Introduction to IPA

English • Português

The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a set of symbols with precise meanings used by linguists to describe sounds used in human languages.

Why?

• Writing systems already used by a language may not be very consistent or too complex for this — acento, assento · sexto, cesto have the same pronunciation but different spellings.

• Using the alphabet of one language to describe another language can be very limiting — you can try to read the word niebieszczeć in Polish but you may not be sure how it is pronounced.

With the IPA, sounds can be described in the same way for all languages, so it is very important tool for conlangers.

Consonants

Consonants are formed by obstructing the airflow from the lungs with the mouth.

Consonants in the IPA are organized in a table based on the points where the obstructions occur in the mouth, horizontally are places of articulation and vertically manners of articulation.

Learning the symbols in the IPA table is not as important as learning the meanings of the rows and columns, knowing them allows you to consult the table and understand the sound much faster.

Places of articulation

The points in the diagram below are places of articulation, which are the places where an obstruction occurs. In the table, it starts at the lips and continues inward.

Compare the diagram with the names of the areas in the table and the examples of how they are made in some languages ​​(the most common pronunciation of them) and how to write them in IPA between [ ].

You can hover over the numbers to see the name of the organ.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Pronouncing the examples and paying attention to what happens in them is good for learning.

Manner of articulation

The other thing that describes a consonant is the manner of articulation, which is how much of the airflow is obstructed.

The name of a consonant is written by joining the place of articulation and the manner of articulation, for example [m] is a bilabial nasal consonant, [l] is an alveolar lateral approximant consonant.

Note that the consonants [r] (alveolar trill), [ʁ] (uvular trill) and [ɾ] (alveolar tap) are written with the letter R in their native languages ​​and also look like r in the IPA.

These consonants are called rhotics, because they are written with the letter R in several languages ​​and the human mind tends to find them similar.

Consonant Table

The following table is a simplified version of the consonant table, this one has only the articulations shown so far.

In the consonant table another important distinction is made. Some cells have two symbols, those on the left side, such as [p] [t] [k] are voiceless, while those on the right side, such as [b] [d] [g] are voiced. In cells with only one symbol, it is voiced by default.

In voiced sounds the vocal cords vibrate (number (7) in the diagram), while in voiceless sounds the air passes through without vibrating. You can feel the vibration by placing your finger on your neck, compare the sounds [ffff] and [vvvv].

This table shows some of the most common sounds, with the Bilabial, Alveolar and Velar being places of articulation found in almost all languages ​​in the world. The sounds [p] [t] [k] [m] [n] are extremely common.

Notes

The table does not have a row for Affricates, because they are written with a plosive followed by a fricative. Sometimes they are joined by a bar like [t͡s] [d͡ʒ] but this is not necessary most of the time.

The symbol [w] is a bit special, it is actually bilabial and velar at the same time. There are actually more sounds of this type, they are Labiovelar consonants. (ver Other Consonants)

Vowels

Vowels are sounds made without obstruction to the airflow and are voiced.

In the diagram below the dots represent approximately where the highest point of the tongue should be to make the vowels [a], [i] and [u], because they are extreme points these are called cardinal vowels.

a

i

u

The position of vowels is defined by two things: backness and height.

Vowels made at the back of the mouth are back vowels (like [u]), vowels made with the tongue towards the front of the mouth are front vowels (like [i]), and those in between are central vowels (like [a]). Backness is indicated in the columns of the table.

Each line in the vowel table is a level of height, the vowel [a] is made with a low tongue, while the vowels [i] and [u] are made with a high tongue. There are several other levels in between.

For vowels, there are infinite positions in the mouth where they can be made, so it is easier to learn them by comparing them with audio.

Just like consonants, there are two vowels per cell. Those to the right of the dot (such as [u]) are rounded, meaning that the lips are rounded to make the vowel. Those to the left of the dot (such as [i]) are unrounded, and are made with spread lips.

Central vowels such as [a] [ɐ] and [ə] have no rounding distinction at all.

