol per sound, analphabetic notation uses long sequences of symbols to precisely describe the component features of an articulatory gesture (MacMahon 1996:842-844). Two examples of this type were developed by the Danish Otto Jespersen (1889) and American Kenneth Pike (1943). See also
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