Wikipedia:IPA

Below is a basic key to the symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet. For the smaller set of symbols that is sufficient for English, see Wikipedia:IPA for English. Several rare IPA symbols are not included; these are found in the main IPA article. For the Manual of Style guideline for pronunciation, see Wikipedia:Manual of Style (pronunciation). Template:IPAkeys Template:Anchor

For each IPA symbol, an English example is given where possible; here "RP" stands for Received Pronunciation. The foreign languages that are used to illustrate additional sounds are primarily the ones most likely to be familiar to English speakers, French, German, and Spanish. For symbols not covered by those, recourse is taken to the populous languages Mandarin Chinese, Hindustani, Arabic, and Russian. For sounds still not covered, other smaller but well-known languages are used, such as Swahili, Turkish, and Zulu.

The left-hand column displays the symbols like this: Template:Audio-pipe. Click on the speaker icon to hear the sound; click on the symbol itself for a dedicated article with a more complete description and examples from multiple languages. All the sounds are spoken more than once, and the consonant sounds are spoken once followed by a vowel and once between vowels.

Main symbols

The symbols are arranged by similarity to letters of the Latin alphabet. Symbols which do not resemble any Latin letter are placed at the end.

Symbol	Examples	Description
^ top A
Template:Audio-pipe	Mandarin 他 tā, German Mann	For many English speakers, the first part of the ow sound in cow. Found in some dialects of English in cat or father.
[ ä ]	Spanish casa, French patte
Template:Audio-pipe	German Aachen, French gare	Long [a].
Template:Audio-pipe	RP cut, German Kaiserslautern	(With English, [ɐ] is normally written "[ʌ]".)
Template:Audio-pipe	Finnish Linna, Dutch bad
Template:Audio-pipe	RP father, French pâte	Long [ɑ].
[ ɑ̃ ]	French Caen, sans, temps	Nasalized [ɑ].
Template:Audio-pipe	RP cot	Like [ɑ], but with the lips slightly rounded.
Template:Audio-pipe		Like [ɔ], but without the lips being rounded. (When "[ʌ]" is used for English, it may really be [ɐ] or [ɜ].)
Template:Audio-pipe	RP cat
^ top B
Template:Audio-pipe	English babble
Template:Audio-pipe	Swahili bwana	Like a [b] said with a gulp.
Template:Audio-pipe		Like the brrr sound made when cold.
Template:Audio-pipe	Spanish la Bamba	Like [b], but with the lips not quite touching.
^ top C
Template:Audio-pipe	Turkish kebap "kebab", Czech stín "shadow", Greek και "and"	Between English tune (RP) and cute. Sometimes used instead for [tʃ] in languages like Hindi.
Template:Audio-pipe	German Ich	More y-like than [x]. Some English speakers have a similar sound in huge. To produce this sound, try whispering loudly the word "ye" as in "Hear ye!".
Template:Audio-pipe	Mandarin Xi'an, Polish ściana	More y-like than [ʃ]; something like English she.
Template:Audio-pipe	see under O
^ top D
Template:Audio-pipe	English dad
Template:Audio-pipe	Swahili Dodoma	Like [d] said with a gulp.
Template:Audio-pipe	American English harder	Like [d] with the tongue curled or pulled back.
Template:Audio-pipe	English the, bathe
Template:Audio-pipe	English adze, Italian zero
Template:Audio-pipe	English judge
Template:Audio-pipe	Polish niedźwiedź "bear"	Like [dʒ], but with more of a y-sound.
Template:Audio-pipe	Polish dżem "jam"	Like [dʒ] with the tongue curled or pulled back.
^ top E
Template:Audio-pipe	Spanish fe; French clé
Template:Audio-pipe	German Klee	Long [e]. Similar to English hey, before the y sets in.
Template:Audio-pipe	English above, Hindi ठग [ʈʰəɡ] (thug) "thief"	(Only occurs in English when not stressed.)
[ ɚ ]	American English runner
Template:Audio-pipe	English bet
[ ɛ̃ ]	French Agen, vin, main; Polish mięso	Nasalized [ɛ].
Template:Audio-pipe	RP bird (long)
[ ɝ ]	American English bird
^ top F
Template:Audio-pipe	English fun
Template:Audio-pipe	see under J
Template:Audio-pipe	see under J
^ top G
Template:Audio-pipe	English gag	(Should look like . No different from a Latin "g")
