The International Phonetic Alphabet
History
Nonstandard symbols
Extended IPA
Naming conventions
IPA for English

This concise chart shows the most common applications of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) to represent English language pronunciations.

See Pronunciation respelling for English for phonetic transcriptions used in different dictionaries.

• RP = Received Pronunciation (UK)
• GA = General American
• AuE = Australian English
• NZE = New Zealand English
• ScE = Scottish English
• SAE = South African English

Note: An image of the chart is also available.

IPA Examples IPA: English Consonants p pen, spin, tip b but, web t two, sting, bet d do, odd tʃ chair, nature, teach dÊ’ gin, joy, edge k cat, kill, skin, queen, unique, thick É¡ go, get, beg f fool, enough, leaf, off v voice, have, of θ thing, teeth ð this, breathe, father s see, city, pass z zoo, rose ʃ she, sure, emotion, leash Ê’ pleasure, beige x Scottish lochMarginal elsewhere. h ham m man, ham n no, tin Å‹ ringer, sing,In some dialects[specify] "ringer", "sing" etc are pronounced with an additional /É¡/, like "finger": /ˈɹɪŋɡə/ rather than /ˈɹɪŋə/ finger, drink l left, bell ɹ run, veryThe tap [ɾ] is found in some varieties of Scottish. w we j yes Ê� whatSome dialects, such as Scottish and much of the American South; see whine and wine and voiceless labiovelar approximant   IPA: Marginal Sounds Ê” uh-(Ê”)oh

IPA Examples RPRoach & 2004 (241-243) GA AuE NZE ScE SAE IPA: English Vowels É‘Ë� É‘ aË� É�Ë� a father ɪ ɪ ɪ ɘ ɪ sit i ɪi i i i city ɪi iË� iË� see É› É› e e É› bedOften transcribed /e/ for RP, for example in Collins English Dictionary. ÉœË�(ɹ) É�/ɹ̩ ÉœË�(ɹ) ɵË�(ɹ) ʌɾ, ɛɾ, ɪɾSee Fern-fir-fur merger for this distinction. burr, berm, bird æ æ æ, æË�See bad-lad split for this distinction. É› a lad, bad, catOften transcribed /a/ for RP, for example in dictionaries of the Oxford University Press. É‘Ë�(ɹ) ɑɹ aË�(ɹ) É�Ë�(ɹ) aɾ arm, car ÊŒ ÊŒ a É� ÊŒ run, enough É’ É‘ É” É’ É” not, wasp É”Ë� É” oË� oË� law, caughtSee low back merger for more discussion of this vowel in American English. ÊŠ ÊŠ ÊŠ ÊŠ ʉ put, wood ÊŠu ÊŠu ʉË� ʉË� soon, through É™ É™ É™ ɘ É™ about É™(ɹ) Éš/ɹ̩ É™(ɹ) ɘ(ɹ) əɾ winnerSometimes transcribed for GA as [əɹ], especially in transcriptions that represent both rhotic and non-rhotic pronunciations, as [É™(ɹ)].   an="7"> IPA: English Diphthongs eɪ eɪ æɪ æe e day, pain aɪ aɪ É‘e É‘e aɪ my, wise ɔɪ ɔɪ oɪ oe  ? boy əʊ oÊŠ əʉ É�ʉ o no, tow aÊŠ aÊŠ æɔ æo aÊŠ now ɪə(ɹ) ɪɹ ɪə(ɹ) iÉ™(ɹ) iɾ near, here eÉ™(ɹ) ɛɹ eË�(ɹ) eÉ™(ɹ) eɾ hair, thereAlternative symbols used in British dictionaries are /É›Ë�/ (Oxford University Press) and /ɛə/. ÊŠÉ™(ɹ) ɔɹ oË�(ɹ) oË�(ɹ) oɾ tore ʊɹ, ɔɹ ÊŠÉ™(ɹ), ʉË�É™(ɹ) ÊŠÉ™(ɹ), ʉË�É™(ɹ) uɾ tour

Notes

See also

• "Vowel wheel" - a subjective schematic of English vowel sounds as pronounced in a General American accent.
• NATO phonetic alphabet - also known as the international radiotelephony spelling alphabet or military alphabet. The NATO phonetic alphabet is often confused with the IPA because of the occurrence of "phonetic" in its name. However, the NATO alphabet is a cipher of the Latin alphabet, while the IPA strives for one-to-one representation of the sounds of all spoken languages.
• Phonetic alphabets (military)
• Pronunciation respelling for English
• SAMPA chart for English
• English phonology

References

• Gimson, A. C. (1980). An Introduction to the Pronunciation of English, 3rd edn., London: Edward Arnold. ISBN 0-7131-6287-2. 
• Kenyon, John Samuel (1950). American Pronunciation, 10th edn., Ann Arbor: George Wahr. 
• Kenyon, John S.; Thomas A. Knott (1944/1953). A Pronouncing Dictionary of American English. Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster. ISBN 0-87779-047-7. 
• Roach, Peter (2004), "British English: Received Pronunciation", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (2): 239-245
• Wells, J. C. (2000). Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, 2nd edn., Harlow, Essex: Pearson Education Limited. ISBN 0-582-36468-X. 

External links

• Learning the IPA for English, (Standard American English)
• Online keyboard with MP3 sound files for IPA symbols
• IPA chart with AIFF sound files for IPA symbols
• IPA chart with MP3 sound files for all IPA symbols on the chart (limited version is available to anyone)
• The International Phonetic Alphabet (revised to 2005) Symbols for all languages are shown on this one-page chart.
• lexconvert a GPL command-line program to convert between Unicode IPA and the ASCII notations of various English speech synthesizers
• LONGMAN Dictionary of Contemporary English ONLINE uses IPA.
• Online IPA editor for English
• Online/Offline IPA editor for English
• IPA transcription systems for English — discussion by John C. Wells of RP transcriptions

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia