IPA numbers are a legacy system of coding the symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet. They were the organizational basis for XSAMPA and the IPA Extensions block of Unicode.
Following the Kiel Convention in 1989, most letters, diacritics and other symbols of the IPA were assigned a 3-digit numerical code, with updates through 2005. The purpose was to identify IPA symbols explicitly in an era of competing computer encodings, and thus to prevent confusion between similar characters (such as ⟨ɵ⟩ and ⟨θ⟩, ⟨ɤ⟩ and ⟨ɣ⟩, ⟨ʃ ⟩ and ⟨ʄ ⟩, ⟨ɫ⟩ and ⟨ɬ⟩ or ⟨ǁ⟩ and ⟨‖⟩) in such situations as the printing of manuscripts. The system never saw much if any use and is now defunct, having been superseded by Unicode. [1]
The semantic and graphic categories of the symbols are assigned different ranges of numbers: The 100 series are IPA consonants, the 200s retired and non-IPA consonants, the 300s vowels, the 400s diacritics, the 500s suprasegmentals, the 600s extIPA, the 700s capital letters and the 900s delimiters. [1] Some symbols have more than one code. [2]
Current IPA consonants, and those retired after the Kiel convention, are assigned numbers in the 100 range. The tie-bars used to create affricate consonants are assigned numbers in the 400 and 500 ranges.
Bilabial | Labiodental | Alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Pharyngeal | Glottal | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Plosive | p b 101 102 | t d 103 104 | ʈ ɖ 105 106 | c ɟ 107 108 | k ɡ g 109 110 210 | q ɢ 111 112 | ʡ 173 | ʔ 113 | |||
Nasal | m 114 | ɱ 115 | n 116 | ɳ 117 | ɲ 118 | ŋ 119 | ɴ 120 | ||||
Trill | ʙ 121 | r 122 | ʀ 123 | ʜ ʢ 172 174 | |||||||
Tap or Flap | ⱱ 184 | ɾ 124 | ɽ 125 | ||||||||
Fricative | ɸ β 126 127 | f v 128 129 | θ ð 130 131 | s z 132 133 | ʃ ʒ 134 135 | ʂ ʐ 136 137 | ç ʝ 138 139 | x ɣ 140 141 | χ ʁ 142 143 | ħ ʕ 144 145 | h ɦ 146 147 |
Lateral fricative | ɬ ɮ 148 149 | ||||||||||
Approximant | ʋ 150 | ɹ 151 | ɻ 152 | j 153 | ɰ 154 | ||||||
Lateral approximant | l 155 | ɭ 156 | ʎ 157 | ʟ 158 |
Implosives | Clicks |
---|---|
ƥ ɓ 159 160 | ʘ 176 |
ƭ ɗ 161 162 | ǀ 177 |
ƈ ʄ 163 164 | ǃ 178 |
ƙ ɠ 165 166 | ǂ 179 |
ʠ ʛ 167 168 | ǁ 180 |
Other symbols | |
ʍ w 169 170 | ɧ 175 |
ɥ 171 | ɺ 181 |
ɕ ʑ 182 183 | ◌͡◌ ◌͜◌ 433 509 |
The 200 range is mostly retired IPA consonants, though it includes several letters of the Americanist Phonetic Alphabet that are sometimes used alongside the IPA. A few superscript IPA letters, including a single vowel, have also been assigned numbers in this range. Symbols official until retirement by Kiel in 1989 are numbered upwards from 201; those already retired, or not IPA at all, are numbered downwards from 299.
In addition, there is the pre-composed character ⟨ɫ⟩, the loop-tail ⟨g⟩ (see the main consonant chart above), and the implicit IPA letter ⟨ᶑ ⟩.
