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Help:IPA

For help installing IPA-compatible fonts, see Help:Special characters § IPA symbols.
For a basic introduction to using IPA written for English readers, see Help:IPA/Introduction.
"WP:IPA" redirects here. For India-Pakistan affairs, see WP:ARBIPA.

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The latest official IPA chart, revised in 2020

Here is a basic key to the symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet. For the smaller set of symbols that is sufficient for English, see Help:IPA/English. Several rare IPA symbols are not included; these are found in the main IPA article or on the extensive IPA chart. For the Manual of Style guideline for pronunciation, see Wik.ipedia.Pro:Manual of Style/Pronunciation.

For each IPA symbol, an English example is given where possible; here "RP" stands for Received Pronunciation. The foreign languages that are used to illustrate additional sounds are primarily the ones most likely to be familiar to English speakers: French, Standard German and Spanish. For symbols not covered by those, recourse is taken to the populous languages Standard Chinese, Hindustani, Arabic and Russian. For sounds still not covered, other well-analyzed languages are used, such as Swahili, Zulu and Turkish.

The left-hand column displays the individual symbols in square brackets ([a] ⓘ). Click on "listen" to hear the sound; click on the symbol itself for a dedicated article with a more complete description and examples from multiple languages. Consonant sounds are spoken once followed by a vowel and once between vowels.

If the characters do not display, you may need to install a supporting font. Free fonts with good IPA support include Gentium Plus (serif) and Andika (sans-serif).

Main symbols

The symbols are arranged by similarity to letters of the Latin alphabet. Symbols which do not resemble any Latin letter are placed at the end, the others section.

