TheInternational Phonetic Alphabet was created soon after theInternational Phonetic Association was established in the late 19th century. It was intended as an international system of phonetic transcription fororal languages, originally for pedagogical purposes. The Association was established inParis in 1886 by French and British language teachers led byPaul Passy. The prototype of the alphabet appeared inPhonetic Teachers' Association (1888b). The Association based their alphabet upon theRomic alphabet ofHenry Sweet, which in turn was based on thePhonotypic Alphabet ofIsaac Pitman and thePalæotype ofAlexander John Ellis.^[1]

The alphabet has undergone a number of revisions during its history, the most significant being the one put forth at the Kiel Convention in 1989. Changes to the alphabet are proposed and discussed in the Association's organ,Journal of the International Phonetic Association, previously known asLe Maître Phonétique and before that asThe Phonetic Teacher, and then put to a vote by the Association's Council.

Theextensions to the IPA for disordered speech were created in 1990, with a major revision in 2015.^[2]

The International Phonetic Association was founded in Paris in 1886 under the nameDhi Fonètik Tîtcerz' Asóciécon (The Phonetic Teachers' Association), a development ofL'Association phonétique des professeurs d'Anglais ("The English Teachers' Phonetic Association"), to promote an international phonetic alphabet, designed primarily for English, French, and German, for use in schools to facilitate acquiring foreign pronunciation.^[3]

Originally the letters had different phonetic values from language to language. For example, English[ʃ] was transcribed with⟨c⟩ and French[ʃ] with⟨x⟩.^[4]

As of May and November 1887, the alphabets were as follows:^[5][6]

In the August–September 1888 issue of its journal, the Phonetic Teachers' Association published a standardized alphabet intended for transcription of multiple languages, reflecting its members' consensus that only one set of alphabet ought to be used for all languages,^[7] along with a set of six principles:

1. There should be a separate sign for each distinctive sound; that is, for each sound which, being used instead of another, in the same language, can change the meaning of a word.
2. When any sound is found in several languages, the same sign should be used in all. This applies also to very similar shades of sound.
3. The alphabet should consist as much as possible of the ordinary letters of the roman alphabet; as few new letters as possible being used.
4. In assigning values to the roman letters, international usage should decide.
5. The new letters should be suggestive of the sounds they represent, by their resemblance to the old ones.
6. Diacritic marks should be avoided, being trying for the eyes and troublesome to write.^[8]

The principles would govern all future development of the alphabet, with the exception of #5 and in some cases #2,^[9] until they were revised drastically in 1989.^[10] #6 has also been loosened, as diacritics have been admitted for limited purposes.^[11]

The devised alphabet was as follows. The letters marked with an asterisk were "provisional shapes", which were meant to be replaced "when circumstances will allow".^[8]

During the 1890s, the alphabet was expanded to cover sounds of Arabic and other non-European languages which did not easily fit the Latin alphabet.^[4]

Throughout the first half of the 1900s, the Association published a series of booklets outlining the specifications of the alphabet in several languages, the first being a French edition published in 1900.^[12] In the book, the chart appeared as follows:^[13]

Initially, the charts were arranged with laryngeal sounds on the left and labial ones on the right, following the convention ofAlexander Melville Bell'sVisible Speech.^[17] Vowels and consonants were placed in a single chart, reflecting how sounds ranged in openness from stops (top) to open vowels (bottom). Thevoiced velar fricative was represented by⟨⟩ (distinct from ⟨ɡ⟩, which represents a plosive) since 1895 until it was replaced by ⟨ǥ⟩ in 1900.^[18][19] ⟨ǥ⟩ too would be replaced by ⟨ɣ⟩ in 1931.^[20]

Not all letters, especially those in the fricatives row which included bothfricatives in the modern sense andapproximants, were self-explanatory and could only be discerned in the notes following the chart, which redefined letters using the orthographies of languages wherein the sounds they represent occur. For example:

(ꞯ) [is] the Arabicain [modern ⟨ʕ⟩].(ꜰ)(ʋ) is a simple bilabial fricative [modern ⟨ɸβ⟩] ...(θ) is the English hardth, Spanishz, Romaic [Greek] θ, Icelandic þ;(ð) the English softth, Icelandic ð, Romaic δ.(ɹ) is the non-rolledr of Southern British, and can also be used for the simpler of Spanish and Portuguese [modern ⟨ɾ⟩] ...(x) is found in German inach;(ǥ), inwagen, as often pronounced in the north of Germany [modern ⟨ɣ⟩].(ᴚ) is the Arabickh as inkhalifa [modern ⟨χ⟩];(ʁ) the Danishr; the Parisianr is intermediate between(ʀ) and(ʁ). —(ʜ) [modern ⟨ħ⟩] and(ɦ) are theha andhe in Arabic.^[21] —(ᵷ) and(ʒ) are sounds inCircassian [approximately modern ⟨ɕʑ⟩^[22]].^[23]

Nasalized vowels were marked with atilde: ⟨ã⟩, ⟨ẽ⟩, etc. It was noted that ⟨ə⟩ may be used for "any vowel of obscure and intermediate quality found in weak syllables".^[23] A long sound was distinguished by trailing ⟨ː⟩. Stress may be marked by ⟨´⟩ before the stressed syllable, as necessary, and the Swedish and Norwegian 'compound tone' (double tone) with ⟨ˇ⟩ before the syllable.^[23]

A voiced sound was marked by ⟨◌̬⟩ and a voiceless one by ⟨◌̥⟩.Retroflex consonants were marked by ⟨◌̣⟩, as in ⟨ṣ,ṭ,ṇ⟩. Arabicemphatic consonants were marked by ⟨◌̤⟩: ⟨s̤,t̤,d̤⟩. Consonants accompanied by a glottal stop (ejectives) were marked by ⟨ʼ⟩: ⟨kʼ,pʼ⟩.Tense and lax vowels were distinguished by acute and grave accents:naught[nɔ́ːt],not[nɔ̀t]. Non-syllabic vowels were marked by abreve, as in ⟨ŭ⟩, and syllabic consonants by an acute below, as in ⟨n̗⟩. Following letters, ⟨꭫⟩ stood for advanced tongue, ⟨꭪⟩ for retracted tongue, ⟨˕⟩ for more open, ⟨˔⟩ for more close, ⟨˒⟩ for more rounded, and ⟨˓⟩ for more spread. It was also noted that a superscript letter may be used to indicate a tinge of that sound in the sound represented by the preceding letter, as in ⟨ʃᶜ̧⟩.^[24]