Old click letters | ʇ 201 | ʗ 202 | ʖ 203 | ʞ 291 | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Superscript letters | ˢ 207 | ᶿ 217 | ᵊ 218 | ˣ 292 | ||
Misc. | ɼ 206 | ƞ 293 | ɫ 209 | ᶑ 219 | ƻ 290 | ƾ NA |
Palatalized letters | ʆ 204 | ʓ 205 | ƫ 208 | ᶁ NA | ᶅ NA | ᶇ NA |
Ligature affricates | ʦ 211 | ʣ 212 | ʧ 213 | ʤ 214 | ʨ 215 | ʥ 216 |
NAPA letters | ƛ 294 | λ 295 | ž 296 | š 297 | ǰ 298 | č 299 |
Vowel letters that were official after Kiel were numbered upward from 301. ⟨ı⟩, which was once needed to create ⟨i⟩ with a diacritic, two letters retired at Kiel, ⟨ɩ ɷ⟩, and the three non-rhotic vowels added in the 1993 and 1996 updates to the IPA, ⟨ɘ ɞ ʚ⟩, were numbered downward from 399. Pre-composed ⟨ɚ⟩, present at Kiel, was assigned a number, but later ⟨a˞⟩ and ⟨ɝ⟩ were not.
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
Close | i ı y 301 394 309 | ɨ ʉ 317 318 | ɯ u 316 308 |
Near-close | ɪ ɩ ʏ 319 399 320 | ʊ ɷ 321 398 | |
Mid-close | e ø 302 310 | ɘ ɵ 397 323 | ɤ o 315 307 |
Mid | ə ɚ 322 327 | ||
Mid-open | ɛ œ 303 311 | ɜ ɝ ɞ ʚ 326 NA 395 396 | ʌ ɔ 314 306 |
Near-open | æ 325 | ɐ 324 | |
Open | a ɶ 304 312 | ɑ ɒ 305 313 |
◌ʼ 401 | ◌̥ 402A | ◌̊ 402B | ◌̬ 403 |
◌ʰ 404 | ◌ʱ NA | ◌̤ 405 | ◌̰ 406 |
◌̼ 407 | ◌̪ 408 | ◌̺ 409 | ◌̻ 410 |
◌̹ 411 | ◌̜ 412 | ◌̟ 413 | ◌̠ 414 |
◌̈ 415 | ◌̽ 416 | ◌̘ 417 | ◌̙ 418 |
◌˞ 419 | ◌ʷ 420 | ◌ʲ 421 | ◌ᶣ NA |
◌ˠ 422 | ◌ˤ 423 | ◌̃ 424 | ◌ⁿ 425 |
◌ˡ 426 | ◌̚ 427 | ◌̴ 428 | ɫ 209 |
◌̝ 429 | ◌̞ 430 | ◌̩ 431 | ◌̯ 432 |
Retired and non-IPA | |||
---|---|---|---|
, 491 | ◌ʻ 492 | ◌̇ 493 | ◌˹ 490 |
◌˗ 494 | ◌˖ 495 | ◌ʸ 496 | ◌ʴ NA |
◌̢ 489 | ◌̣ 497 | ◌̡ 498 | ◌̫ 499 |
Indicators of tone, stress, intonation and other elements of prosody. Combinations of tone diacritics or letters that were illustrated on the IPA Chart in 1999 are assigned individual numbers, leaving 3 tone diacritics and many, many compound tone letters without assigned numbers.
ˈ◌ 501 | ˌ◌ 502 | ◌.◌ 506 | ◌‿◌ 509 |
◌ː 503 | ◌ˑ 504 | ◌̆ 505 | ◌̑ 595 |
---|---|---|---|
| 507 | ‖ 508 | ↗ 510 | ↘ 511 |
Level | Contour | ||
---|---|---|---|
◌̋ 512 | ˥ 519 | ◌̌ 524 | ˩˥ 529 |
◌́ 513 | ˦ 520 | ◌̂ 525 | ˥˩ 530 |
◌̄ 514 | ˧ 521 | ◌᷄ 526 | ˧˥ 531 |
◌̀ 515 | ˨ 522 | ◌᷅ 527 | ˩˧ 532 |
◌̏ 516 | ˩ 523 | ◌᷈ 528 | ˨˦˨ 533 |
◌᷇ NA | ˥˧ NA | ||
ꜜ 517 | ◌᷆ NA | ˧˩ NA | |
ꜛ 518 | ◌᷉ NA | ˦˨˦ NA | |
Retired and non-IPA | |||
ˇ◌ 596 | ˆ◌ 597 | ◌̖ 598 | ◌̗ 599 |
The symbols of the Extensions to the IPA were numbered sequentially to 683. Several are redundant with other ranges. (The capital Latin letters are not shown here; see the 700 range.) A few letters that were apparently added to extIPA after 1999, such as ⟨ʬ⟩, were not given numbers either, though they predate ⟨ⱱ⟩, which was added to the regular IPA in 2005 and did receive a number. The symbols added in the 2015 expansion of extIPA were apparently never assigned numbers either.