Symbol Examples Description
A
[a] ⓘ Modern RP cat, German Mann, French gare The RP vowel is often transcribed with ⟨æ⟩ for historical reasons. For many English speakers, the first part of the ow sound in cow.
[ä] ⓘ Mandarin 他 tā, American English father, Spanish casa, French patte
[ɐ] ⓘ RP cut, German Kaiserslautern (In transcriptions of English, [ɐ] is usually written ⟨ʌ⟩.)
[ɑ] ⓘ RP father, French pâte, Dutch bad
[ɑ̃] ⓘ French Caen, sans, temps Nasalized [ɑ].
[ɒ] ⓘ Canadian English lot, Persian ف‍‍ارسی / fârsi Like [ɑ], but with the lips slightly rounded.
[ʌ] ⓘ American English cut Like [ɔ], but without the lips being rounded. (When ⟨ʌ⟩ is used for English, it may really be [ɐ] or [ɜ].)
[æ] ⓘ GA cat
B
[b] ⓘ English babble
[ɓ] ⓘ Swahili bwana Like a [b] said with a gulp. See implosive consonants.
[β] ⓘ Spanish la Bamba, Kinyarwanda abana "children", Korean 무궁화 [muɡuŋβwa̠] mugunghwa Like [b], but with the lips not quite closed.
[ʙ] ⓘ Nias simbi [siʙi] "lower jaw" Sputtering.
C
[c] ⓘ Turkish kebap "kebab", Czech stín "shadow", Greek και "and" Between English tune (RP) and cute. Sometimes used instead for [tʃ] in languages like Hindi.
[ç] ⓘ German Ich More of a [j]-coloration (more palatal) than [x]. Some English speakers have a similar sound in huge. This sound can be produced by whispering loudly the word "ye" as in "Hear ye!".
[ɕ] ⓘ Mandarin 西安 Xi'an, Polish ściana More [j]-like than [ʃ]; something like English she.
[ɔ] ⓘ see under O
D
[d] ⓘ English dad
[ɗ] ⓘ Swahili Dodoma Like [d] said with a gulp.
[ɖ] ⓘ American English harder Like [d] with the tongue curled or pulled back.
[ð] ⓘ English the, bathe
[dz] ⓘ English adds, Italian zero
[dʒ] ⓘ English judge
[dʑ] ⓘ Polish niedźwiedź "bear" Like [dʒ], but with more of a [j]-sound.
[dʐ] ⓘ Polish dżem "jam" Like [dʒ] with the tongue curled or pulled back.
E
[e] ⓘ Scottish English day, Australian English bet, Spanish fe; French clé, German Klee Similar to American English hey, before the y sets in.
[ɘ] ⓘ Australian English bird
[ə] ⓘ English above, Hindi अब [əb] (ab) "now"
[ɚ] ⓘ American English runner
[ɛ] ⓘ British, Irish, North American English bet, New Zealand English bat
[ɛ̃] ⓘ French Saint-Étienne, vin, main Nasalized [ɛ].
[ɜ] ⓘ RP bird (long)
[ɝ] ⓘ American English bird
F
[f] ⓘ English fun
[ɟ] ⓘ see under J
[ʄ] ⓘ see under J
G
[ɡ] ⓘ English gag (Should look like . Not different from a Latin "g")
[ɠ] ⓘ Swahili Uganda Like [ɡ] said with a gulp.
[ɢ] ⓘ Like [ɡ], but further back, in the throat. Found in Persian and some Arabic dialects for /q/, as in Muammar Gaddafi.
[ʒ] ⓘ see under Z English beige.
H
[h] ⓘ American English house
[ɦ] ⓘ English ahead, when said quickly.
[ʰ] The extra puff of air in English top [tʰɒp] compared to stop [stɒp], or to French or Spanish [t].
[ħ] ⓘ Arabic ‏مُحَمَّد‎ Muḥammad Far down in the throat, like [h], but stronger.
[ʜ] Iraqi Arabic حَي [ʜaj] "alive" Corresponds to /ħ/ (ح) in Standard Arabic.
[ɥ] ⓘ see under Y
[ɮ] ⓘ see under L
I
[i] ⓘ English sea, French ville, Spanish Valladolid
[ɪ] ⓘ British, Irish, North American English sit, New Zealand English set
[ɨ] ⓘ Russian ты "you" Often used for unstressed English roses.
J
[j] ⓘ English yes, hallelujah, German Junge
[ʲ] In Russian Ленин [ˈlʲenʲɪn] Indicates a sound is more [j]-like.
[ʝ] ⓘ Spanish cayo (some dialects) Like [j], but stronger.
[ɟ] ⓘ Turkish gör "see", Czech díra "hole" Between English dew (RP) and argue. Sometimes used instead for [dʒ] in languages like Hindi.