It was emphasized, however, that such details need not usually be repeated in transcription.^[24] The equivalent part of the 1904 English edition said:

[I]t must remain a general principle toleave out everything self-evident, and everything that can be explained once for all. This allows us to dispense almost completely with the modifiers, and with a good many other signs, except in scientific works and in introductory explanations. We write Englishfill and Frenchfil the same wayfil; yet the English vowel is 'wide' and the French 'narrow', and the Englishl is formed much further back than the French. If we wanted to mark these differences, we should write Englishfìl꭪, Frenchfíl꭫. But we need not do so: we know, once for all, that English shorti is alwaysì, and Frenchi alwaysí; that Englishl is alwaysl꭪ and Frenchl alwaysl꭫.^[25]

In the 1904Aim and Principles of the International Phonetic Association, the first of its kind in English, the chart appeared as:^[26]

In comparison to the 1900 chart, theglottal stop ⟨ʔ⟩ appeared as a dotless question mark at a slightly smaller size in the chart or sample transcriptions, similar to the footless form for the modifier letter ⟨ˀ⟩, but as a full letter in the table showing script forms next to typographic forms. ⟨ʊ⟩ replaced ⟨ᴜ⟩. ⟨ᵷ,ʒ⟩ were removed from the chart and instead only mentioned as having "been suggested for a Circassian dental hiss [sibilant] and its voiced correspondent".^[25] ⟨σ⟩ is suggested for the Bantu labialized sibilant, and ⟨*⟩ as a diacritic to markclick consonants. It is noted that some^[who?] prefer iconic ⟨ɵʚ⟩ to ⟨øœ⟩, and that ⟨ɪ⟩ and ⟨ː⟩ are unsatisfactory letters.

Laryngeal consonants had also been moved around, reflecting little understanding about the mechanisms of laryngeal articulations at the time.^[28] ⟨ʜ⟩ and ⟨ꞯ⟩ were defined as the Arabicح andع.^[29]

In the notes, the half-length mark ⟨ˑ⟩ is now mentioned, and it is noted that whispered sounds may be marked with a diacritical comma, as in ⟨u̦,i̦⟩. A syllabic consonant is now marked by a vertical bar, as in ⟨n̩⟩, rather than ⟨n̗⟩.^[30] It is noted, in this edition only, that "shifted vowels" may be indicated: ⟨꭪꭪⟩ for in-mixed or in-front, and ⟨꭫꭫⟩ for out-back.^[31]

Following 1904, sets of specifications in French appeared in 1905 and 1908, with little to no changes.^[32][33] In 1912, the second English booklet appeared. For the first time, labial sounds were shown on the left and laryngeal ones on the right:^[34]

⟨ř⟩ was added for theCzech fricative trill and ⟨ɛ̈⟩ replaced ⟨ä⟩, following their approval in 1909.^[35] Though not included in the chart, ⟨ɱ⟩ was mentioned as an optional letter for thelabiodental nasal. ⟨ɹ⟩ was still designated as the "provisional" letter for the alveolar tap/flap. ⟨σ,ƍ⟩ were defined as the Bantu sounds with "tongue position ofθ, ð, combined with strong lip-rounding". ⟨ʜ,ꞯ⟩ were still included though not in the chart.^[36] ⟨ᴙ⟩ was removed entirely.

For the first time, affricates, or"'[a]ssibilated' consonant groups, i. e. groups in which the two elements are so closely connected that the whole might be treated as a single sound", were noted as able to be represented with atie bar, as in ⟨t͡ʃ,d͜z⟩.Palatalized consonants could be marked by adot above the letter, as in ⟨ṡ,ṅ,ṙ⟩, "suggesting the connexion with the soundsi andj".^[37]

⟨꭫,꭪⟩ were no longer mentioned.

The 1921Écriture phonétique internationale introduced new letters, some of which were never to be seen in any other booklet:^[38]

		Laryn- gales	Uvu- laires	Vélaires	Palatales	Linguales	Labiales
Consonnes	Plosives	ʔ[27]	q  ɢ	k  ɡ	c  ɟ	t  d	p  b
	Nasales		ɴ	ŋ	ɲ	n	m
	Latérales				ʎ	l
	Roulées		ᴙ  ʀ			r
	Fricatives	h	χ  ʁ	(ƕ w)  x ǥ[b]	( ɥ)ç j	ʃ ʒ  s z ɹ  θ ð	f v  ꜰ ʋ ƕ w   ɥ
Voyelles	Fermées			u  ɯʉ  ɨy  i   o  ɤ[39]ɵ  ɘø  e ə ɔ  ʌʚ  ᴈœ  ɛ ɐ ɑa			(u ʉ y)   (o ɵ ø)   (ɔ ʚ œ)
	Mi-fermées
	Mi-ouvertes
	Ouvertes

⟨χ⟩ replaced ⟨ᴚ⟩ and ⟨ɤ⟩ replaced ⟨ᴀ⟩, both of which would not officially be approved until 1928.^[40] ⟨ƕ⟩ replaced ⟨ʍ⟩ and⟨⟩ was added for a devoiced[ɥ], but neither has appeared in any other IPA chart and the latter is not supported by Unicode. Also added were dedicated letters for the central vowels, ⟨ɨ,ʉ,ɘ,ɵ,ᴈ,ʚ⟩, which appeared again inTrofimov & Jones (1923), p. 40 and in the chart inLe Maître Phonétique from 1926 to 1927, though without the Council's approval.^[41][42] Of these, only ⟨ɨ,ʉ,ᴈ,ɵ⟩ were approved in the 1928 revision, with a different value for ⟨ᴈ⟩, until ⟨ɘ,ʚ⟩ were revived and ⟨ᴈ⟩ regained the 1921 value in 1993. The old convention of ⟨ï,ü,ë,ö,ɛ̈,ɔ̈⟩ was retained for where central vowels were not phonemically distinct. ⟨ə,ɐ⟩ were still for obscure or indeterminate vowels, as opposed to the others, which would indicate clear pronunciations.

