International Phonetic Alphabet for English

From Academic Kids

Template:IPA notice Symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet as used for English.

The square brackets around IPA symbols are not part of the IPA itself, but just serve to indicate that the contents of the brackets are not normal text, but IPA symbols. The distinction is important, as some IPA transcriptions can look like other words. For example, an IPA transcription for bean could be Template:IPA.

Abbreviations below:

• AmE = American English (General American)
• BrE = British English (Received Pronunciation)
• AuE = Australian English (General Australian)
• NZE = New Zealand English

Contents

1 Vowels 1.1 English 'plain' vowels 1.2 Reduced vowels 1.3 R-colored vowels 1.4 Diphthongs 2 Consonants 2.1 Stops 2.2 Affricates 2.3 Fricatives 2.4 Nasals 2.5 Approximants 3 Suprasegmentals 4 Quick reference chart of IPA symbols used for English 5 See also

Vowels

English 'plain' vowels

• bead – close front unrounded vowel
  • Template:IPA Template:Footnote
• bid – AmE, AuE & BrE near-close near-front unrounded vowel, NZE schwa
  • AmE, AuE & BrE Template:IPA, NZE Template:IPA
• bayed – diphthong: AmE & BrE close-mid front unrounded vowel + near-close near-front unrounded vowel, AuE near-open front unrounded vowel + near-close near-front unrounded vowel Template:Footnote
  • AmE & BrE Template:IPA, AuE Template:IPA
• bed – AmE & BrE open-mid front unrounded vowel, AuE close-mid front unrounded vowel
  • AmE & BrE Template:IPA, AuE Template:IPA
• bat – near-open front unrounded vowel Template:Footnote
  • Template:IPA
• father – AmE & BrE open back unrounded vowel, AuE near-open central vowel
  • AmE Template:IPA, BrE Template:IPA, AuE Template:IPA
• body – AmE open back unrounded vowel, BrE open back rounded vowel, AuE open-mid back rounded vowel Template:Footnote
  • AmE Template:IPA, BrE Template:IPA, AuE Template:IPA
• baud – AmE & BrE open-mid back rounded vowel, AuE close-mid back rounded vowel Template:Footnote
  • AmE & BrE Template:IPA, AuE Template:IPA
• bud – AmE & BrE open-mid back unrounded vowel, AuE near-open central vowel
  • AmE & BrE Template:IPA, AuE Template:IPA
• bode – diphthong: AmE close-mid back rounded vowel + near-close near-back rounded vowel, BrE schwa + near-close near-back rounded vowel, AuE schwa + close central rounded vowel
  • AmE Template:IPA, BrE Template:IPA, AuE Template:IPA
• good – near-close near-back rounded vowel
  • Template:IPA
• booed – AmE & BrE close back rounded vowel, AuE close central rounded vowel
  • AmE & BrE Template:IPA, AuE Template:IPA

Notes:

1. The symbol Template:IPA is just the IPA symbol that means the vowel to the left is long. The vowels marked here with Template:IPA are the English vowels that are usually longer than the others. The distinction between long and short vowels is more pronounced in British and Australian English than in American English (where many researchers do not transcribe any length for vowels at all).
2. The English Template:IPA and Template:IPA vowels are realized as diphthongs, but they are included here with the plain vowels because the Template:IPA and Template:IPA are just off-glides.
3. Many AmE speakers (particularly in and around Philadelphia and New York City) have an additional phoneme in this region, the "raised" or "tense short a". The exact pronunciation of this sound varies widely; it can be realized as any of Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA. Some speakers have minimal pairs such as can (tin container) Template:IPA vs. can (be able) Template:IPA or nonrhyming pairs such as mannish Template:IPA vs. Spanish Template:IPA. For most such speakers Template:IPA occurs also before Template:IPA in words like bared and Mary--though usually not marry Template:IPA or merry Template:IPA. Many other American speakers, particularly in a swath from upstate New York to Chicago, whose speech has undergone the northern cities vowel shift, have only a single Template:IPA phoneme, whose realization is virtually the same as the Philadelphia/New York "tense short a". Most Americans from the West agree with English speakers from other countries in having only one Template:IPA phoneme, whose realization is a lax Template:IPA.
4. For a large number of speakers of North American English, there is no distinction between Template:IPA and Template:IPA. This is frequently called the cot-caught merger. For many of these speakers, the two vowels have merged as Template:IPA; for others they have merged as Template:IPA. Among American speakers who do have Template:IPA, it is distinctly more open than in British English; it could also be transcribed Template:IPA, though in practice this is rarely done.