Template:Audio-pipe	Swahili Uganda	Like [ɡ] said with a gulp.
Template:Audio-pipe		Like [ɡ], but further back, in the throat. Found in Persian and some Arabic dialects for /q/, as in Gaddafi.
Template:Audio-pipe	see under Z	English beige.
^ top H
Template:Audio-pipe	American English house
Template:Audio-pipe	English ahead, when said quickly.
[ ʰ ]		The extra puff of air in English top [tʰɒp] compared to stop [stɒp], or to French or Spanish [t].
Template:Audio-pipe	Arabic محمد Muhammad	Far down in the throat, like [h], but stronger.
Template:Audio-pipe	see under U
[ ɮ ]	see under L
^ top I
Template:Audio-pipe	French ville, Spanish Valladolid
Template:Audio-pipe	English sea	Long [i].
Template:Audio-pipe	English sit
Template:Audio-pipe	Russian ты "you"	Often used for unstressed English roses.
^ top J
Template:Audio-pipe	English yes, hallelujah, German Junge
[ ʲ ]	Russian Ленин [ˈlʲenʲɪn]	Indicates a sound is more y-like.
Template:Audio-pipe	Spanish cayo (some dialects)	Like [j], but stronger.
Template:Audio-pipe	Turkish gör "see", Czech díra "hole"	Between English dew (RP) and argue. Sometimes used instead for [dʒ] in languages like Hindi.
Template:Audio-pipe	Swahili jambo	Like [ɟ] said with a gulp.
^ top K
Template:Audio-pipe	English kick, skip
^ top L
Template:Audio-pipe	English leaf
Template:Audio-pipe	English wool Russian малый [ˈmɑɫɨj] "small"	"Dark" el.
Template:Audio-pipe	Welsh llwyd [ɬʊɪd] "grey" Zulu hlala [ɬaːla] "sit"	Rather like [l] and [ʃ] or [l] and [θ] said together. Found in Welsh names like Lloyd and Llywelyn and Nelson Mandela's Xhosa name Rolihlahla.
Template:Audio-pipe		Like [l] with the tongue curled or pulled back.
Template:Audio-pipe		A flapped [l], like [l] and [ɾ] said together.
Template:Audio-pipe	Zulu dla "eat"	Rather like [l] and [ʒ], or [l] and [ð], said together.
^ top M
Template:Audio-pipe	English mime
Template:Audio-pipe	English symphony	Like [m], but lips touch teeth as they do in [f].
[ ɯ ]	see under W
Template:Audio-pipe	see under W
^ top N
Template:Audio-pipe	English nun
Template:Audio-pipe	English sing
Template:Audio-pipe	Spanish Peña, French champagne	Rather like English canyon.
Template:Audio-pipe	Hindi वरुण [ʋəruɳ] Varuna	Like [n] with the tongue curled or pulled back.
Template:Audio-pipe	Castilian Spanish Don Juan [doɴˈχwan]	Like [ŋ], but further back, in the throat.
^ top O
Template:Audio-pipe	Spanish no, French eau
Template:Audio-pipe	German Boden, French Vosges	Long [o]. Somewhat reminiscent of English no.
Template:Audio-pipe	German Oldenburg, French Garonne
Template:Audio-pipe	RP law, French Limoges	Long [ɔ].
[ ɔ̃ ]	French Lyon, son; Polish wąż	Nasalized [ɔ].
Template:Audio-pipe	French feu, bœufs	Like [e], but with the lips rounded like [o].
Template:Audio-pipe	German Goethe, French Deûle, neutre	Long [ø].
Template:Audio-pipe	Swedish dum	Halfway between [o] and [ø]. Similar to [ʊ] but with the tongue slightly more down and front.
Template:Audio-pipe	French bœuf, seul, German Göttingen	Like [ɛ], but with the lips rounded like [ɔ].
Template:Audio-pipe	French œuvre, heure	Long [œ].
[ œ̃ ]	French brun, parfum	Nasalized [œ].
Template:Audio-pipe	see under other
Template:Audio-pipe	see under other
^ top P
Template:Audio-pipe	English pip
^ top Q
Template:Audio-pipe	Arabic Qur’ān	Like [k], but further back, in the throat.
^ top R
Template:Audio-pipe	Spanish perro, Scots borrow	"Rolled R". (Generally used for English [ɹ] when there's no need to be precise.)
Template:Audio-pipe	Spanish pero, Tagalog daliri, Malay kabar, American English kitty/kiddie	"Flapped R".
Template:Audio-pipe		A trill in the back of the throat. Found for /r/ in some conservative registers of French.
Template:Audio-pipe	Hindi साड़ी [sɑːɽiː] "sari"	Like flapped [ɾ], but with the tongue curled back.
Template:Audio-pipe	RP borrow
Template:Audio-pipe	American English borrow, butter	Like [ɹ], but with the tongue curled or pulled back, as pronounced by many English speakers.
Template:Audio-pipe	French Paris, German Riemann	Said back in the throat, but not trilled.
^ top S
Template:Audio-pipe	English sass
Template:Audio-pipe	English shoe