The book also mentioned letters "already commonly used in special works", some of which had long been part of the IPA but others which "have not yet been definitively adopted":^[43]

• ⟨ɾ⟩ for a single-tapr
• ⟨ř⟩ for the Czech fricative trill
• ⟨ɦ⟩ for a voiced[h]
• ⟨ħ,ʕ⟩ for the Arabicح andع, "whose formation we do not yet agree on"
• ⟨σ,ƍ⟩ (dental) and ⟨ƪ,ƺ⟩ (alveolar or palatal) for labialized sibilants found in South African languages
• As "suggested":
  • ⟨ᵷ,ʒ⟩ for Circassian dental fricatives
  • ⟨ɮ⟩ for fricative[l] of Bantu languages
  • ⟨ɺ⟩ for a sound between[r] and[l] found in African languages and in Japanese
• Smallj for palatalized consonants: ⟨ƫ,ᶎ⟩
• Overlaying tilde for velarized and Arabic emphatic consonants: ⟨ᵵ,ᵭ⟩
• ⟨ɕ,ʑ⟩ for "dentalized palatals"
• ⟨𝼪⟩, ⟨𝼥⟩, ⟨r⟩, etc. for retroflex consonants, previously represented by ⟨ṭ,ḍ,ṛ⟩ etc.^[44]
• ⟨ʧ⟩, ⟨ʤ⟩, ⟨ʦ⟩, ⟨ʣ⟩, ⟨pf⟩, ⟨tl⟩, etc. for affricates
• ⟨ᴜ,ɪ,ʏ⟩ for the near-close equivalents of[o,e,ø]
• ⟨ɒ,æ⟩ for the near-open vowels in Englishnot, man
• ⟨ʇ,ʖ,ʞ,ʗ⟩ for clicks, with ⟨ʞ⟩ for the commonpalatal click (this would be called "velar" in later editions of the IPA, following Jones' terminology)

It also introduced several new suprasegmental specifications:^[45]

• ⟨ˎ⟩ for "half-accent"
• ⟨˝⟩ for "reinforced accent"
• Tones could be indicated either before the syllable or on the nuclear vowel: ⟨ˊ◌,◌́⟩ high rising, ⟨ˉ◌,◌̄⟩ high level, ⟨ˋ◌,◌̀⟩ high falling, ⟨ˏ◌,◌̗⟩ low rising, ⟨ˍ◌,◌̠⟩ low level, ⟨ˎ◌,◌̖⟩ low falling, ⟨ˆ◌,◌̂⟩ rise-fall, ⟨ˇ◌,◌̌⟩ fall-rise
• Medium tones, as necessary: ⟨´◌⟩ mid rising, ⟨ˉ◌⟩ mid level, ⟨˴◌⟩ mid falling

It recommended the use of a circumflex for the Swedish grave accent, as in[ˆandən] ("the spirit").^[45] It was mentioned that some authors prefer ⟨˖,˗⟩ in place of ⟨꭫,꭪⟩. Aspiration was marked as ⟨pʻ,tʻ,kʻ⟩ and stronger aspiration as ⟨ph,th,kh⟩.^[46]

The click letters ⟨ʇ,ʖ,ʞ,ʗ⟩ were conceived byDaniel Jones. In 1960,A. C. Gimson wrote to a colleague:

Paul Passy recognized the need for letters for the various clicks in the July–August 1914 number ofLe Maître Phonétique and asked for suggestions. This number, however, was the last for some years because of the war. During this interval, Professor Daniel Jones himself invented the four letters, in consultation with Paul Passy and they were all four printed in the pamphletL'Écriture Phonétique Internationale published in 1921. The letters were thus introduced in a somewhat unusual way, without the explicit consent of the whole Council of the Association. They were, however, generally accepted from then on, and, as you say, were used by ProfessorDoke in 1923. I have consulted Professor Jones in this matter, and he accepts responsibility for their invention, during the period of the First World War.^[47]

⟨ʇ,ʖ,ʗ⟩ would be approved by the Council in 1928.^[40] ⟨ʞ⟩ would be included in all subsequent booklets,^{[48][49][50][51]} but not in the single-page charts. They would be replaced with theLepsius/Bleek letters in the 1989 Kiel revision.

The 1921 book was the first in the series to mention the wordphoneme (phonème).^[46]

In April 1925, 12 linguists led byOtto Jespersen, including IPA SecretaryDaniel Jones, attended a conference in Copenhagen and proposed specifications for a standardized system of phonetic notation.^[52] The proposals were largely dismissed by the members of the IPA Council.^[53] Nonetheless, the following additions recommended by the Conference were approved in 1927:^[54]

• ⟨ˑ⟩ could now indicate full length when there is no need to distinguish half and full length
• Straight ⟨ˈ⟩ for stress instead of the previous slanted ⟨´⟩, and ⟨ˌ⟩ for secondary stress
• ⟨◌̫⟩ (recalling aw) for labialized and ⟨◌̪⟩ (recalling a tooth) for dental
• ⟨ʈ,ɖ,ɳ,ɭ,ɽ,ʂ,ʐ⟩, with the arm moved under the letter, for retroflex consonants
• ⟨ɸ,β⟩ for bilabial fricatives, replacing ⟨ꜰ,ʋ⟩ (⟨ʋ⟩ was repurposed for thelabiodental approximant)
• ⟨◌̣⟩ for more close and ⟨◌̨⟩^[d] for more open

In 1928, the following letters were adopted:^[40]

• ⟨ɬ,ɮ⟩ for lateral fricatives
• ⟨ᵭ⟩, ⟨ᵶ⟩, etc. forvelarization orpharyngealization (by extension from ⟨ɫ⟩)
• ⟨ƫ⟩, ⟨ᶁ⟩, ⟨ᶇ⟩, etc. forpalatalized consonants
• ⟨ɓ⟩, ⟨ɗ⟩, etc. forimplosives