Reduced vowels

These are vowels that occur in unstressed syllables.

• roses – AmE close central unrounded vowel (called barred-i), BrE near-close near-front unrounded vowel, AuE schwa
  • AmE Template:IPA, BrE Template:IPA, AuE Template:IPA

Note: some speakers do not have a contrast between barred-i and schwa.

• Rosa's – This sound is called schwa
  • Template:IPA
• runner – AmE - this is called an r-colored schwa, which is a single sound, not a sequence of schwa and r. BrE & AuE - this is just the reduced vowel schwa.
  • AmE Template:IPA, BrE & AuE Template:IPA
• button – This is called syllabic n.
  • Template:IPA
• bottle – This is called syllabic l.
  • Template:IPA
• open pronounced "opm" – rapid speech only. This is called syllabic m.
  • Template:IPA

R-colored vowels

These are plain vowels that are followed by r.

• bird
  • AmE Template:IPA, BrE & AuE Template:IPA
• beard
  • AmE Template:IPA, BrE Template:IPA, AuE Template:IPA
• beer
  • AmE Template:IPA, BrE & AuE Template:IPA
• marry *
  • Template:IPA
• merry *
  • AmE & BrETemplate:IPA, AuE Template:IPA
• Mary * / bared
  • AmE Template:IPA, BrE Template:IPA, AuE Template:IPA
• bard
  • AmE Template:IPA, BrE Template:IPA, AuE Template:IPA
• board
  • AmE Template:IPA, BrE Template:IPA, AuE Template:IPA
• boor
  • AmE Template:IPA, BrE Template:IPA, AuE Template:IPA

Often Template:IPA in BrE

After palatals (for example in sure, jury, cure, Europe) often Template:IPA in AmE; after Template:IPA in AuE

• byre
  • AmE Template:IPA, BrE Template:IPA, AuE Template:IPA
• Bauer
  • AmE Template:IPA, BrE Template:IPA, AuE Template:IPA

Notes
* For many speakers of American English, all or some of Template:IPA, Template:IPA, and Template:IPA are merged before Template:IPA. That is, merry, marry, and/or Mary are homophones. The vowel is pronounced as Template:IPA. For speakers of British English, these sequences are just the plain vowel, with Template:IPA beginning the next syllable. For some speakers of Australian English the sequences in merry and Mary are homophones.

Also note that speakers with the Template:IPA merger usually still pronounce the vowel in core as Template:IPA.

It was formerly widespread in AmE (and still is to some extant in Ireland and generally in Scotland) to have a phonemic contrast between Template:IPA in words like north, cord, horse, war and Template:IPA in words like force, board, hoarse, wore.

Diphthongs

Diphthongs are vowel sounds that smoothly glide from one vowel to another.

• bide
  • AmE & BrE Template:IPA, AuE Template:IPA
• Boyd
  • Template:IPA
• bowed, mouth
  • AmE & BrE Template:IPA, AuE Template:IPA
• imbued
  • Am & BrE Template:IPA, AuE Template:IPA

This is phonemically a sequence of Template:IPA and Template:IPA rather than a diphthong, because English speakers perceive ewe Template:IPA and two Template:IPA as a valid rhyme, and they say "a ewe" instead of "an ewe", which would be correct if Template:IPA was a vowel.

Consonants

Stops

• pit – voiceless bilabial plosive
  • Template:IPA
• bit – voiced bilabial plosive
  • Template:IPA
• tin – voiceless alveolar plosive
  • Template:IPA
• din – voiced alveolar plosive
  • Template:IPA
• kin – voiceless velar plosive
  • Template:IPA
• gone – voiced velar plosive
  • Template:IPA
• button – glottal stop (considered an allophone of Template:IPA.)
  • Template:IPA

The voiceless stops Template:IPA, Template:IPA, and Template:IPA are aspirated when they occur at the beginning of stressed or word-initial syllables. Aspiration is marked in IPA with a superscript h. These symbols are thus Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA. It is not always necessary to include the superscript h when transcribing English into IPA because speakers make the distinction automatically.

Affricates

Affricates are phonetically just a sequence of a stop and a fricative.

• chop
  • Template:IPA
• joy
  • Template:IPA

A distinction is made in English between affricates and a sequence of a stop and fricative, because a syllable boundary never separates those affricates, but it might separate stop/fricative sequences. The contrast can be heard in the phrases why choose, in which Template:IPA is an affricate, and white shoes, in which it is a sequence of the stop Template:IPA and the fricative Template:IPA. The combined letters for affricates, Template:IPA and Template:IPA are preferred when available in order to distinguish them from stop/fricative sequences, but not commonly used.

