"International Phonetic Alphabet" from Dory to Lilly

Linguists like to compare languages, and one of the biggest barriers to this is that there are a lot of different writing systems out there, and some languages don't have writing systems at all.  So they came up with their own writing system, which can be applied to any spoken language.  It's called the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) and it has hundreds of symbols to represent all the individual sounds represented in human languages.  IPA can describe EXACTLY how something is pronounced.  With this, English's 26 letters become 40-odd symbols, describing exactly how we make the sounds represented by our letters in different situations.


Here's a chart:. These are all the symbols IPA uses to describe English sounds.  I was going to explain all that jargon on the left side and top of the chart, but then I realized that it's kind of complicated, and although useful and interesting for people studying Linguistics, it's kind of irrelevant if you're just wanting to learn how to read and write with this alphabet. So, if anyone wishes me to, I can explain more about it, but I'm not going to right now.

Click to make bigger

IPA is based on the Latin writing system, so a lot of those characters are familiar and make the sounds you'd expect them to.  Some of them are familiar and don't make the sounds you'd expect them too, though, so be careful.  Some of the characters are Greek, or upside-down, or made-up, and those are the ones you'll have to memorize. Here's an explanation of the sounds they make.  It may be best for you to go somewhere private when looking through this list so you can try out some of the sounds without feeling silly.  Seriously, it helps.

b: bad, lab

d: did, lady

f: find, if

g: give, flag

h: how, hello

j: yes, yellow

• notice that the j in IPA represents the sound we would usually write as y.  IPA doesn't use the y symbol, at least not for English.

k: cat, back

• k represents both the English c and k, as well as the ck combination. They are all the same sound, after all.

l: leg, little

ɫ : little, hustle

• "dark l." usually, an l is made with the tip of the tongue against the alveolar ridge (the ridge behind your teeth), but sometimes, often at the end of words, it shows up as a dark l, which is made with the back of the tongue against the velum (soft part of the top of your mouth, way at the back.)

m: man, lemon

n: no, ten

ŋ: sing, finger

• "ang." Usually the n sound is an alveolar nasal, which means the tongue presses up against the alveolar ridge and the air from your lungs goes through your nose. When we use ŋ instead, the back of our tongue presses up against the velum instead. 
• Also, a handy remembering tool is that linguists often coin names for thing that use the concept they illustrate. The name "ang" is pronounced with an ŋ.

p: pet, map

ɹ: red, try

• Our regular r is an upside-down r in IPA, technically. When they're only talking about English sounds, linguists often just use a regular r to make things more simple.  But, we talk about Spanish a lot in this blog, and to the IPA world in general, the symbol r represents the trilled r used in Spanish, and ɹ represents how we do it in English.

s: sun, miss

ʃ: she, crash

• The "sh" sound is represented with the symbol "esh" in IPA.  Once again, the name uses the sound it talks about.

t: tea, top

ɾ: better, little

• alveolar tap.  We think of it as a t, or a double t, in English, but it's actually a separate sound.  Usually t's are an alveolar stop, meaning the tongue presses up against the alveolar ridge and stops the airflow completely, and then releases it.  With an alveolar tap, it doesn't completely stop the airflow; it just "taps" the alveolar ridge.

ʔ: mitten, cat

• The glottal stop!  It's when you stop the air completely in the back of your throat and then release it.  Say "glottal:" that's an alveolar tap.  Now say "glottal" with a Cockney accent: look, a glottal stop!

tʃ: check, church

• Even though it's two characters together, think of it as one symbol.  There are a couple instances like this in IPA, and you just have to learn and watch out for them.

θ: think, both

• "Theta."  This is one of the two symbols that represent the "th" in English.  You may have noticed before that English has two "th" sounds: both are interdental fricatives, with the tongue between the teeth and vibrating, but one uses the vocal chords and one doesn't.  θ doesn't.

ð: this, mother

• "eth" is the voiced interdental fricative.  Here is another case where the name employs the sound it describes, as it does with theta.

v: voice, five

w: wet, window

ʍ: whom, which

• A lot of people don't have this sound in their normal speech.  It's that odd "h" that people add after the "w".  A lot of older people do it.  It depends on your dialect of English.

z: zoo, lazy

ʒ: pleasure, vision

• This is a sound that English doesn't like much.  It mostly shows up in words borrowed from other languages, especially French, which loves this sound.  It's the "g" in "mirage," and the "s" in "vision."  You might use it in "garage."

dʒ: just, large

• Since IPA used "j" for our "y" sound, it needed another symbol for "j." Here it is. Once again, think of it as one symbol even though it's two characters.

In the chart, some of the characters are in parenthesis.  That means that they're allophones: English speakers don't think of them as different sounds, and some speakers don't use them at all.

You may have noticed that those are all consonants. Next I'll give you vowels, which are kind of tricky.  Also, harder to describe, because they vary a lot with accents and dialects.  When you look at these, think of them as Standard American English would pronounce them.  I'll give you a link to a site that has sound bytes later in this post.

æ      cat, black          

e       bait, eight       

ə:      away, cinema 

ʌ:      was, hustle

• ə and ʌ are practically the same sound-- ə is used when the sound comes in an unstressed syllable; ʌ is when it's stressed.

ɜ:      bet, end          

ɪ: hit, sitting         

i: see, heat           

ɑ:      hot, rock

ɔ:      bought, coffee

• a lot of people don't have this sound in their dialect of American English.  This is characteristic of the east coast, and usually doesn't show up in the west (they use ɑ instead)  My relatives in Rhode Island use this vowel; I don't.  If I were to spell it how it sounds, "coffee" would be something like "cwoffee."  Or, in IPA, [kɔfi].

ʊ      good, put

u:      blue, food 

aɪ      five, eye

• This and the next two are called "diphthongs," and they happen when we let the sounds around it influence the sound of our vowel.  It is very common for a vowel to become a diphthong, because the way they're formed in our mouth is so imprecise.

aʊ     now, out           

ɔɪ      boy, join

Example sound bites


Here are some entire words transcribed.  If anyone wants to practice some, say so in the comments and I'll give you some words to try out and correct/help you figure it out.  It takes some practice. :)


hustle: /hʌsl/

[hʌsɫ]

• Here's an important thing when transcribing: your transcription will either be in /slashes/ or [brackets].  Usually in brackets. The difference is, /slashes/ mean what your transcribing is the underlying form, what people think they're saying.  In English, people don't think of the dark l [ɫ] as a separate sound; they think of it as an /l/.  Brackets mean that your transcription is what people actually say.

recommend: [ɹɛkəmɛnd]


three: [θɹi]


transcribe: [tɹænskɹɑɪb]


strange: [stɹendʒ]


So, that's IPA!  Comment if you have any questions, or want to practice. 


Here's a handy-dandy website where you can type in IPA, and then copy-paste it over here.