The following letters, which had appeared in earlier editions, were repeated or formalized:^[40]

• ⟨ɕ,ʑ⟩
• ⟨ƪ,ƺ⟩
• ⟨χ⟩
• ⟨ħ,ʕ⟩
• ⟨ɨ,ʉ,ɵ⟩
• ⟨ɤ⟩
• ⟨ᴈ⟩
• ⟨ɒ⟩
• ⟨ɺ⟩
• ⟨ʇ,ʖ,ʗ⟩

Jones (1928) also included ⟨ɱ⟩ for alabiodental nasal, ⟨ɾ⟩ for a dental or alveolar tap, ⟨ʞ⟩ for a palatal ('velar') click, and the tonal notation system seen inAssociation phonétique internationale (1921), p. 9. For the Swedish and Norwegian compound tones he recommended "any arbitrarily chosen mark", with the illustration[˟andən] ("the spirit"). He used ⟨ᴜ⟩ in place of ⟨ʊ⟩.^[55] Apart from ⟨ᴜ⟩ and ⟨ʞ⟩, these new specifications would be inherited in the subsequent charts and booklets. The diacritics for whispered, ⟨◌̦⟩, and for tense and lax, ⟨◌́,◌̀⟩, were no longer mentioned.

An updated chart appeared as a supplement toLe Maître Phonétique in 1932.^[56]

The vowels were now arranged in a right-angled trapezium as opposed to anisosceles trapezium, reflectingDaniel Jones's development of theCardinal Vowel theory. A practically identical chart—with the exception of ⟨ɣ⟩—in German had appeared inJones (1928), p. 23. The substitution of ⟨ɣ⟩ for ⟨ǥ⟩ was approved in 1931.^[20]

The accompanying notes read:

Other Sounds.—Palatalized consonants:ƫ,ᶁ, etc. Velarized or pharyngealized consonants:ɫ,ᵭ,ᵴ, etc. Ejective consonants (plosives [sic] with simultaneous glottal stop):pʼ,tʼ, etc. Implosive voiced consonants:ɓ,ɗ, etc.ř fricative trill.σ,ƍ (labializedθ,ð, ors,z).ƪ,ƺ (labializedʃ,ʒ).ʇ,ʗ,ʖ (clicks, Zuluc, q, x).ɺ (a sound betweenr andl).ʍ (voicelessw).ɪ,ʏ,ʊ (lowered varieties ofi,y,u).ᴈ (a variety ofə).ɵ (a vowel betweenø ando).

Affricates are normally represented by groups of two consonants (ts,tʃ,dʒ, etc.), but, when necessary, ligatures are used (ʦ,ʧ,ʤ, etc.), or the marks ͡    or ͜    (t͡s ort͜s, etc.).c,ɟ may occasionally be used in place oftʃ,dʒ. Aspirated plosives:ph,th, etc.

Length, Stress, Pitch.—ː (full length).ˑ (half length).ˈ (stress, placed at the beginning of the stressed syllable).ˌ (secondary stress).ˉ (high level pitch);ˍ (low level);ˊ (high rising);ˏ (low rising);ˋ (high falling);ˎ (low falling);ˆ (rise-fall);ˇ (fall-rise). SeeÉcriture Phonétique Internationale, p. 9.

Modifiers.—˜ nasality.˳ breath (l̥ = breathedl).ˬ voice (s̬ =z).ʻ slight aspiration followingp,t, etc. ̣ specially close vowel (ẹ = a very closee). ˛ specially open vowel (ę = a rather opene). ̫ labialization (n̫ = labializedn). ̪ dental articulation (t̪ = dentalt).˙ palatalization (ż =ᶎ).˔ tongue slightly raised.˕ tongue slightly lowered.˒ lips more rounded.˓ lips more spread. Central vowelsï (=ɨ),ü (=ʉ),ë (=ə˔),ö (=ɵ),ɛ̈,ɔ̈.ˌ (e.g.n̩) syllabic consonant.˘ consonantal vowel.ʃˢ variety ofʃ resemblings, etc.^[56]

A new chart appeared in 1938, with a few modifications. ⟨ɮ⟩ was replaced by ⟨ꜧ⟩, which was approved earlier in the year with the form⟨⟩ approved as a compromise.^[57] The use of tie bars ⟨◌͡◌,◌͜◌⟩ was allowed forsynchronous articulation in addition to affricates, as in ⟨m͡ŋ⟩ for simultaneous[m] and[ŋ], which was approved in 1937.^[58] In the notes, the reference toAssociation phonétique internationale (1921), p. 9, in regard to tonal notation was removed.^[59]

A new chart appeared in 1947, reflecting minor developments up to the point. They were:^[60]

• ⟨ʔ⟩, for the glottal stop, extends to the baseline as in 1893 but with serifs, replacing the shape similar or identical to a dotless question mark used in previous charts.
• ⟨⟩, the compromise form approved in 1938,^[57] replacing ⟨ꜧ⟩
• ⟨ʆ,ʓ⟩ for palatalized[ʃ,ʒ]
• ⟨ɼ⟩ replacing ⟨ř⟩, approved in 1945^[61]
• ⟨ƞ⟩ for the Japanese syllabic nasal
• ⟨ɧ⟩ for a combination of[x] and[ʃ]
• ⟨ɩ,ɷ⟩ replacing ⟨ɪ,ʊ⟩, approved in 1943 while condoning the use of the latter except in the Association's official publications^[62]
• ⟨ƾ,ƻ⟩ as alternatives for[t͡s,d͡z]
• R-coloured vowels: ⟨eɹ⟩, ⟨aɹ⟩, ⟨ɔɹ⟩, etc., ⟨eʴ⟩, ⟨aʴ⟩, ⟨ɔʴ⟩, etc., or ⟨ᶒ⟩, ⟨ᶏ⟩, ⟨ᶗ⟩, etc.
• R-coloured[ə]: ⟨əɹ⟩, ⟨əʴ⟩, ⟨ɹ⟩, or ⟨ᶕ⟩
• ⟨◌̟,◌˖⟩ and ⟨◌̠,◌˗⟩ (or with serifs, as in ⟨◌I⟩) for advanced and retracted, respectively, officially replacing ⟨◌꭫,◌꭪⟩

The word "plosives" in the description of ejectives and the qualifier "slightly" in the definitions of ⟨˔,˕⟩ were removed.