Fricatives

• fool – voiceless labiodental fricative
  • Template:IPA
• voice – voiced labiodental fricative
  • Template:IPA
• thing – voiceless interdental fricative
  • Template:IPA
• this – voiced interdental fricative
  • Template:IPA
• see – voiceless alveolar fricative
  • Template:IPA
• zoo – voiced alveolar fricative
  • Template:IPA
• she – voiceless postalveolar fricative - This symbol is called esh
  • Template:IPA
• measure – voiced postalveolar fricative - This symbol is called ezh
  • Template:IPA
• ham – voiceless glottal fricative
  • Template:IPA
• when – voiceless labial-velar fricative - occurs in those English dialects that distinguish between the words which and witch.
  • Template:IPA

Note: the th in thigh and thy are different sounds. The latter is voiced, the former is voiceless. Some linguists consider Template:IPA a glide rather than a fricative.

Nasals

• nap – alveolar nasal
  • Template:IPA
• map – bilabial nasal
  • Template:IPA
• emphasis – labiodental nasal - this is not a separate phoneme, but an allophone of Template:IPA
  • Template:IPA
• bang – velar nasal - This sound is called eng, engma or agma
  • Template:IPA

Note: eng only occurs postvocalically (after vowels) in English.

Approximants

Approximants are smooth sounds that are almost like vowels.

• left – lateral alveolar approximant
  • Template:IPA
• milk – velarized alveolar lateral approximant - this sound is sometimes called "dark l" (not a separate phoneme of English, but an allophone of Template:IPA)
  • Template:IPA
• run – alveolar approximant
  • Template:IPA

It is frequently written Template:IPA in broad transcription of English, since the alveolar trill (the sound for which Template:IPA is normally reserved) does not occur in most dialects of English.

• better – AmE & sometimes AuE - alveolar flap (not a separate phoneme of English, but an allophone of Template:IPA and Template:IPA)
  • Template:IPA
• we – labial-velar approximant
  • Template:IPA
• yes – palatal approximant
  • Template:IPA

Note: Template:IPA and Template:IPA are also called semivowels.

Suprasegmentals

The suprasegmental symbols are called that because they apply to more than one segment, or symbol. In English, the relevant suprasegmentals are the markings for primary and secondary stress.

• primary stress
  • Template:IPA
• secondary stress
  • Template:IPA
• syllable break
  • Template:IPA

English does not actually have a distinction between primary and secondary stress. The apparent difference is due to intonation: When making a statement, the last stressed syllable will be more strongly stressed than the other stressed syllables. However, as soon as you move a word out of final position, the extra stress is lost. It moves to whichever word is now final, so it doesn't really belong to the word itself, but to the statement. Consider the isolated word Arachnophobia, with stronger stress on the syllable pho than on the rach, versus Arachnophobia's playing at the Bijou, where the stress on rach and pho is equal. Because people usually say a word in isolation when transcribing it, they tend to mark primary and secondary stress, but this is not necessary for English.

Quick reference chart of IPA symbols used for English

The symbols in the following chart are arranged in alphabetical order according the English letter they most resemble. This should make symbols easy to find for those who are not familiar with phonetic terminology. Only symbols found in broad (phonemic) transcription are used. The HTML code for numeric entities for the Unicode code is given (in decimal) for those symbols not in Basic Latin.