Template:Audio-pipe	Mandarin 少林 (Shàolín), Russian Пушкин (Pushkin)	Acoustically similar to [ʃ], but with the tongue curled or pulled back.
^ top T
Template:Audio-pipe	English tot, stop
Template:Audio-pipe	Hindi ठग [ʈʰəɡ] (thug) "thief"	Like [t], but with the tongue curled or pulled back.
Template:Audio-pipe	English cats, Russian царь tsar
Template:Audio-pipe	English church
Template:Audio-pipe	Mandarin 北京 Template:Audio-pipe, Polish ciebie "you"	Like [tʃ], but with more of a y-sound.
Template:Audio-pipe	Mandarin zh, Polish czas	Like [tʃ] with the tongue curled or pulled back .
^ top U
Template:Audio-pipe	French vous "you"
Template:Audio-pipe	French Rocquencourt, German Schumacher, close to RP food	Long [u].
Template:Audio-pipe	English foot, German Bundesrepublik
Template:Audio-pipe	Australian English food (long)	Like [ɨ], but with the lips rounded as for [u].
Template:Audio-pipe	French lui	Like [j] and [w] said together.
Template:Audio-pipe	see under W
^ top V
Template:Audio-pipe	English verve
Template:Audio-pipe	Hindi वरुण [ʋəruɳə] "Varuna"	Between [v] and [w]. Used by some Germans and Russians for v/w, and by some speakers of British English for r.
Template:Audio-pipe	Arabic / Swahili ghali "expensive", Spanish suegro	Sounds rather like French [ʁ] or between [g] and [h].
Template:Audio-pipe	Mandarin Hénán	Like [o] but without the lips rounded, something like a cross of [ʊ] and [ʌ].
[ ʌ ]	see under A
^ top W
Template:Audio-pipe	English wow
[ ʷ ]	English rain [ɹʷeɪn]	Indicates a sound has lip rounding, quick.
Template:Audio-pipe	what (some dialects)	like [h] and [w] said together
Template:Audio-pipe	Turkish kayık "caïque"	Like [u], but with the lips flat; something like [ʊ].
Template:Audio-pipe	Spanish agua
^ top X
Template:Audio-pipe	Scottish English loch, German Bach, Russian хороший [xɐˈroʂɨj] "good", Spanish joven	between [k] and [h]
Template:Audio-pipe	northern Standard Dutch Scheveningen, Castilian Spanish Don Juan [doɴˈχwan]	Like [x], but further back , in the throat. Some German and Arabic speakers have [χ] for [x].
^ top Y
Template:Audio-pipe	French rue	Like [i], but with the lips rounded as for [u].
Template:Audio-pipe	German Bülow, French sûr	Long [y].
Template:Audio-pipe	German Eisenhüttenstadt	Like [ɪ], but with the lips rounded as for [ʊ].
Template:Audio-pipe	Italian tagliatelle	Like [l], but more y-like. Rather like English volume.
Template:Audio-pipe	see under U
Template:Audio-pipe	see under V
[ ɣ ]	see under V
^ top Z
Template:Audio-pipe	English zoos
Template:Audio-pipe	English vision, French journal
Template:Audio-pipe	formal Russian жжёшь [ʑːoʂ] "you burn", Polish źle	More y-like than [ʒ], something like beigey.
Template:Audio-pipe	Mandarin 人民日报 Rénmín Rìbào "People's Daily", Russian жир "fat"	Like [ʒ] with the tongue curled or pulled back .
[ ɮ ]	see under L
^ top other
Template:Audio-pipe	English thigh, bath
Template:Audio-pipe	Japanese 富士 [ɸɯdʑi] Fuji, Māori [ˌɸaːɾeː'nuiː] wharenui	Like [p], but with the lips not quite touching
Template:Audio-pipe	English uh-oh, Hawai‘i, German die Angst	The 'glottal stop', a catch in the breath. For some people, found in button [ˈbʌʔn̩], or between vowels across words: Deus ex machina [ˌdeɪəsˌʔɛksˈmɑːkɨnə]; in some nonstandard dialects, in a apple [ʌˈʔæpl̩].
Template:Audio-pipe	Arabic عربي (carabī) "Arabic"	A light sound deep in the throat.
Template:Audio-pipe	English tsk-tsk! or tut-tut!, Zulu icici "earring"	(The English click used for disapproval.) Several distinct sounds, written as digraphs, including [ kǀ ], [ ɡǀ ], [ ŋǀ ]. The Zimbabwean MP Ncube has this click in his name, as did Cetshwayo.
Template:Audio-pipe	English tchick! tchick!, Zulu ixoxo "frog"	(The English click used to urge on a horse.) Several distinct sounds, written as digraphs, including [ kǁ ], [ ɡǁ ], [ ŋǁ ]. Found in the name of the Xhosa.
Template:Audio-pipe	Zulu iqaqa "polecat"	(The English click used to imitate the trotting of a horse.) A hollow popping sound, like a cork pulled from a bottle. Several distinct sounds, written as digraphs, including [ kǃ ], [ ɡǃ ], [ ŋǃ ].