The 1949Principles of the International Phonetic Association was the last installment in the series until it was superseded by theHandbook of the IPA in 1999.^[63] It introduced some new specifications:^[64]

• Inserting a hyphen between a plosive and a homorganic fricative to denote they are separately pronounced, as in ⟨t-s⟩, ⟨d-z⟩, ⟨t-ʃ⟩
• ⟨eh⟩, ⟨ah⟩, etc. or ⟨e̔⟩, ⟨a̔⟩, etc. for "vowels pronounced with 'breathy voice' (h-coloured vowels)" (aspiration was now typeset as a reversed comma, ⟨Cʽ⟩.)
• ⟨m̆b⟩, ⟨n̆d⟩, etc. "to show that a nasal consonant is very short and that the intimate combination with the following plosive counts as a single sound", in parallel to use for non-syllabic vowels
• ⟨ƞ⟩ could be used for an underspecified nasal vowel or coda
• An "arbitrarily chosen mark" such as ⟨˟⟩ or ⟨ˇ⟩ for a Swedish or Norwegian compound tone, as in[ˇandən] ("the spirit")

None of these specifications were inherited in the subsequent charts. ⟨ˌ⟩ was defined as an indicator of "medium stress".^[65]

⟨ʞ⟩ was defined as a velar click, whereas previously it had been identified as theKhoekhoe click not found in Xhosa (that is, as apalatal click).

In 1948, ⟨ɡ⟩ and⟨⟩ were approved as typographic alternatives, while it was also acknowledged that⟨⟩ may be used for a velar plosive and ⟨ɡ⟩ (or preferably ⟨ꞔ⟩) for an advanced one in narrow transcription of a language where it is preferable to distinguish the two, such as Russian.^[66] The 1949Principles recommended this alternation of the letters but did not mention their typographic equivalency in other languages.^[51] Nevertheless, the recommendation was hardly adopted,^[67] not even byJones & Ward (1969), who used ⟨ɡ⟩ and ⟨ᶃ⟩.^[68]

The 1951 chart added ⟨ɚ⟩ as yet another alternative to an r-coloured[ə],^[69] following its approval in 1950.^[70] Conceived byJohn S. Kenyon, the letter was in itself a combination of ⟨ə⟩ and the hook for retroflex consonants approved by the IPA in 1927. Since its introduction in 1935, the letter was widely adopted by American linguists and the IPA had been asked to recognize it as part of the alphabet.^[71][72]

In 1979, a revised chart appeared, incorporating the developments in the alphabet which were made earlier in the decade:^[73]

THE INTERNATIONAL PHONETIC ALPHABET (Revised to 1979)

Bilabial Labiodental Dental, Alveolar, or Post-alveolar Retroflex Palato- alveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Labial- Palatal Labial- Velar Pharyngeal Glottal CONSONANTS (pulmonic air-stream mechanism) Nasal m ɱ n ɳ ɲ ŋ ɴ Plosive p b t d ʈ ɖ c ɟ k ɡ q ɢ k͡p g͡b ʔ (Median) Fricative ɸ β f v θ ð s z ʂ ʐ ʃ ʒ ç j x ɣ χ ʁ ʍ ħ ʕ h ɦ (Median) Approximant ʋ ɹ ɻ j ɰ ɥ w Lateral Fricative ɬ Lateral (Approximant) l ɭ ʎ Trill r ʀ Tap or Flap ɾ ɽ ʀ (non-pulmonic air-stream) Ejective pʼ tʼ kʼ Implosive ɓ ɗ ɠ (Median) Click ʘ ʇ ʗ Lateral Click ʖ DIACRITICS OTHER SYMBOLS  ̥ Voicelessn̥d̥  ̬ Voiceds̬t̬ ʰ Aspiratedtʰ  ̤ Breathy-voicedb̤ə̤  ̪ Dentalt̪  ̫ Labializedt̫  ̡ Palatalizedƫ  ̴ Velarized or Pharyn- gealizedᵵ,ɫ  ̩ Syllabicn̩l̩  ͡    or ͜    Simultaneouss͜f (but see also under the heading Affricates) ˔ or ̣ Raisede˔,e̝,ẹ  ẉ ˕ or˛ Lowerede˕,e̞,ę;ʁ̨ ˖ Advancedu˖,u̟ ˗ orI Retractedi̠,i˗,  t̠ ¨ Centralizedë  ̃ Nasalizedɑ̃ ʴ,ʵ,ʶ r-colouredɑʴ ː Longɑː ˑ Half-longɑˑ ˘ Non-syllabicŭ ˒ More roundedɔ˒ ˓ Less roundedy˓ ɕ,ʑ Alveolo-palatal fricatives ʆ,ʓ Palatalizedʃ,ʒ ɼ Alveolar fricative trill ɺ Alveolar lateral flap ɧ Simultaneousʃ andx ʃˢ Variety ofʃ resemblings, etc. ɪ =ɩ ʊ =ɷ ɜ[74] = Variety ofə ɚ = r-colouredə FrontBack iɨɯ  ɩ    eɤ  ə  ɛʌ æɐ  aɑ Unrounded VOWELS Close   Half-close   Half-open   Open FrontBack yʉu  ʏ ɷ  øo  ɵ  œɔ   ɶɒ Rounded STRESS, TONE (PITCH) ˈ stress, placed at begin- ning of stressed syllable: ˌ secondary stress:ˉ high level pitch, high tone: ˍ low level:ˊ high rising: ˏ low rising:ˋ high falling: ˎ low falling:ˆ rise-fall: ˇ fall-rise. AFFRICATES can be written as digraphs, as ligatures, or with slur marks; thusts,tʃ,dʒ: ʦʧʤ:t͡st͡ʃd͡ʒ. c,ɟ may occasionally be used fortʃ,dʒ.