Letters | ʭ 601 | ʩ 602 | ʪ 603 | ʫ 604 | ʬ NA | ¡ NA |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
◯ 611 | * 612 | Œ 627 | Θ 628 | И NA | ꟿ NA | |
Connected speech | (.) 631 | (‥) 632 | (…) 633 | 1 640 | 2 641 | 3 643 |
f 634 | ff 635 | p 636 | pp 637 | allegro 638 | lento 639 | |
Inline symbols | \ 659 | ↓ 661 | ↑ 662 | ◌‼ 672 | ◌! 679 |
Number 611 is the 'balloon' used to encircle unidentified segments.
Misc. diacritics | ◌͆ 651 | ◌͍ 652 | ◌̪͆ 653 | ◌͊ 654 | ◌͋ 655 | ◌͌ 656 | ◌͈ 657 | ◌͉ 658 | ◌͎ 660 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
◌ᶹ 673 | ◌͢◌ 674 | ◌͇ 675 | ◌ʶ 676 | ◌ꟸ 677 | ◌ꟹ 678 | ◌˭ 680 | ◌͔ 681 | ◌͕ 682 | |
Voicing diacritics | ◌̬᪽ 665 | ◌̬᫃ 666 | ◌̬᫄ 667 | ◌̥᪽ 668 | ◌̥᫃ 669 | ◌̥᫄ 670 | |||
ˬ◌ 663 = 403 | ◌ˬ 664 = 403 | ◌˷ 683 = 406 | ʰ◌ 671 = 404 |
The capitals of the basic Latin alphabet, A–Z, are assigned the numbers 701 to 726 in order.
C 703, F 706, J 710, L 712, V 722 and W 723 are redundant with their extIPA numbers 624, 622, 626, 625, 621, 623, respectively.
Brackets and other punctuation that mark linguistic transcription
phonetic | [ ] 901 902 |
---|---|
phonemic | / 903 |
silent (mouthing) / indistinguishable [3] | ( ) 906 907 |
sound obscured | ⸨ ⸩ 908 909 |
prosodic | { } 910 911 |
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standard written representation for the sounds of speech. The IPA is used by lexicographers, foreign language students and teachers, linguists, speech–language pathologists, singers, actors, constructed language creators, and translators.
N, or n, is the fourteenth letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages, and others worldwide. Its name in English is en, plural ens.
T, or t, is the twentieth letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is tee, plural tees.
The Thai script is the abugida used to write Thai, Southern Thai and many other languages spoken in Thailand. The Thai script itself has 44 consonant symbols, 16 vowel symbols that combine into at least 32 vowel forms, four tone diacritics, and other diacritics.
The Extended Speech Assessment Methods Phonetic Alphabet (X-SAMPA) is a variant of SAMPA developed in 1995 by John C. Wells, professor of phonetics at University College London. It is designed to unify the individual language SAMPA alphabets, and extend SAMPA to cover the entire range of characters in the 1993 version of International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). The result is a SAMPA-inspired remapping of the IPA into 7-bit ASCII.
Americanist phonetic notation, also known as the North American Phonetic Alphabet (NAPA), the Americanist Phonetic Alphabet or the American Phonetic Alphabet (APA), is a system of phonetic notation originally developed by European and American anthropologists and language scientists for the phonetic and phonemic transcription of indigenous languages of the Americas and for languages of Europe. It is still commonly used by linguists working on, among others, Slavic, Uralic, Semitic languages and for the languages of the Caucasus, of India, and of much of Africa; however, Uralicists commonly use a variant known as the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet.
