International Phonetic Alphabet for English

 

The International Phonetic Alphabet
History
Nonstandard symbols
Extended IPA
Naming conventions
IPA for English

The symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet can be used to show pronunciation in English. For a quick chart of how, without the details presented here, see IPA chart for English.

Listeners pay attention to vowels much more than consonants to distinguish between the various regional accents of English speakers. For this reason, the consonants of English are discussed together, while vowels will be explained in three sections: Received Pronunciation, General American, and General Australian.

While the slashes and brackets around IPA symbols are not part of the IPA itself, language professionals have adopted them to distinguish between two main types of transcription, phonemic and phonetic. In phonemic transcriptions, the observer uses slashes to record the phonemes speakers target when they pronounce a word. For example, a phonemic transcription of pit is /pɪt/. Because there are often a number of ways in which phonemes are produced in speech, observers use brackets to record the sounds that speakers actually produce, the allophones of the phonemes. For example, because English speakers typically aspirate a word-initial /p/ and sometimes do not release a word-final /t/, a phonetic transcription of this pit may look like this: [pʰɪt̚].

The brackets and slashes also clarify that their contents are not normal text, but a transcription. Because some IPA transcriptions can look like another word, the distinction is important. For example, an IPA transcription for bean could be /bin/.

Consonants

For more details on this topic, see English phonology.

The symbols used for consonants are shown in the following table. Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the left is voiceless, the one to the right voiced.

	Bi­labial	Labio- dental	Labio- velar	Den­tal	Alveo­lar	Post- alveo­lar	Pala­tal	Velar	Glot­tal
Stop	p  b				t  d			k  g
Affricate						tʃ  dʒ
Nasal	m				n			ŋ
Fricative		f  v		θ  ð	s  z	ʃ  ʒ		(x)	h
Approximant			(ʍ)  w		ɹ		j
Lateral approximant					l

/p/: pit /b/: bit /t/: tin /d/: din /k/: cut /ɡ/: gut /tʃ/: cheap /dʒ/: jeep /m/: map /n/: nap /ŋ/: bang /f/: fat /v/: vat

/θ/: thin /ð/: then /s/: sap /z/: zap /ʃ/: she /ʒ/: measure /x/: loch, Chanukah (often replaced by /-k/ and /h-/, respectively) /h/: ham /ʍ/: whine (also written /hw/, often replaced by /w/) /w/: we /ɹ/: run (often written /r/ in broad transcription) /j/: yes /l/: left

Vowels

This section discusses the symbols used for the vowel phonemes in three major English accents.

Received Pronunciation

Main article: Received Pronunciation

Received Pronunciation is the prestige British accent, sometimes referred to as BBC English. It is used as the standard in most media within Great Britain.

Full vowels

Full vowels are those that appear in stressed syllables.

Monophthongs	Short			Long
	Front	Back		Front	Central	Back
Close	ɪ	ʊ		iː		uː
Mid	ɛ	ʌ			ɜː	ɔː
Open	æ	ɒ			ɑː

/ɪ/: bid /ʊ/: good /ɛ/: bed (sometimes transcribed /e/) /ʌ/: bud /æ/: bat (sometimes transcribed /a/) /ɒ/: pot

/iː/: bead /uː/: booed /ɜː/: bird (sometimes transcribed /əː/) /ɔː/: bought, board /ɑː/: father, bard

Diphthongs	Closing			Centring
	to /ɪ/	to /ʊ/
Starting close				ɪə  ʊə
Starting mid	eɪ  ɔɪ	əʊ		ɛə
Starting open	aɪ	aʊ

/eɪ/: bay /ɔɪ/: boy /əʊ/: toe /aɪ/: buy (sometimes transcribed /ʌɪ/) /aʊ/: cow

/ɪə/: beer /ʊə/: boor (falling out of use in British English; often replaced by /ɔː/) /ɛə/: bear (sometimes transcribed /ɛː/)

Reduced vowels

Reduced vowels occur in unstressed syllables.

