International Phonetic Alphabet

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 ( Phone s or Phoneme s) used in spoken human language. It is intended as a notational standard for the Phonemic and Phonetic representation of all spoken languages. For a treatment of the English Language using the IPA, see International Phonetic Alphabet For English ; for a brief chart, see IPA Chart For English . HISTORY DESCRIPTION The general principle of the IPA is to provide a separate symbol for each Speech Segment , avoiding letter combinations ( Digraph s) such as '' Sh '' and '' Th '' in English Orthography , and avoiding ambiguity such as that of ''c'' In English . The principle of formation The IPA is what MacMahon (1996) has termed a "selective" phonetic alphabet. It aims to provide a separate symbol for every ''contrastive'' (that is, '' Phonemic '') sound occurring in human language. For instance, a Flap and a tap are two different articulations, but since no language has (yet) been found to make a phonemic distinction between them, the IPA does not provide them with dedicated symbols. Instead, it provides a single symbol, , that covers both. For ''non-contrastive'' (that is, '' Phonetic '' or ''subphonemic'') details of these sounds, the IPA relies on Diacritic s, which are optional. Thus there is a certain level of flexibility in representing a language with the IPA. Principles behind the symbols The letters chosen for the IPA are generally drawn from the Latin and Greek alphabets, or are modifications of Latin or Greek letters. There are also a few letters derived from Latin punctuation, such as the glottal stop (originally an Apostrophe , but later given the form of a "gelded" Question Mark to have the visual impact of the other consonants), and one, , although Latin in form, was inspired by Arabic letter <ﻉ> ''`ain''. On the other hand, the original Latin-derived symbols for the Click s have been abandoned in favor of iconic Khoisanist symbols such as . The sound-values of the Consonant s taken from the Latin Alphabet correspond to usage in French, and are close to those of most other European languages as well: , , , , , , , , , (unvoiced) , , , . English values are used for and . The Vowel s from the Latin alphabet (, , , , ) correspond to the vowels of Spanish and are similar to Italian . is like the vowel in ''piece'', like ''rule'', etc. The other symbols from the Latin alphabet, , , , , , and , correspond to sounds these letters represent in various other languages. has the Slavic and Germanic value of , that of English ''y'' in ''yoke''; has the ''y'', German ''y'' or ''ü'', French ''u'', Dutch ''uu'', or the Classical Greek Υ (Upsilon). Letters that share a particular modification sometimes correspond to a similar type of sound. For example, all the Retroflex Consonant s have the same symbol as the equivalent Alveolar Consonant , with the addition of a rightward facing hook at the bottom. Although there is some correspondence between modified letters, generally the IPA symbols do not have a systematic Featural relationship between shape and articulation. For instance, there is not a consistent relationship between lowercase letters and their small capital counterparts, nor are all Labial Consonant s linked through a common design. Diacritic Mark s can be combined with IPA letters to transcribe modified Phonetic values or Secondary Articulation s. There are also special symbols for Suprasegmental Feature s such as Stress and Tone . Types of transcription The International Phonetic Association recommends that a Phonetic transcription should be enclosed in Square Brackets " {Link without Title} ". A transcription that specifically denotes only Phonological contrasts may be enclosed in Slash es "/ /" instead. If one is in doubt, it is best to use brackets, for by setting off a transcription with slashes one makes a theoretical claim that every symbol within is Phonemic ally contrastive for the language being transcribed. Phonetic transcriptions try to objectively capture the actual pronunciation of a word, whereas phonemic transcriptions are model-dependent. For example, in The Sound Pattern Of English , Noam Chomsky and Morris Halle transcribed the English word ''night'' phonemically as /nixt/. In this model, the phoneme /x/ is never realized as but shows its presence by "lengthening" the preceding vowel. The preceding vowel in this case is the phoneme /i/, which is pronounced [aj when "long". So phonemic /nixt/ is equivalent to phonetic [najt], but only if you share the belief that historical sounds such as the ''gh'' in ''night'' may remain in a word long after they have ceased to be pronounced, or that a phoneme may exist in a language without ever being directly expressed. (This was later rejected by Chomsky & Halle.) For phonetic transcriptions, there is flexibility in how closely sounds may be transcribed. A transcription that gives only a basic idea of the sounds of a language in the broadest terms is called a ''broad transcription''; in some cases this may be equivalent to a phonemic transcription (only without any theoretical claims). A close transcription, indicating precise details of the sounds, is called a ''narrow transcription''. These are not binary choices, but the ends of a continuum, with many possibilities in between. All are enclosed in brackets. For example, in some dialects the English word ''pretzel'' in a narrow transcription would be , which notes several phonetic features that may not be evident even to a native speaker. An example of a broader transcription is , which only indicates some of the easier to hear features. A yet broader transcription would be . Here every symbol represents an unambiguous speech sound, but without making any claims as to their status in the language. There are also several possibilities in how to transcribe this word phonemically, but here the differences are generally not of precision, but of analysis. For example, ''pretzel'' could be or . The special symbol for English ''r'' is not used, for it is not meaningful to distinguish it from a rolled ''r''. The differences in the letter ''e'' reflect claims as to what the essential difference is between the vowels of ''pretzel'' and ''pray''; there are half a dozen ideas in the literature as to what this may be. The second transcription claims that there are two vowels in the word, even if they can't both be heard, while the first claims there is only one. However, phonemic transcriptions may also be broad or narrow, or perhaps it would be better to say abstract vs. concrete. They may show a fair amount of phonetic detail, usually of a phoneme's most common allophone, but because they are abstract symbols they do not need to directly resemble any sound at all. Phonemic symbols will frequently be chosen to avoid diacritics as much as possible, under a 'one sound one symbol' policy, or may even be restricted to the ASCII symbols of a typical keyboard. For example, the English word ''church'' may be transcribed as , a close approximation of its actual pronunciation, or more abstractly as (three phonemes, three symbols), which is easier to type. Phonemic symbols should always be explained, especially when they are as divergent from actual pronunciation as .
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International Phonetic Alphabet