[ʄ] ⓘ Swahili jambo Like [ɟ] said with a gulp.
K
[k] ⓘ English kick, skip
L
[l] ⓘ English leaf
[ɫ] ⓘ English wool
Russian малый [ˈmɑɫɨj] "small" 		"Dark" el.
[ɬ] ⓘ Welsh llwyd [ɬʊɪd] "grey"
Zulu hlala [ɬaːla] "sit" 		By touching the roof of mouth with the tongue and giving a quick breath out. Found in Welsh placenames like Llangollen and Llanelli and Nelson Mandela's Xhosa name Rolihlahla.
[ɭ] ⓘ Like [l] with the tongue curled or pulled back.
[ɺ] ⓘ A flapped [l], like [l] and [ɾ] said together.
[ɮ] ⓘ Zulu dla "eat" Rather like [l] and [ʒ], or [l] and [ð], said together.
[ʟ] ⓘ
M
[m] ⓘ English mime
[ɱ] ⓘ English symphony Like [m], but the lips touch the teeth as they do in [f].
[ɯ] ⓘ see under W
[ʍ] ⓘ see under W
N
[n] ⓘ English nun
[ŋ] ⓘ English sing, Māori nga
[ɲ] ⓘ Spanish Peña, French champagne Rather like English canyon (/nj/ said quickly).
[ɳ] ⓘ Hindi वरुण [ʋəruɳ] Varuna Like [n] with the tongue curled or pulled back.
[ɴ] ⓘ Castilian Spanish Don Juan [doɴˈχwan] Like [ŋ], but further back, in the throat.
O
[o] ⓘ Modern RP, Australian and New Zealand English caught (long)
Spanish no, French eau, German Boden 		Somewhat reminiscent of American English no. The RP vowel is usually transcribed with ⟨ɔː⟩ for historical reasons.
[ɔ] ⓘ Modern RP, Australian and New Zealand English cot
German Oldenburg, French Garonne 		The RP vowel is usually transcribed with ⟨ɒ⟩ for historical reasons.
[ɔ̃] ⓘ French Lyon, son Nasalized [ɔ].
[ø] ⓘ New Zealand English nurse, French feu, bœufs, German Goethe Like [e], but with the lips rounded like [o].
[ɵ] ⓘ Modern RP foot, Dutch hut, French je, Swedish dum Halfway between [o] and [ø]. Similar to [ʊ] but with the tongue slightly more down and front. The RP vowel is typically transcribed with ⟨ʊ⟩, the Dutch vowel is often transcribed with ⟨ʏ⟩ or ⟨œ⟩, whereas the French vowel is typically transcribed with ⟨ə⟩.
[œ] ⓘ French bœuf, seul, German Göttingen Like [ɛ], but with the lips rounded like [ɔ].
[œ̃] ⓘ French brun, parfum Nasalized [œ].
[ɶ] ⓘ
[θ] ⓘ see under Others
[ɸ] ⓘ see under Others
P
[p] ⓘ English pip
Q
[q] ⓘ Arabic ‏قُرْآن‎ Qur’ān Like [k], but further back, in the throat.
R
[r] ⓘ Spanish perro, Scottish English borrow "Rolled R". (Often used for other rhotics, such as English [ɹ], when there's no ambiguity.)
[ɾ] ⓘ Spanish pero, Tagalog daliri, Malay kabar, American English kitty/kiddie "Tapped" R".
[ʀ] ⓘ Dutch rood and German rot (some speakers) A trill in the back of the throat. Found for /r/ in some conservative registers of French.
[ɽ] ⓘ Urdu ساڑی [saːɽiː] "saree" Like flapped [ɾ], but with the tongue curled back.
[ɹ] ⓘ most accents of English borrow
[ɻ] ⓘ Tamil புழு Puḻu "Worm", Mandarin 人民日报 Rénmín Rìbào "People's Daily", American English borrow, butter Like [ɹ], but with the tongue curled or pulled back, as pronounced by many English speakers.
[ʁ] ⓘ French Paris, German Riemann (some dialects) Said back in the throat, but not trilled.
S
[s] ⓘ English sass
[ʃ] ⓘ English shoe
[ʂ] ⓘ Mandarin 少林 (Shàolín), Russian Пушкин (Pushkin) Acoustically similar to [ʃ], but with the tongue curled or pulled back.
T
[t] ⓘ English tot, stop
[ʈ] ⓘ Hindi टमाटर [ʈəmaːʈəɾ] (ṭamāṭar) "tomato" Like [t], but with the tongue curled or pulled back.
[ts] ⓘ English cats, Russian царь tsar
[tʃ] ⓘ English church
[tɕ] ⓘ Mandarin 北京 Běijīng (listenⓘ), Polish ciebie "you" Like [tʃ], but with more of a [j]-sound.