⟨ɻ⟩ for aretroflex approximant was approved in 1973. On the same occasion, ⟨š⟩, ⟨ž⟩, ⟨č⟩, and ⟨ǰ⟩ or ⟨ǧ⟩ as alternatives for[ʃ,ʒ,tʃ,dʒ] were proposed but the votes were inconclusive. Diacritics ⟨◌̢⟩ (subscript, not attached) for retroflexion, ⟨◌̮⟩ for palatalization, and ⟨◌̯⟩ for indicating non-fricative continuant were proposed but rejected.^[75]

The following changes were approved in 1976:^[76]

• ⟨ɶ⟩ for the rounded equivalent of[a] (taken from the accompanying text toDaniel Jones's 1956 recording of the SecondaryCardinal Vowels)^[42][77]
• ⟨◌̈⟩ representing "centralized" rather than "central"
• ⟨ʰ⟩ foraspiration (though this was approved merely as an alternative to ⟨ʻ⟩, neither the latter diacritic nor the baseline letter ⟨h⟩ for aspiration were mentioned in the 1979 chart)
• ⟨◌̚⟩ forabsence of audible release (omitted in the chart)
• ⟨ʘ⟩ for abilabial click
• ⟨◌̤⟩ forbreathy voice
• ⟨ɰ⟩ for avelar approximant
• Application of ⟨◌̣,◌̨⟩ (but not ⟨◌̝◌˔,◌̞◌˕⟩) to consonant letters to denote fricative and approximant, respectively, as in ⟨ɹ̣,ɹ̨⟩

On the same occasion, the following letters and diacritics were removed because they had "fallen into disuse":^[76]

• ⟨◌̇⟩ for palatalization
• ⟨ƾ,ƻ⟩ for[t͡s,d͡z]
• ⟨ƞ⟩ for Japanese moraic nasal
• ⟨σ,ƍ,ƪ,ƺ⟩ for labialized[θ,ð,ʃ,ʒ]
• ⟨◌̢⟩ for r-colouring, as in ⟨ᶒ,ᶏ,ᶗ,ᶕ⟩

On the other hand, ⟨ɘ⟩ for theclose-mid central unrounded vowel, ⟨ɞ⟩ for theopen-mid central rounded vowel, and ⟨ᴀ⟩ for theopen central unrounded vowel were proposed but rejected.^[42][76] The proposal of ⟨ɘ,ɞ⟩ was based onAbercrombie (1967), p. 161.^[78] ⟨ʝ⟩ for thevoiced palatal fricative and ⟨◌̰⟩ forcreaky voice were proposed but the votes were inconclusive.^[76]

In the 1979 chart, ⟨ɩ,ʏ,ɷ⟩, previously defined as "lowered varieties ofi,y,u", appeared slightly centered rather than simply midway between[i,y,u] and[e,ø,o] as they did in the 1912 chart. ⟨ɪ,ʊ⟩, the predecessors to ⟨ɩ,ɷ⟩, were acknowledged as alternatives to ⟨ɩ,ɷ⟩ under the section "Other symbols". ⟨ɵ⟩ appeared as the rounded counterpart to[ə] rather than between[ø] and[o].

The name of the column "Dental and alveolar" was changed to "Dental, alveolar, or post-alveolar". "Pharyngeal", "trill", "tap or flap", and "approximant" replaced "pharyngal", "rolled", "flapped", and "frictionless continuants", respectively. ⟨ɹ,ʁ⟩, which were listed twice in both the fricative and frictionless continuant rows in the previous charts, now appeared as an approximant and a fricative, respectively, while the line between the rows was erased, indicating certain fricative letters may represent approximants and vice versa, with the employment of the raised and lowered diacritics if necessary. ⟨ʍ⟩, previously defined as "voicelessw", was specified as a fricative. ⟨j⟩ remained listed twice in the fricative and approximant rows. ⟨ɺ⟩, previously defined merely as "a sound betweenr andl", was redefined as analveolar lateral flap, in keeping with the use for which it had been originally approved, "a sound betweenl andd".

By the 1980s, phonetic theories had developed so much since the inception of the alphabet that the framework of it had become outdated.^[79][80][81] To resolve this, at the initiative of IPA PresidentPeter Ladefoged, approximately 120 members of the IPA gathered at a convention held inKiel,West Germany, in August 1989, to discuss revisions of both the alphabet and the principles it is founded upon.^[10] It was at this convention that it was decided that theHandbook of the IPA (International Phonetic Association 1999) would be written and published to supersede the 1949Principles.^[82]

In addition to the revisions of the alphabet, two workgroups were set up, one on computer coding of IPA characters and computer representation of individual languages, and the other on pathological speech and voice quality.^[10][83] The former group concluded that each IPA character should be assigned a three-digit number for computer coding known as IPA Number, which was published in the appendices of the 1999Handbook.^[84] The latter devised a set of recommendations for the transcription of disordered speech based on the IPA known as theExtensions to the International Phonetic Alphabet or extIPA, which was published in 1990 and adopted by theInternational Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association, which now maintains it, in 1994.^[85]

A drastically renewed chart of the alphabet reflecting decisions made at the convention appeared later in the year. Additions were:^[86]