Symbol	Numeric entities	Example words	AmE	AuE	BrE
Template:IPA	aɪ	price, high, try	AmE		BrE
Template:IPA	aʊ	mouth, now	AmE		BrE
Template:IPA	ɐ	strut, bud, love		AuE
Template:IPA	ɐː	father, start		AuE
Template:IPA	æ	trap, bad	AmE	AuE	BrE
Template:IPA	æɪ	face, day, steak		AuE
Template:IPA	æɔ	mouth, now		AuE
Template:IPA	ɑ	father, start, lot, odd	AmE
Template:IPA	ɑː	father, start			BrE
Template:IPA	ɑe	price, high, try		AuE
Template:IPA	ɒ	lot, odd, wash			BrE
Template:IPA		back, bubble, job	AmE	AuE	BrE
Template:IPA	ɔ	lot, odd, wash		AuE
Template:IPA	ɔ	thought, law, north, four	AmE
Template:IPA	ɔː	thought, law, north, four			BrE
Template:IPA	ɔɪ	choice, boy	AmE	AuE	BrE
Template:IPA		day, ladder, odd	AmE	AuE	BrE
Template:IPA or Template:IPA	dʒ or ʤ	judge, age, soldier	AmE	AuE	BrE
Template:IPA	ð	this, other, smooth	AmE	AuE	BrE
Template:IPA		dress, bed		AuE
Template:IPA	eː	square, fair, various		AuE
Template:IPA	eɪ	face, day, steak	AmE		BrE
Template:IPA	ə	about, comma, common	AmE	AuE	BrE
Template:IPA	əʉ	goat, show, no		AuE
Template:IPA	əʊ	goat, show, no			BrE
Template:IPA or Template:IPA	ɚ or ər	father, standard	AmE
Template:IPA	ɛ	dress, bed	AmE		BrE
Template:IPA	ɛə	square, fair, various			BrE
Template:IPA	ɜː	nurse, stir		AuE	BrE
Template:IPA or Template:IPA	ɝ or ɜr	nurse, stir, courage	AmE
Template:IPA		fat, coffee, rough, physics	AmE	AuE	BrE
Template:IPA		get, giggle, ghost	AmE	AuE	BrE
Template:IPA		hot, whole, behind	AmE	AuE	BrE
Template:IPA or Template:IPA	i or iː	fleece, sea, happy, radiation	AmE	AuE	BrE
Template:IPA	ɪ	kit, bid, hymn, basic	AmE	AuE	BrE
Template:IPA or Template:IPA	ɪː or ɪə	serious, feared, near, here		AuE
Template:IPA	ɪə	serious, feared, near, here			BrE
Template:IPA		yet, beyond, onion	AmE	AuE	BrE
Template:IPA		key, clock, school	AmE	AuE	BrE
Template:IPA		light, valley	AmE	AuE	BrE
Template:IPA	ɫ	milk, bell	AmE	AuE	BrE
Template:IPA		more, hammer, sum	AmE	AuE	BrE
Template:IPA		nice, know, funny, sun	AmE	AuE	BrE
Template:IPA	ŋ	ring, long, thanks, sung	AmE	AuE	BrE
Template:IPA	oː	thought, law, north, four		AuE
Template:IPA	oʊ	goat, show, no	AmE
Template:IPA	θ	thing, author, path	AmE	AuE	BrE
Template:IPA		pen, copy, happen	AmE	AuE	BrE
Template:IPA or Template:IPA	r or ɹ	right, sorry, arrange	AmE	AuE	BrE
Template:IPA		soon, cease, sister	AmE	AuE	BrE
Template:IPA	ʃ	ship, sure, station	AmE	AuE	BrE
Template:IPA		tea, tight, button	AmE	AuE	BrE
Template:IPA or Template:IPA	tʃ or ʧ	church, match, nature	AmE	AuE	BrE
Template:IPA or Template:IPA	u or uː	goose, two, influence, situation	AmE		BrE
Template:IPA or Template:IPA	ʉ or ʉː	goose, two, influence, situation		AuE
Template:IPA	ʊ	foot, good, put	AmE	AuE	BrE
Template:IPA	ʊə	cure, poor, jury			BrE
Template:IPA	ʊə	cure, tour		AuE
Template:IPA	ʊɹ	cure, poor, jury	AmE
Template:IPA		view, heavy, move	AmE	AuE	BrE
Template:IPA	ʌ	strut, bud, love	AmE		BrE
Template:IPA		wet, away, queen	AmE	AuE	BrE
Template:IPA	ʍ	when, which	Some English dialects
Template:IPA		chutzpah, loch	Foreign words only
Template:IPA		zero, zone, roses, buzz	AmE	AuE	BrE
Template:IPA	ʒ	pleasure, vision	AmE	AuE	BrE

Primary stress is indicated by the symbol Template:IPA (ˈ) before the stressed syllable; secondary stress by the symbol Template:IPA (ˌ) before the syllable, for example phonetician AmE Template:IPA, BrE Template:IPA, AuE Template:IPA.

Note: You can hide rows of the above table by placing the following code in your user/monobook.css page.
Replace 'xx' with your ISO locale code (either au, gb, or us).

#ipa-table tr { display: none; }
#ipa-table tr.xx,
#ipa-table tr:first-child { display: table-row; }

See also

• IPA in Unicode
• IPA chart for English
• SAMPA, X-SAMPA, and Kirshenbaum are other methods of mapping IPA designations into ASCII. IPA is preferred in Wikipedia articles, however.
• English pronunciation
• List of phonetics topics