• /ɪ/: roses
• /ə/: Rosa’s, runner
• /l̩/: bottle
• /n̩/: button
• /m̩/: rhythm

General American

Main article: General American

General American is the standardized accent of the United States, and is the dialect most commonly used in spoken media there.

Full vowels

Monophthongs	Checked				Free
	Front	Central	Back		Front	Central rhotacized	Back
Close	ɪ		ʊ		i		u
Close-mid					e		o
Open-mid	ɛ	ʌ				ɝ	ɔ
Open	æ						ɑ

/ɪ/: bid /ʊ/: good /ɛ/: bed /ʌ/: bud /æ/: bad

/i/: bead /u/: booed /e/: bayed /o/: bode /ɝ/: bird /ɔ/ or /ɑ/: bought /ɑ/: body, pod, father

Note: the vowels /e/ and /o/ are usually diphthongal, so the transcriptions /eɪ/ and /oʊ/ are also often used. ^[1]

Diphthongs	Closing			Rhotacized
	to /ɪ/	to /ʊ/
Starting close				ɪɹ  ʊɹ
Starting mid	ɔɪ			ɛɹ  ɔɹ
Starting open	aɪ	aʊ		ɑɹ

/ɔɪ/: boy /aɪ/: buy, thigh /aʊ/: bout, cow

/ɪɹ/: beer, here /ʊɹ/: boor, manure (often replaced by /ɝ/, sometimes by /ɔɹ/ in American English) /ɛɹ/: bear, air /ɔɹ/: bore (sometimes phonemicized /oɹ/) /ɑɹ/: bar

Reduced vowels

• /ɨ/: roses (for many Americans merged with /ə/)
• /ə/: Rosa’s
• /ɚ/: runner
• /l̩/: bottle
• /n̩/: button
• /m̩/: rhythm

General Australian

Main article: Australian English phonology

Full vowels

Monophthongs	Short				Long
	Front	Central	Back		Front	Central	Back
Close	ɪ		ʊ		iː	ʉː
Mid	e		ɔ		eː	ɜː	oː
Open	æ	a			æː	aː

/ɪ/: bid /ʊ/: good /e/: bed /ɔ/: pot /æ/: bat /a/: bud

/iː/: bead /ʉː/: booed /eː/: bared /ɜː/: bird /oː/: bought, board /æː/: bad /aː/: father, bard

Diphthongs	Closing			Centring
	to unrounded	to rounded
Starting close				ɪə  ʊə
Starting mid	oɪ	əʉ
Starting open	æɪ  ɑe	æɔ

/oɪ/: boy /əʉ/: toe /æɪ/: bay /ɑe/: buy /æɔ/: cow

/ɪə/: beer /ʊə/: tour (falling out of use in Australian English; often replaced by disyllabic /ʉːə/ or monophthongal /oː/)

Reduced vowels

• /ə/: roses, Rosa’s, runner
• /l̩/: bottle
• /n̩/: button
• /m̩/: rhythm

Suprasegmentals

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

• Primary stress: ˈ
• Secondary stress: ˌ

Primary stress is indicated by the symbol ˈ before the stressed syllable; secondary stress by the symbol ˌ before the syllable, for example battleship /ˈbætl̩ˌʃɪp/.

References

1. ^ Roca, Iggy & Johnson, Wyn (1999). Course in Phonology. Blackwell Publishing.

See also

• English phonology
• IPA chart for English
• Help:IPA English pronunciation key
• SAMPA, X-SAMPA, and Kirshenbaum are methods of mapping IPA designations into ASCII.
• List of phonetics topics
• Pronunciation respelling for English
• NATO phonetic alphabet - also known as the international radiotelephony spelling alphabet or military alphabet. The NATO phonetic alphabet differs from linguistics term phonetic alphabet, and is often confused with International Phonetic Alphabet for English the because of their similar names.

External links

• LONGMAN Dictionary of Contemporary English ONLINE uses IPA.
• Online IPA editor for English
• Online/Offline IPA editor for English
• Roman Phonetic Transcription of English
• IPA transcription systems for English — discussion by John C. Wells of RP transcriptions

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