The International Phonetic Alphabet requires specific names for the symbols and diacritcs used in the alphabet. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words see here. ... The International Phonetic Alphabet is a system used for describing the sounds of spoken language, and has a long history originating with the International Phonetic Association. ... The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a system of phonetic notation devised by linguists to accurately and uniquely represent each of the wide variety of sounds (phones or phonemes) used in spoken human language. ... Symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet as used for English. ... For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words see here. ...

It is often desirable to distinguish an IPA symbol from the sound it is intended to represent, since there is not a one-to-one correspondence between symbol and sound in broad transcription. The symbol's names and phonetic descriptions are described in the Handbook of the International Phonetic Association. The symbols also have nonce names in the Unicode standard. In some cases, the Unicode names and the IPA names do not agree. For example, IPA calls ɛ "epsilon", but Unicode calls it "small letter open E". Because of technical limitations, some web browsers may not display some special characters in this article. ...

The letters

The traditional names of the Latin and Greek letters are used for unmodified symbols. In Unicode, some of the symbols of Greek origin have Latin forms for use in IPA; the others use the symbols from the Greek section.

Examples:

Note The voiceless bilabial plosive is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. ... The voiceless velar fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. ... The alveolar trill is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages (such as Russian, Spanish, Armenian, and Polish). ... BETA is a pure object-oriented language from the Scandinavian School in System Development where the first object-oriented language Simula was developed. ... The voiced bilabial fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ... For the 2005 hurricane, see Hurricane Epsilon. ... Vowels Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a rounded vowel. ... Gamma (uppercase Γ, lowercase γ) is the third letter of the Greek alphabet. ... The voiced velar fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ... Theta (upper case Θ, lower case θ or ) is the eighth letter of the Greek alphabet. ... The voiceless dental non-sibilant fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. ... Chi (upper case Χ, lower case χ) is the 22nd letter of the Greek alphabet. ... The voiceless uvular fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... The voiceless bilabial fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ... Vowels Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a rounded vowel. ...

1. The Latin "upsilon" is frequently called "horseshoe u" in order to distinguish it from the Greek upsilon. Historically, it derives from a Latin small capital U.

The IPA standard includes some small capital letters, such as ʀ, although it is common to refer to these symbols as simply "capital" or "cap" letters, because the IPA standard does not include any full-size capital letters. Upsilon (upper case , lower case ) is the 20th letter of the Greek alphabet. ... Modern horseshoes are most commonly made of iron and nailed onto the hoof. ...

Cursive-based letters

A few letters have the forms of cursive or script letters. Examples:

Note Vowels Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a rounded vowel. ... The voiced velar plosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ... The labiodental approximant is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ...

1. The "looptail G" is not strictly an IPA character, but is an acceptable alternative.
2. In form and origin, but not in name, this is the Greek upsilon.

Image File history File links Looptail_g. ...

Ligatures

Ligatures are called precisely that, although some have alternate names. Examples:

Vowels Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a rounded vowel. ... The voiced alveolar lateral fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ... Æ, or æ, is a vowel and a Icelandic, Danish, Faroese and Norwegian alphabets. ... Vowels Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a rounded vowel. ...

Rotated letters

Many letters are turned, or rotated 180 degrees. Examples:

The symbol ɔ can be described as a turned cee, but it is almost always referred to as open o, which described both its articulation and its shape. The symbol ʌ is often also called "caret" or "wedge" for its similarity to that diacritic. The palatal lateral approximant is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. ... The labial-palatal approximant is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ... Vowels Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a rounded vowel. ... Vowels Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a rounded vowel. ... Vowels Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a rounded vowel. ... A caret in the Arial font Caret is the name for the symbol ^ in ASCII and some other character sets. ...

A few letters are reversed (flipped on a vertical axis):

Notes: Vowels Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a rounded vowel. ... Vowels Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a rounded vowel. ... The voiced pharyngeal approximant/fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ...

1. The old Unicode name for this character is LATIN SMALL LETTER REVERSED EPSILON
2. This IPA symbol is often called by its Arabic name, ayin.
3. Other Unicode names for this character are: REVERSED GLOTTAL STOP, LATIN LETTER VOICED FRICATIVE, LATIN LETTER PHARYNGEAL GLOTTAL STOP

One letter is inverted (flipped on a horizontal axis): ʁ inverted R. (ʍ could also be called an inverted double-u, but turned double-u is more common.) Ayin is the sixteenth letter in many Semitic alphabets, including Phoenician, Hebrew, and Aramaic. ...

Letters with extra lines, curls and serifs

When a horizontal stroke is added, it is called a bar: ħ barred H, ɵ barred o, ʢ reversed barred glottal stop or barred ayin, ɟ barred dotless J or barred gelded J [apparently never 'turned F'], ǂ double-barred pipe, etc.

One letter instead has a slash through it: ø slashed O.

The implosives have hook tops: ɓ hook-top B, as does ɦ hook-top H.