• Template:NoteTemplate:Note These symbols are officially written with a tie linking them (e.g. t͡ʃ), and are also sometimes written as single characters (e.g. ʧ) though the latter convention is no longer official. They are written without ligatures here to ensure correct display in all browsers.

Diacritic marks

All diacritics are here shown on a carrier letter such as the vowel a.

Symbol	Example	Description
[ ˈa ]	pronunciation [pʰɹɜʊ̯ˌnɐnsiˈeɪʃn̩]	Main stress. The mark denotes the stress of the following syllable.
[ ˌa ]		Weaker stress. The mark denotes the stress of the following syllable.
[ aː ]	English shh! [ʃː]	Long. Often used with English vowels or diphthongs: Mayo /ˈmeːoː/ for [ˈmeɪ̯ɜʊ̯], etc.
[ aˑ ]	RP caught [ˈkʰɔˑt]	Semi-long. (Although the vowel is different, this is also longer than cot [ˈkʰɒt].)
[ a̯ ]	English cow [kʰaʊ̯], koi [kʰɔɪ̯]	This vowel does not form a syllable of its own, but runs into the vowel next to it. (In English, the diacritic is generally left off: [kaʊ].)
[ ã ]	French vin blanc [vɛ̃blɑ̃] "white wine"	A nasal vowel, as with a Texas twang.
[ n̥ ]		Sounds like a loud whisper; [n̥] is like a whispered breath through the nose. [l̥] is found in Tibetan Lhasa.
[ n̩ ]	English button	A consonant without a vowel. (English [n̩] is often transcribed /ən/.)
[ d̪ ]	Spanish dos, French deux	The tongue touches the teeth more than it does in English.
[ kʰ ]	English come	Aspirated consonant, pronounced with a puff of air. Similarly [tʰ pʰ tsʰ tʃʰ tɕʰ].
[ k’ ]	Zulu ukuza "come"	Like a popped [k], pushed from the throat. Similarly [tʼ pʼ qʼ tʃʼ tsʼ tɬʼ].
[ á ]	Mandarin 妈妈 [mámā] "mother"	High tone (Pinyin: mā)	Careful! The Pinyin Romanization used for Mandarin has these same diacritics, but with different values. However, Thai Romanization uses them the way the IPA does.
[ ā ]	Mandarin 妈妈 [mámā] "mother"	Mid tone.
[ à ]	Mandarin 马的 [màdɤ] "horse's"	Low tone (Pinyin: mǎ).
[ â ]	Mandarin 骂 [mâ] "scold"	Falling tone (Pinyin: mà).
[ ǎ ]	Mandarin 麻 [mǎ] "hemp"	Rising tone (Pinyin: má).
[ . ]	English courtship [ˈkɔrt.ʃɪp]	Syllable break. (this is often redundant and therefore left off)