The International Phonetic Alphabet was created soon after the International Phonetic Association was established in the late 19th century. It was intended as an international system of phonetic transcription for oral languages, originally for pedagogical purposes. The Association was established in Paris in 1886 by French and British language teachers led by Paul Passy. The prototype of the alphabet appeared in Phonetic Teachers' Association (1888b). The Association based their alphabet upon the Romic alphabet of Henry Sweet, which in turn was based on the Phonotypic Alphabet of Isaac Pitman and the Palæotype of Alexander John Ellis.
Unicode has subscripted and superscripted versions of a number of characters including a full set of Arabic numerals. These characters allow any polynomial, chemical and certain other equations to be represented in plain text without using any form of markup like HTML or TeX.
The Extensions to the International Phonetic Alphabet for Disordered Speech, commonly abbreviated extIPA, are a set of letters and diacritics devised by the International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association to augment the International Phonetic Alphabet for the phonetic transcription of disordered speech. Some of the symbols are used for transcribing features of normal speech in IPA transcription, and are accepted as such by the International Phonetic Association.
L, or l, is the twelfth letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is el, plural els.
The palatal hook (◌̡) is a type of hook diacritic formerly used in the International Phonetic Alphabet to represent palatalized and prevelar consonants. It is a small, leftwards-facing hook joined to the bottom-right side of a letter, and is distinguished from various other hooks indicating retroflexion, etc. Theoretically, it could be used on all IPA consonant letters, – even on those used for palatal consonants, – but it is not attested on all of the IPA letters of its era. It was withdrawn by the IPA in 1989, in favour of a superscript j following the consonant.
Unicode supports several phonetic scripts and notation systems through its existing scripts and the addition of extra blocks with phonetic characters. These phonetic characters are derived from an existing script, usually Latin, Greek or Cyrillic. Apart from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), extensions to the IPA and obsolete and nonstandard IPA symbols, these blocks also contain characters from the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet and the Americanist Phonetic Alphabet.
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) possesses a variety of obsolete and nonstandard symbols. Throughout the history of the IPA, characters representing phonetic values have been modified or completely replaced. An example is ⟨ɷ⟩ for standard. Several symbols indicating secondary articulation have been dropped altogether, with the idea that they should be indicated with diacritics: for is one. In addition, the rare voiceless implosive series has been dropped.
Tone letters are letters that represent the tones of a language, most commonly in languages with contour tones.
Pahawh Hmong is an indigenous semi-syllabic script, invented in 1959 by Shong Lue Yang, to write two Hmong languages, Hmong Daw (Hmoob Dawb White Miao) and Hmong Njua AKA Hmong Leng (Moob Leeg Green Miao).
IPA Extensions is a block (U+0250–U+02AF) of the Unicode standard that contains full size letters used in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). Both modern and historical characters are included, as well as former and proposed IPA signs and non-IPA phonetic letters. Additional characters employed for phonetics, like the palatalization sign, are encoded in the blocks Phonetic Extensions (1D00–1D7F) and Phonetic Extensions Supplement (1D80–1DBF). Diacritics are found in the Spacing Modifier Letters (02B0–02FF) and Combining Diacritical Marks (0300–036F) blocks. Its block name in Unicode 1.0 was Standard Phonetic.
Teuthonista is a phonetic transcription system used predominantly for the transcription of (High) German dialects. It is very similar to other Central European transcription systems from the early 20th century. The base characters are mostly based on the Latin alphabet, which can be modified by various diacritics.
In typesetting, the hook or tail is a diacritic mark attached to letters in many alphabets. In shape it looks like a hook and it can be attached below as a descender, on top as an ascender and sometimes to the side. The orientation of the hook can change its meaning: when it is below and curls to the left it can be interpreted as a palatal hook, and when it curls to the right is called hook tail or tail and can be interpreted as a retroflex hook. It should not be mistaken with the hook above, a diacritical mark used in Vietnamese, or the rhotic hook, used in the International Phonetic Alphabet.
IPA Braille is the modern standard Braille encoding of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), as recognized by the International Council on English Braille.
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) consists of more than 100 letters and diacritics. Before Unicode became widely available, several ASCII-based encoding systems of the IPA were proposed. The alphabet went through a large revision at the Kiel Convention of 1989, and the vowel symbols again in 1993. Systems devised before these revisions inevitably lack support for the additions they introduced.