[tʂ] ⓘ Mandarin 真正 zhēnzhèng, Polish czas Like [tʃ] with the tongue curled or pulled back.
U
[u] ⓘ American English food, French vous "you", German Schumacher
[ʊ] ⓘ American English foot, German Bundesrepublik
[ʉ] ⓘ Modern RP, Australian English food (long) Like [ɨ], but with the lips rounded as for [u].
[ɥ] ⓘ see under Y
[ɯ] ⓘ see under W
V
[v] ⓘ English verve
[ʋ] ⓘ Hindi वरुण [ʋəɾʊɳə] "Varuna" Between [v] and [w]. Used by some Germans and Russians for v/w, and by some speakers of British English for r.
[ɤ] ⓘ see under Y
[ɣ] ⓘ see under Y
[ʌ] ⓘ see under A
W
[w] ⓘ English wow
[ʷ] Indicates a sound has lip rounding, as in English rain
[ʍ] ⓘ what (some dialects) like [h] and [w] said together
[ɯ] ⓘ Turkish kayık "caïque", Scottish Gaelic gaol Like [u], but with the lips flat; something like [ʊ].
[ɰ] ⓘ Spanish agua Like [w], but with the lips flat.
X
[x] ⓘ Scottish English loch, German Bach, Russian хлеб [xlʲep] "bread", Spanish joven between [k] and [h]
[χ] ⓘ northern Standard Dutch Scheveningen, Castilian Spanish Don Juan [doɴˈχwan] Like [x], but further back, in the throat. Some German and Arabic speakers have [χ] for [x].
Y
[y] ⓘ French rue, German Bülow Like [i], but with the lips rounded as for [u].
[ʏ] ⓘ Scottish English foot, German Düsseldorf Like [ɪ], but with the lips rounded as for [ʊ].
[ɣ] ⓘ Arabic ‏غَالِي‎ ghālī and Swahili ghali "expensive", Spanish suegro Sounds rather like French [ʁ] or between [ɡ] and [h].
[ɤ] ⓘ Mandarin 河南 Hénán, Scottish Gaelic taigh Like [o] but without the lips rounded, something like a cross of [ʊ] and [ʌ].
[ʎ] ⓘ Italian tagliatelle, Portuguese mulher Like [l], but more [j]-like. Rather like English volume.
[ɥ] ⓘ French lui Like [j] and [w] said together.
Z
[z] ⓘ English zoo
[ʒ] ⓘ English vision, French journal
[ʑ] ⓘ old-styled Russian позже [ˈpoʑːe] "later", Polish źle More [j]-like than [ʒ], something like beigey.
[ʐ] ⓘ Russian жир "fat" Like [ʒ] with the tongue curled or pulled back.
[ɮ] ⓘ see under L
Others
[θ] ⓘ English thigh, bath
[ɸ] ⓘ Japanese 富士 [ɸɯdʑi] Fuji, Māori [ˌɸaːɾeːˈnuiː] wharenui Like [p], but with the lips not quite touching
[ʔ] ⓘ English uh-oh, Hawai‘i, German die Angst The 'glottal stop', a catch in the breath. For some people, found in button [ˈbʌʔn̩], or between vowels across words: Deus ex machina [ˌdeɪəsˌʔɛksˈmɑːkɪnə]; in some nonstandard dialects, in a apple [əˈʔæpl̩].
[ʕ] ⓘ Arabic ‏عَرَبِيّ‎ ʻarabī / ʕarabī "Arabic" A light, voiced sound deep in the throat, articulated with the root of the tongue against the pharynx (back of the throat).
[ǀ] ⓘ English tsk-tsk! or tut-tut!, Zulu icici "earring" (The English click used for disapproval.) Several distinct sounds, written as digraphs, including [kǀ], [ɡǀ], [ŋǀ]. The Zimbabwean MP Ncube has this click in his name, as did Cetshwayo.
[ǁ] ⓘ English tchick! tchick!, Zulu ixoxo "frog" (The English click used to urge on a horse.) Several distinct sounds, written as digraphs, including [kǁ], [ɡǁ], [ŋǁ]. Found in the name of the Xhosa.
[ǃ] ⓘ Zulu iqaqa "polecat" (The English click used to imitate the trotting of a horse.) A hollow popping sound, like a cork pulled from a bottle. Several distinct sounds, written as digraphs, including [kǃ], [ɡǃ], [ŋǃ].
[ʘ] ⓘ ǂ’Amkoe ʘoa "two" Like a kissing sound.
[ǂ] ⓘ Khoekhoe ǂgā-amǃnâ [ǂàʔám̀ᵑǃã̀] "to put in the mouth" Like an imitation of a chewing sound.