• Consonants
  • ⟨ʙ⟩ for avoiced bilabial trill
  • ⟨ʝ⟩ for avoiced palatal fricative, with ⟨j⟩ now standing for only the approximant
  • ⟨ʟ⟩ for avoiced velar lateral approximant (proposed at least as far back as 1926)
  • ⟨ʄ,ʛ⟩ for voiced palatal and uvular implosives
  • ⟨ƥ,ƭ,ƈ,ƙ,ʠ⟩ for voiceless implosives
  • ⟨ʜ,ʢ⟩ for epiglottal fricatives
  • ⟨ʡ⟩ for avoiced epiglottal plosive [sic]
  • ⟨ǀ,ǃ,ǁ,ǂ⟩ for dental, (post)alveolar, alveolar lateral and palatal clicks, replacing ⟨ʇ,ʖ,ʗ⟩ and obsolescent ⟨ʞ⟩ (seeclick letter)^[87]
• Diacritics
  • ⟨◌̰⟩ forcreaky voice
  • ⟨◌̼,◌̺,◌̻⟩ forlinguolabial,apical, andlaminal
  • ⟨◌̹,◌̜⟩ for more and less rounded, now placed under the letter
  • ⟨◌̽⟩ for mid-centralized
  • ⟨◌̘,◌̙⟩ foradvanced and retracted tongue root
  • ⟨◌ ˞⟩ forrhoticity
  • ⟨◌ʷ⟩ forlabialization, replacing ⟨◌̫⟩
  • ⟨◌ʲ⟩ forpalatalization, replacing ⟨◌̡⟩
  • ⟨◌ˠ,◌ˤ⟩ forvelarization andpharyngealization, augmenting ⟨◌̴⟩
  • ⟨◌ⁿ,◌ˡ⟩ fornasal andlateral release
  • ⟨◌̯⟩ fornon-syllabic, replacing ⟨◌̆⟩, which now stood for extra-short
• Suprasegmentals
  • ⟨◌̆⟩, which had previously stood for non-syllabic, forextra-short
  • ⟨.⟩ for a syllable break
  • ⟨|,‖⟩ for minor (foot) and major (intonation) groups
  • ⟨‿⟩ for linking (absence of a break)
  • ⟨↗,↘⟩ for global rise and fall of pitch
  • ⟨ꜜ,ꜛ⟩ fordownstep andupstep

Tone, which had been indicated with an iconic line preceding the syllable or above or below the vowel, was now written one of two ways: with a similar iconic line following the syllable and anchored to a vertical bar, as in ⟨˥,˦,˧˩˨⟩ (Chao'stone letters), or with more abstract diacritics written over the vowel (acute = high, macron = mid, grave = low), which could be compounded with each other, as in ⟨ə᷄,ə᷆,ə᷈,ə̋,ə̏⟩.

The palato-alveolar column was removed and ⟨ʃ,ʒ⟩ were listed alongside the postalveolars. ⟨ɹ⟩ appeared at the same horizontal position as the other alveolars rather than slightly more back as did in the previous charts. ⟨ʀ⟩ was specified as a trill rather than either a trill or flap. The alternative raised and lowered diacritics ⟨◌̣,◌̨⟩ were eliminated in favour of ⟨◌̝,◌̞⟩, which could now be attached to consonants to denote fricative or approximant, as in ⟨ɹ̝,β̞⟩. Diacritics for relative articulation placed next to, rather than below, a letter, namely ⟨◌˖,◌˗(◌I),◌˔,◌˕⟩, were no longer mentioned. The diacritic for no audible release ⟨◌̚⟩ was finally mentioned in the chart.

⟨ɩ,ɷ⟩ were eliminated in favour of ⟨ɪ,ʊ⟩. The letter for theclose-mid back unrounded vowel was modified from⟨⟩ ("baby gamma"), with a flat top, to⟨⟩ ("ram's horns"), with a rounded top, to better distinguish it from ⟨ɣ⟩, which represents avoiced velar fricative. ⟨ɮ⟩ was revived in place of⟨⟩. ⟨ɚ⟩ was no longer mentioned, and instead a right-hook diacritic ⟨˞⟩ was added for rhoticity; the superscript rhotic diacritics were retired.

⟨ʆ,ʓ⟩ for palatalized[ʃ,ʒ] and ⟨ɼ⟩ for thealveolar fricative trill were withdrawn (now written ⟨ʃʲ,ʒʲ⟩ and ⟨r̝⟩). The affricate ligatures were withdrawn. The tie bar below letters for affricates and doubly articulated consonants, as in ⟨t͜s⟩, was no longer mentioned. The practice of placing a superscript letter to indicate the resemblance to a sound, previously illustrated by ⟨ʃˢ⟩, was no longer explicitly recommended.

At the convention, proposals such as⟨⟩ for a voiced labial–velar fricative,⟨⟩ for avoiceless velar lateral fricative, ⟨ɮ⟩ for avoiced velar lateral fricative,⟨⟩ for avoiceless palatal lateral fricative, ⟨ŝ,ẑ⟩ for "the 'hissing-hussing' fricatives of some Caucasian languages", and ⟨ᴀ⟩ for anopen central unrounded vowel were discussed but dismissed.^[88]

The six principles set out in 1888 were replaced by a much longer text consisting of seven paragraphs.^[10] The first two paragraphs established the alphabet's purpose, namely to be "a set of symbols for representing all the possible sounds of the world's languages" and "representing fine distinctions of sound quality, making the IPA well suited for use in all disciplines in which the representation of speech sounds is required".^[89] The second paragraph also said: "[p] is a shorthand way of designating the intersection of the categories voiceless, bilabial, and plosive;[m] is the intersection of the categories voiced, bilabial, and nasal; and so on",^[90] refining the previous, less clearly defined principle #2 with the application of thedistinctive feature theory.^[91] Discouragement of diacritics was relaxed, though recommending their use be limited: "(i) For denoting length, stress and pitch. (ii) For representing minute shades of sounds. (iii) When the introduction of a single diacritic obviates the necessity for designing a number of new symbols (as, for instance, in the representation of nasalized vowels)".^[90] The principles also adopted the recommendation of enclosing phonetic transcriptions in square brackets [ ] and phonemic ones in slashes / /,^[90] a practice that had emerged in the 1940s.^[92] The principles were reprinted in the 1999Handbook.^[93]

Following the 1989 revision, a number of proposals for revisions appeared in theJournal of the IPA, which were submitted to the Council of the IPA. In 1993, the Council approved the following changes:^[94]

• ⟨ƥ,ƭ,ƈ,ƙ,ʠ⟩ for the voiceless implosives were withdrawn.
• The non-pulmonic consonants (ejectives and implosives) were removed from the main table and set up with the clicks in a separate section, with ⟨ʼ⟩ acknowledged as an independent modifier for ejective (therefore allowing combinations absent in the chart).
• It was noted that subdiacritics may be moved above a letter to avoid interference with a descender.
• The central vowels of the 1921 chart were restored, bringing the total back to five: schwa plus open-mid ⟨ɜ⟩ and ⟨ʚ⟩, and close-mid ⟨ɘ⟩ and ⟨ɵ⟩.
• The right half of the cell for pharyngeal plosives was shaded, indicating the impossibility of a voiced pharyngeal plosive.