Such an extension at the bottom of a letter is called a tail. It may be specified as left or right depending on which direction it turns: ɳ right-tail N, ɻ right-tail turned R, ɲ left-tail N [note that ŋ has its own traditional name, engma], ɱ left-tail em, ʐ tail Z [or just retroflex Z], etc. The velar nasal is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ...

When the tail loops over itself, it's called curly: ʝ curly-tail jay, ɕ curly-tail C.

There are also a few unique modifications: ɬ belted L, ɞ closed reversed epsilon [there was once also a ɷ closed omega], ɰ right-leg turned M, ɺ turned long-leg R [there was once also a long-leg R], ǁ double pipe, and the obsolete ʗ stretched C.

Several non-English letters have traditional names: ç C cedilla, ð eth (also spelled edh), ŋ engma, ə schwa, ǃ exclamation mark, ǀ pipe. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Ð (capital Ð, lower-case ð) (or eth, eð or edh, Faroese: edd) is a letter used in Old English (Anglo-Saxon) and present-day Icelandic and Faroese. ... The velar nasal is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ... Vowels Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a rounded vowel. ...

Other symbols are unique to the IPA, and have developed their own quirky names: ɾ fish-hook R, ɤ ram's horns, ʘ bull's eye, ʃ esh [apparently never 'stretched ess'], ʒ ezh [sometimes confused with yogh], ɧ hook-top heng. In Portuguese: Olhos de boi This page is a candidate for speedy deletion. ... The esh is a letter: (upper-case), (lower-case). ... Ezh (capital , lowercase ) is a character in the IPA. Also called the tailed z, it represents a voiced postalveolar fricative (SAMPA: [Z]), appearing in e. ... The letter yogh (Èœ ȝ; Middle English: ogh) was used in Middle English and Middle Scots, representing y (IPA: ) and various velar phonemes. ...

The ʔ is usually called by the sound it represents, glottal stop. This is not normally a problem, because this symbol is seldom used to represent anything else. However, to specify the symbol itself, it is sometimes called a gelded question mark.

The diacritic marks

Traditionally named diacritics

é acute, ē macron, è grave, ê circumflex, ě caron, wedge, or háček, ë diaeresis or umlaut, ĕ breve, ẽ (superscript) tilde, plus variants such as ḛ subscript tilde, ɫ superimposed tilde, etc.

The acute accent ( Â´ ) is a diacritic mark used in many modern written languages with alphabets based on the Latin and Greek scripts. ... A macron, from Gr. ... The grave accent ( ` ) is a diacritic mark used in written Greek until 1982 (polytonic orthography), French, Catalan, Welsh, Italian, Vietnamese, Scottish Gaelic, Norwegian, Portuguese and other languages. ... The circumflex ( ˆ ) (more commonly known as an uppen) is a diacritic mark used in written Greek, French, Esperanto, Norwegian, Romanian, Slovak, Vietnamese, Japanese romaji, Welsh, Portuguese, Italian, Afrikaans, and other languages. ... č ď Ä› Ǩ Ľ Å™ Å¡ ž A caron ( ˇ ), also known as wedge, inverted circumflex, inverted hat or by the Czech name háček (pronounced ), is a diacritic placed over certain letters to indicate present or historical palatalization or iotation in the orthography of Baltic languages and some Slavic languages, whereas some Finno-Lappic languages use it... The term wedge can refer to any one of the following things:wweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee+ In mechanics, a simple machine used to separate two objects, or portions of objects, through the application of force is often called a wedge. ... č Å¡ ž A háček (ˇ, pronounced ), also known as a caron, is a diacritic placed over certain letters to indicate palatalization or iotation in the orthography of Baltic languages and some Slavic languages, whereas some Finno-Lappic languages use it to mark postalveolar fricatives (sh, zh, ch). ... In linguistics, a, diaeresis, or dieresis (AE) (from Greek (diaerein), to divide) is the modification of a syllable by distinctly pronouncing one of its vowels. ... In linguistics the term Umlaut is used in a variety of closely related ways, some narrower, some broader. ... This article is about the breve breve in music, see double whole note. ... A tilde. ...

Non-traditionally named diacritics

d̼ seagull, e˞ hook, e̽ over-cross, d ̚ corner, d̪ bridge, d̺ inverted bridge, d̻ square, e̥ under-ring, e̊ over-ring, e̜ left half-ring, e̹ right half-ring, e̟ plus, e̠ under-bar, e̯ arch, d̬ subscript wedge, e̝ up tack, e̞ down tack, e̘ left tack, e̙ right tack, d͡z tie bar, ẹ under-dot, n̩ under-stroke.

Diacritics are alternately named after their function: The bridge is also called the dental sign, the under-stroke the syllabicity sign, etc.

External links

• Unicode-HTML codes for IPA symbols: Tables of symbol names and HTML codes at PennState.