Marks added to letters

Several marks can be added above, below, before or after letters. These are here shown on a carrier letter such as the vowel a. A more complete list is given at International Phonetic Alphabet § Diacritics and prosodic notation.

Symbol Example Description
Signs above a letter
[ã] French vin blanc [vɛ̃ blɑ̃] "white wine" A nasal vowel, as with a Texas twang
[ä] Portuguese vá [vä] "go" A central vowel pronounced with the tongue position in the middle of the mouth; neither forward nor back
[ă] English police [pə̆ˈliˑs] An extra-short speech sound (usually a vowel)
Signs below a letter
[a̯] English cow [kʰaʊ̯], koi [kʰɔɪ̯] This vowel does not form a syllable of its own, but runs into the vowel next to it. (In English, the diacritic is generally left off: [kaʊ].)
[n̥] English boy [b̥ɔɪ̯], doe [d̥oʊ̯]

(see also)

Sounds like a loud whisper; [n̥] is like a whispered breath through the nose. [l̥] is found in Tibetan Lhasa.
[n̩] English button A consonant without a vowel (English [n̩] is often transcribed /ən/.)
[d̪] Spanish dos, French deux The tongue touches the teeth more than it does in English.
Signs next to a letter
[kʰ] English come Aspirated consonant, pronounced with a puff of air. Similarly [tʰ pʰ tsʰ tʃʰ tɕʰ].
[k’] Zulu ukuza "come" Ejective. Like a popped [k], pushed from the throat. Similarly [tʼ pʼ qʼ tʃʼ tsʼ tɬʼ].
[aː] English shh! [ʃː] Long. Often used with English vowels or diphthongs: Mayo /ˈmeːoː/ for [ˈmeɪ̯ɜʊ̯], etc.
[aˑ] RP caught [ˈkʰoˑt] Semi-long. (Although the vowel is different, this is also longer than cot [ˈkʰɔt].)
[ˈa] pronunciation
[pɹ̥əʊ̯ˌnɐnsiˈeɪʃn̩] 		Main stress. The mark denotes the stress of the following syllable.
[ˌa] Weaker stress. The mark denotes the stress of the following syllable.
[.] English courtship [ˈkʰɔrt.ʃɪp] Syllable break (this is often redundant and therefore left off)

Brackets

Two types of brackets are commonly used to enclose transcriptions in the IPA:

  • /Slashes/ indicate sounds that are distinguished as the basic units of words in a language by native speakers; these are called phonemes. Changing the symbols between these slashes would either change the identity of the word or produce nonsense. For example, since there is no meaningful difference to a native speaker between the two sounds written with the letter L in the word lulls, they are considered the same phoneme, and so, using slashes, they are given the same symbol in IPA: /ˈlʌlz/. Similarly, Spanish la bamba is transcribed phonemically with two instances of the same b sound, /la ˈbamba/, despite the fact that they sound different to a speaker of English. Thus a reader who is not familiar with the language in question might not know how to interpret these transcriptions more narrowly.
  • [Square brackets] indicate the narrower or more detailed phonetic qualities of a pronunciation, not taking into account the norms of the language to which it belongs; therefore, such transcriptions do not regard whether subtly different sounds in the pronunciation are actually noticeable or distinguishable to a native speaker of the language. Within square brackets is what a foreigner who does not know the structure of a language might hear as discrete units of sound. For instance, the English word lulls may be pronounced in a particular dialect more specifically as [ˈlɐɫz], with different L sounds at the beginning and end. This may be obvious to speakers of languages that differentiate between the sounds [l] and [ɫ]. Likewise, Spanish la bamba (pronounced without a pause) has two different B sounds to the ears of foreigners or linguists—[la ˈβamba]—though a native Spanish speaker might not be able to hear it. Omitting or adding such detail does not make a difference to the identity of the word, but helps to give a more precise pronunciation.
  • ⫽Double slashes⫽ indicate diaphonemes. For example, some speakers pronounce dune as /djuːn/ with a distinct /j/, others /duːn/ as if spelled doon, and even others /dʒuːn/ like June. This is predictable where the historical pronunciation is /dj/ preceded by /uː/—the second group of speakers invariably drop the /j/, and the third group invariably turn it into /dʒ/—and it can be cumbersome to write down all three possibilities every time such a sequence is found. So the diaphonemic notation ⫽dj⫽ serves as a shorthand for "/dj/ for traditional speakers, /d/ for those who drop /j/ between historical /d/ and /uː/, and /dʒ/ for those who turn it into /dʒ/ in such a context".