Front vowels prefer to be unrounded and back vowels prefer to be rounded. That is why the most common vowels are [a] [e] [i] [o] [u], and also [ə] (called schwa) has a special position because it is a very neutral vowel.

Notes

The height of a vowel can also be named by the aperture of the jaw, high vowels are closed and low vowels are open.

Relationship with approximants

Vowels are very similar to approximant consonants, sometimes from an articulatory point of view they are the same. This is a table of the relationships between consonants and vowels.

The vowel [ɚ] is the rhotacized vowel [ə], this means that it is made in a way that it looks like a rhotic, any other vowel can be rhotic but they rarely do so.

Diacritics

The symbols shown in the table alone are not enough to describe all languages. For this, there are some other symbols that are placed on the characters to modify a consonant or vowel.

For consonants

Some of the most common diacritics are superscript letters, such as [kʷ], which means that the sound is a [k] but made with a [w] at the same time, similar to queen.

This is a table with some of the most common superscripts:

The consonants of the Alveolar column can be transformed to Dental with the diacritic [◌̪], for example [s̪], [z̪] and [t̪] which are dental versions of [s], [z] and [t]. (The difference between [s̪ z̪] and [θ ð] will be explained in another article)

Alveolar consonants can also be transformed into Linguolabial, this is a rare place of ​articulation, where the tip of the tongue approaches the upper lip. They are made with the diacritic [◌̼], for example [n̼], [d̼], [s̼].

For vowels

The most common change to vowels is nasalization, when the air passes simultaneously through the mouth and nose, they are represented by a tilde [◌̃] such as [ã], [ẽ], [ĩ], [õ], [ũ].

Sometimes vowels can "slide" from one to the other and form diphthongs. In a diphthong one of the vowels is weaker than the other, the weaker vowel receives the diacritic [◌̯] as [eɪ̯], [aɪ̯], [u̯a].

Others

Another common diacritic is to represent devoicing [◌̊].

It can be used to make voiced consonants voiceless, like [m̥] [l̥] [d̥]. Or it can be used on vowels to make voiceless vowels, but these are even less common, [ḁ], [i̥].

It is also common to find languages ​​where vowels or consonants are differentiated by duration, for this the diacritic [ː] is used for long vowels [aː], [eː] or geminate consonants [kː], [sː]. Geminate consonants are held for longer than the short ones.

Finally, in some languages ​​consonants can be used as if they were vowels, which is why they are called syllabic consonants, for this they use a diacritic as in [r̩] [l̩] [m̩].

Other Consonants

Some columns have been hidden in the previous table for simplicity.

Another place of ​​articulation is for retroflex consonants, which are made with the tip (or the underside) of the tongue on the roof of the mouth. In the IPA, they are identifiable by the little tail.

Another column missing from the simplified consonant table is the pharyngeal, which are sounds made by bringing the back of the tongue closer to the throat, it is an area with very limited articulation.

For pharyngeal consonants the difference between fricatives and approximants is minimal and no attested languages contrasts them, and the vibrant consonants may be called epiglottal, because they are made with the vibration of the epiglottis.

Co-articulated Consonants

Finally, there are consonants made with two points of articulation together, they are called co-articulated.

The most common co-articulation is Labiovelar, made with a bilabial and velar consonant at the same time, the most common example and found in many languages ​​is the consonant [w].

There are also plosive and nasal labiovelar consonants [k͡p], [ɡ͡b], [ŋ͡m]. And the IPA has a special symbol for the voiceless form of [w] which is [ʍ].

And the last one is the consonant [ɥ] which is a labiopalatal approximant, basically the consonantal form of the vowel [y]. It is also equivalent to [jʷ].

Next

This is the introduction to the IPA, there are still many subjects to talk about that deserve their own article.

All the consonants shown here are pulmonic, made with air that comes from the lungs, there is another group of non-pulmonic consonants for another article.

Another thing is that consonants made with the tip of the tongue, called coronals, can have small changes in articulation that have big results in the sounds they produce. That's why there will be an article explaining them in detail.

And finally, the IPA has symbols that represent elements that are not consonants or vowels, such as stressed syllables. These will be shown in an article about prosody.