International Phonetic Alphabet chart

Short description: Phonetic symbol chart

The following is the chart of the International Phonetic Alphabet, a standardized system of phonetic symbols devised and maintained by the International Phonetic Association. It is not a complete list of all possible speech sounds in the world's languages, only those about which stand-alone articles exist in this encyclopedia.

Official chart

The official IPA chart, revised to 2020

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i y	ɨ ʉ	ɯ u
Near-close	ɪ ʏ		ʊ
Close-mid	e ø	ɘ ɵ	ɤ o
Mid	ø̞	ə	o̞
Open-mid	ɛ œ	ɜ ɞ	ʌ ɔ
Near-open	æ	ɐ
Open	a ɶ	ä	ɑ ɒ

• IPA help
•  audio
• full chart
• template

Vowels beside dots are: unrounded • rounded

Consonants

Co-articulated consonants

Nasal

n͡m

Labial–alveolar

ŋ͡m

Labial–velar

Stop

t͡p

d͡b

Labial–alveolar

k͡p

ɡ͡b

Labial–velar

q͡ʡ

Uvular–epiglottal

Fricative

ɧ

Sj-sound (variable)

Approximant

ɥ̊

ɥ

Labial–palatal

ʍ

w

Labial–velar

Lateral approximant

ɫ

Velarized alveolar

Nasal approximant

j̃

Palatal

w̃

Labial–velar

h̃

Glottal

• IPA help
• full chart
• template

Other consonants

• Nasal palatal approximant [j̃]
• Nasal labial–velar approximant [w̃]
• Voiceless nasal glottal approximant [h̃]
• Voiceless bilabially post-trilled dental stop [t̪ʙ̥]
• Voiceless bidental fricative [h̪͆]

Tones

Tone registers

◌̋	˥	꜒	Extra-high (top)
◌́	˦	꜓	High
◌̄	˧	꜔	Mid
◌̀	˨	꜕	Low
◌̏	˩	꜖	Extra-low (bottom)
ꜜ◌			Downstep
ꜛ◌			Upstep

Tone contours

◌̌	˩˥	꜖꜒	Rising (low to high)
◌̂	˥˩	꜒꜖	Falling (high to low)
◌᷄	˧˥	꜔꜒	High rising
	˨˦	꜕꜓	Mid rising
◌᷅	˩˧	꜖꜔	Low rising
◌᷇	˥˧	꜒꜔	High falling
	˦˨	꜓꜕	Mid falling
◌᷆	˧˩	꜔꜖	Low falling
◌᷈	˧˥˨, ˨˦˨, ˩˧˩	꜔꜒꜕, ꜕꜓꜕, ꜖꜔꜖	Rising–falling (Peaking)
◌᷉	˥˧˥, ˦˨˦, ˧˩˧	꜒꜔꜒, ꜓꜕꜓, ꜔꜖꜔	Falling–rising (Dipping)

Auxiliary symbols

Diacritics

◌̥			◌̊			Voiceless	◌̤						Breathy voiced	◌̪			◌͆			Dental
◌̬						Voiced	◌̰						Creaky voiced	◌̺						Apical
◌ʰ						Aspirated	◌̼						Linguolabial	◌̻						Laminal
◌̹		◌͗		◌˒		More rounded	◌ʷ						Labialized	◌̃						Nasalized
◌̜		◌͑		◌˓		Less rounded	◌ʲ						Palatalized	◌ⁿ						Nasal release
◌̟			◌˖			Advanced	◌ˠ						Velarized	◌ˡ						Lateral release
◌̠			◌˗			Retracted	◌ˤ						Pharyngealized	◌̚						No audible release
◌̈						Centralized	◌̴						Velarized or pharyngealized	◌ᵊ						Mid central vowel release
◌̽						Mid-centralized	◌̝			◌˔			Raised	◌ᶿ						Voiceless dental fricative release
◌̩			◌̍			Syllabic	◌̞			◌˕			Lowered	◌ˣ						Voiceless velar fricative release
◌̯			◌̑			Non-syllabic	◌̘			◌꭪			Advanced tongue root	◌ʼ						Ejective
◌˞						Rhoticity	◌̙			◌꭫			Retracted tongue root	◌͡◌ ◌͜◌						Affricate or double articulation

Suprasegmentals

ˈ	Primary stress
ˌ	Secondary stress
ː	Long
ˑ	Half-long
◌̆	Extra-short
|	Minor (foot) group
‖	Major (intonation) group
.	Syllable break
‿	Linking (absence of a break)
↗︎	Global rise
↘︎	Global fall

Transcription

[ ]	Phonetic transcription
/ /	Phonemic transcription
{ }	Prosodic notation
( )	Indistinguishable utterance
⸨ ⸩	Sound obscured

See also

• IPA vowel chart with audio
• IPA consonant chart with audio
• International Phonetic Alphabet chart for English dialects
• Extensions to the International Phonetic Alphabet
• Obsolete and nonstandard symbols in the International Phonetic Alphabet

External links

• The International Phonetic Alphabet and the IPA Chart
• Interactive IPA chart