A fourth kind of bracket is occasionally seen:

  • |Pipes| (or occasionally other conventions) show that the enclosed sounds are theoretical constructs that are not actually heard. (This is part of morphophonology.) For instance, most phonologists argue that the -s at the ends of verbs, which surfaces as either /s/ in talks /tɔːks/ or as /z/ in lulls /lʌlz/, has a single underlying form. If they decide this form is an s, they would write it |s| to claim that phonemic /tɔːks/ and /lʌlz/ are essentially |tɔːks| and |lʌls| underneath. If they were to decide it was essentially the latter, |z|, they would transcribe these words |tɔːkz| and |lʌlz|.

Lastly,

  • ⟨Angle brackets⟩ are used to set off orthography, as well as transliteration from non-Latin scripts. Thus ⟨lulls⟩, ⟨la bamba⟩, the letter ⟨a⟩. Angle brackets are not supported by all fonts, so a template {{angle bracket}} (shortcut {{angbr}}) is used to ensure maximal compatibility. (Comment there if you are having problems.)

Rendering issues

IPA typeface support is increasing, and is now included in several typefaces such as the Times New Roman versions that come with various recent computer operating systems. Diacritics are not always properly rendered, however. IPA typefaces that are freely available online include Gentium, several from the SIL (such as Charis SIL, and Doulos SIL), Dehuti, DejaVu Sans, and TITUS Cyberbit, which are all freely available; as well as commercial typefaces such as Brill, available from Brill Publishers, and Lucida Sans Unicode and Arial Unicode MS, shipping with various Microsoft products. These all include several ranges of characters in addition to the IPA. Modern Web browsers generally do not need any configuration to display these symbols, provided that a typeface capable of doing so is available to the operating system.

Particularly, the following symbols may be shown improperly depending on your font:

Symbol IPA/Unicode values Correct Incorrect Affected fonts Test Notes
ɧ Sj-sound
U+0267 ɧ LATIN SMALL LETTER HENG WITH HOOK 		Helvetica on Apple devices
Test
ɪ Near-close near-front unrounded vowel
U+026A ɪ LATIN LETTER SMALL CAPITAL I 		Some sans-serif fonts
Test
 Largely fixed since explicitly proscribed in Unicode 10.0 (2017).
ɶ Open front rounded vowel
U+0276 ɶ LATIN LETTER SMALL CAPITAL OE 		œ Helvetica on Apple devices
Test
 [1]
ʁ Voiced uvular fricative
U+0281 ʁ LATIN LETTER SMALL CAPITAL INVERTED R 		ᴚ San Francisco
Test
χ Voiceless uvular fricative
U+03C7 χ GREEK SMALL LETTER CHI 		x Roboto
Test
 Fixed in 2017.
Trebuchet MS
ˈ Primary stress
U+02C8 ˈ MODIFIER LETTER VERTICAL LINE
ˈ◌
 ◌̍ Tahoma
Test
 The length marks denote elongation of the previous segment. The placeholder here just stands for a following character.
ˌ Secondary stress
U+02CC ˌ MODIFIER LETTER LOW VERTICAL LINE
ˌ◌
 ◌̩
ː Long
U+02D0 ː MODIFIER LETTER TRIANGULAR COLON
ː◌
ː overlaid◌
ˑ Half-long
U+02D1 ˑ MODIFIER LETTER HALF TRIANGULAR COLON
ˑ◌
ˑ overlaid◌

Registered users can specify their own font for IPA text by editing their user stylesheet. They can also edit their global stylesheet, which works across all Wikimedia projects. For instance, the following code would cause IPA to be displayed in the font Charis SIL: 

.IPA {
	font-family: "Charis SIL";
}

Computer input using on-screen keyboard

Online IPA keyboard utilities are available and they cover a range of IPA symbols and diacritics:

For iOS there are free IPA keyboard layouts, e.g. IPA Phonetic Keyboard.

See also

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