The kinds of IPA symbols: consonants, vowels and diacritics
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), maintained by the International Phonetic Association, aims to write the sounds of every language with one consistent set of symbols. Its chart has four main parts.
1. Pulmonic consonants
Most consonants use air from the lungs. The chart's columns are places of articulation (where the mouth closes or narrows) and its rows are manners of articulation (how). Where a cell holds two symbols, the left one is voiceless and the right one voiced.
| Place | Examples |
|---|---|
| Bilabial (both lips) | p b m ɸ β ʙ |
| Labiodental (lip and teeth) | f v ɱ |
| Dental and alveolar | θ ð t d n s z r ɾ l |
| Postalveolar | ʃ ʒ |
| Retroflex (tongue tip curled back) | ʈ ɖ ɳ ʂ ʐ ɽ ɭ |
| Palatal (hard palate) | c ɟ ɲ ç j ʎ |
| Velar (soft palate) | k ɡ ŋ x ɣ ʟ |
| Uvular | q ɢ ɴ χ ʁ ʀ |
| Pharyngeal and glottal | ħ ʕ ʔ h ɦ |
Manners include plosives (p t k), nasals (m n ŋ), trills (r ʀ), taps (ɾ), fricatives (f s ʃ x), approximants (ɹ j) and laterals (l ʎ).
2. Non-pulmonic consonants
- Clicks: ʘ ǀ ǃ ǂ ǁ, found in languages of southern Africa.
- Voiced implosives (air drawn inwards): ɓ ɗ ʄ ɠ ʛ
- Ejectives (air pushed out with the glottis closed): add ʼ, as in pʼ tʼ kʼ
3. Vowels
Vowels are described by height (how close the tongue is to the roof of the mouth), backness and lip rounding, and plotted on a trapezium that mirrors the mouth.
| Height | Front | Central | Back |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i y | ɨ ʉ | ɯ u |
| Close-mid | e ø | ɘ ɵ | ɤ o |
| Mid | ə | ||
| Open-mid | ɛ œ | ɜ ɞ | ʌ ɔ |
| Open | a ɶ | ɑ ɒ | |
In each pair the right-hand vowel is rounded: i as in "see", y as in French tu or German über.
4. Diacritics and suprasegmentals
Diacritics attach to another symbol to fine-tune it.
| Mark | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| ◌̥ | voiceless | n̥ |
| ◌̬ | voiced | t̬ |
| ◌ʰ | aspirated | pʰ |
| ◌̃ | nasalised | ã |
| ◌̩ | syllabic | n̩ |
| ◌̪ | dental | t̪ |
Suprasegmentals describe whole syllables or words rather than single sounds: stress ˈ ˌ, length ː ˑ, syllable break . and tone letters ˥ ˦ ˧ ˨ ˩.
Typing IPA yourself
Symbols that look like ordinary letters (p, b, m…) are typed on your normal keyboard; all the others are on the full IPA keyboard, grouped into tabs for consonants, vowels, diacritics and more. Its IPA charts button opens the official-style chart, and clicking a symbol there types it. If you only need English dictionary pronunciations, the smaller IPA (English) keyboard is quicker.