Brackets

Two types of brackets are commonly used to enclose transcriptions in the IPA:

• [Square brackets] indicate the phonetic details of the pronunciation, regardless of whether they are actually meaningful to a native speaker. This is what a foreigner who does not know the structure of a language might hear. For instance, the English word lulls is pronounced [ˈlɐɫz], with different el sounds at the beginning and end. This may be obvious to speakers of other languages, though a native English speaker might not believe it. Likewise, Spanish la bomba has two different b sounds to foreign ears, [laˈβomba], though a Spaniard might not be able to hear it. Omitting such detail does not make any difference to the identity of the word.
• /Slashes/ indicate meaningful sounds called phonemes. Changing the symbols between slashes would either change the identity of the word or produce nonsense. Since there is no meaningful difference between the two el sounds in the word lulls, they need to be transcribed with the same symbol: /ˈlʌlz/. Similarly, Spanish la bomba is transcribed phonemically with a single b sound, /laˈbomba/. Thus a reader who is not familiar with the language in question might not know how to interpret these transcriptions.

A third kind of bracket is occasionally seen:

• Either //double slashes// or |pipes| (or occasionally other conventions) show that the enclosed sounds are theoretical constructs that aren't actually heard. (This is part of morphophonology.) For instance, most phonologists argue that the -s at the ends of verbs, which surfaces as either /s/ in talks /tɔːks/ or as /z/ in lulls /lʌlz/, has a single underlying form. If they decide this form is an s, they would write it //s// (or |s|) to claim that phonemic /tɔːks/ and /lʌlz/ are essentially //tɔːks// and //lʌls// underneath. If they were to decide it was essentially the latter, //z//, they would transcribe these words //tɔːkz// and //lʌlz//.

Lastly,

• ‹Angle brackets› may be used to represent the orthographic representation: ‹lulls›, ‹la bomba› (technically ⟨lulls⟩, ⟨la bomba⟩, but this is not universally supported). Because they're easier to type, the less-than and greater-than signs (< >) that appear on most keyboards are commonly used for this purpose.

Rendering issues

Voiced velar plosive

These two characters should look similar:

ɡ

If in the box to the left you see the symbol ‘’ rather than a lower-case open-tail g, you may be experiencing a well-known bug in the font MS Reference Sans Serif or other; switching to Lucida Sans Unicode or Arial Unicode should fix it.

On your current font: [ɡ].

Affricates and double articulation

The tie bar is intended to cover both letters of an affricate or doubly articulated consonant. However, if your browser uses Arial Unicode MS to display IPA characters, the following incorrectly formed sequences may look better than the correct order (letter, tie bar, letter) due to a bug in that font:

ts͡, tʃ͡, tɕ͡, dz͡, dʒ͡, dʑ͡, tɬ͡, kp͡, ɡb͡, ŋm͡.

Here is how the proper configuration displays in your default font:

t͡s, d͡z, t͡ʃ, d͡ʒ, t͡ɕ, d͡ʑ, t͡ɬ, k͡p, ɡ͡b, ŋ͡m,

and in other several fonts: Template:MFSample

Angle brackets

True angle brackets, ⟨ ⟩, are unsupported by several common fonts, and so have been replaced by ‹ › or < > in most Wikipedia articles. However,

See also

• IPA charts for diphthongs in various languages
• Wikipedia:Manual of Style (pronunciation)#Entering IPA characters

External links

• IPA pronunciation chart
• IPA Charts – pronunciation charts with an interactive chart of all IPA symbols with their sounds (Flash)
• IPA Character Picker 7 - An easy-to-use web site for creating the complete set of IPA characters with any diacritic.