International Phonetic Alphabet for English

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 .

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

Notes:

1. The symbol is just the IPA symbol that means the vowel to the left is long. The vowels marked here with 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 and vowels are realized as diphthongs, but they are included here with the plain vowels because the and 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 , , , . Some speakers have minimal pairs such as can (tin container) vs. can (be able) or nonrhyming pairs such as mannish vs. Spanish . For most such speakers occurs also before in words like bared and Mary--though usually not marry or merry . 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 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 phoneme, whose realization is a lax .
4. For a large number of speakers of North American English, there is no distinction between and . This is frequently called the cot-caught merger. For many of these speakers, the two vowels have merged as ; for others they have merged as . Among American speakers who do have , it is distinctly more open than in British English; it could also be transcribed , 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 , BrE , AuE

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

• Rosa's – This sound is called schwa
• 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 , BrE & AuE
• button – This is called syllabic n.
• bottle – This is called syllabic l.
• open pronounced "opm" – rapid speech only. This is called syllabic m.

R-colored vowels

These are plain vowels that are followed by r.

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

Often in BrE

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

• byre
  • AmE , BrE , AuE
• Bauer
  • AmE , BrE , AuE

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

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

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

Diphthongs

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

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

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

Consonants

Stops

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

The voiceless stops , , and 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 , , . 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
• joy

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 is an affricate, and white shoes, in which it is a sequence of the stop and the fricative . The combined letters for affricates, and are preferred when available in order to distinguish them from stop/fricative sequences, but not commonly used.

Fricatives

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

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

Nasals

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

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

Approximants

Approximants are smooth sounds that are almost like vowels.

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

It is frequently written in broad transcription of English, since the alveolar trill (the sound for which 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 and )
• we – labial-velar approximant
• yes – palatal approximant

Note: and 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
• secondary stress
• syllable break

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

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

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