On the same occasion, it was reaffirmed that ⟨ɡ⟩ and⟨⟩ are typographic alternatives.^[94]

The revised chart was now portrait-oriented. ⟨ə⟩ and ⟨ɐ⟩ were moved to the centerline of the vowel chart, indicating that they are not necessarily unrounded. The word "voiced" was removed from the definition for ⟨ʡ⟩, now simply "epiglottal plosive". "Other symbols" and diacritics were slightly rearranged. The outer stroke of the letter for a bilabial click ⟨ʘ⟩ was modified from a circle with a uniform line width to the shape of uppercase O.^[95]

In 1996, it was announced that the form of theopen-mid central rounded vowel in the 1993 chart, ⟨ʚ⟩, was a typographical error and should be changed to ⟨ɞ⟩, stating the latter was the form that "J. C. Catford had in mind when he proposed the central vowel changes ... in 1990", also citingAbercrombie (1967) andCatford (1977),^[96] who had ⟨ɞ⟩.^[97][98] However, the letter Catford had proposed for the value in 1990 was in fact ⟨ꞓ⟩ (a barred ⟨ɔ⟩), with an alternative being ⟨ɞ⟩.^[99] Errata forCatford (1990) appeared in 1992, but the printed form was again ⟨ʚ⟩ and the errata even acknowledged that ⟨ʚ⟩ was included inAssociation phonétique internationale (1921), pp. 6–7, as pointed out byDavid Abercrombie.^[100]

In the updated chart, which was published in the front matter of the 1999Handbook of the IPA, the subsections were rearranged so that the left edge of the vowel chart appeared right beneath the palatal column, hinting at the palatal place of articulation for[i,y], as did in all pre-1989 charts, though the space did not allow the back vowels to appear beneath the velars.^[101] A tie bar placed below letters, as in ⟨t͜s⟩, was mentioned again. ⟨˞⟩ was now attached to the preceding letter, as in ⟨ə˞⟩. A few illustrations in the chart were changed: ⟨a˞⟩ was added for rhoticity, and ⟨i̠,ɹ̩⟩ were replaced with ⟨e̠,n̩⟩. The examples of "high rising" and "low rising" tone contours were changed from ⟨˦˥⟩ (4–5) and ⟨˩˨⟩ (1–2) to ⟨˧˥⟩ (3–5) and ⟨˩˧⟩ (1–3), respectively. The word "etc." was dropped from the list of contours, though the 1999Handbook would continue to use contours that did not appear on the chart.^[102]

The 1999Handbook of the International Phonetic Association was the first book outlining the specifications of the alphabet in 50 years, superseding the 1949Principles of the IPA. It consisted of just over 200 pages, four times as long as thePrinciples. In addition to what was seen in the 1996 chart,^[102] the book included ⟨ᵊ⟩ for mid central vowel release, ⟨ᶿ⟩ for voiceless dental fricative release, and ⟨ˣ⟩ for voiceless velar fricative release as part of the official IPA in the "Computer coding of IPA symbols" section.^[103] The section also included ⟨ᶑ ⟩ for avoiced retroflex implosive, noting it was "not explicitly IPA approved".^[104] The book also said ⟨ᶹ⟩ "might be used" for "a secondary reduction of the lip opening accompanied by neither protrusion nor velar constriction".^[105] It abandoned the 1949Principles' recommendation of alternating⟨⟩ and ⟨ɡ⟩ for ordinary and advanced velar plosives, and acknowledged both shapes as acceptable variants.^[106]

In 2005, ⟨ⱱ⟩ was added for thelabiodental flap.^[107]

In 2011, it was proposed that ⟨ᴀ⟩ be added to represent theopen central unrounded vowel, but this was declined by the Council the following year.^[108]

In 2012, the IPA chart and its subparts were released under theCreative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.^[109]

In 2016, three versions of a revised chart dated 2015 were released online, each with the characters rendered in a different typeface (IPA Kiel/LS Uni developed by Linguist's Software,Doulos SIL, andDejaVu Sans).^[110][111] No character was added or withdrawn, but some notes and the shapes of a few were slightly modified. In particular, ⟨ə˞⟩ was replaced by ⟨ɚ⟩, with a continuous, slanted stroke, and the example of a "rising–falling" tone contour was changed from ⟨˦˥˦⟩ (4–5–4) to ⟨˧˦˧⟩ (3–4–3).^[111]

In 2018, another slightly modified chart in different fonts was released, this time also inTeX TIPA Roman developed by Rei Fukui, which was selected as best representing the IPA symbol set by the Association's Alphabet, Charts and Fonts committee, established the previous year.^{[112][113][114]} The example of a "rising–falling" tone contour was again changed from ⟨˧˦˧⟩ (3–4–3) to ⟨˧˦˨⟩ (3–4–2).^[112]

In 2020, another set of charts was released, with the only changes being minor adjustments in the layout, and Creative Commons icons replacing thecopyright sign.^[115]

In 2020 and 2024, the IPA made formal requests to Unicode for support of a number of as-yet unencoded symbols. These were:^[116][117]

• ligatures for all IPA coronal affricates, including historical tʆ and dʓ and extIPA tꞎ and d𝼅.
• superscript alternatives to all subscript IPA and extIPA diacritics. (Unicode already supported subscript variants of all superscript IPA diacritics.)
• the double caron tone mark.
• barredw andɥ as central semivowels.
• superscript variants of all consonant letters, vowel letters and length marks, excluding rhotic vowel letters but including the 'implied' retroflex letters ⟨ᶑ 𝼈 𝼉 𝼊⟩, plus all extIPA fricatives and a number of historical and para-IPA letters, namely the pre-Kiel click letters ⟨ʇ ʗ ʖ ʞ⟩ and para-IPA ⟨𝼋 ψ⟩; the voiceless implosive letters ⟨ƥ ƭ 𝼉 ƈ ƙ ʠ ⟩; the Sinological extensions to the IPA ⟨ȶ ȡ ȵ ȴ ᴀ ᴇ ω ɿ ʅ ʮ ʯ ⟩; the common palatal-hook letters ⟨ᶁ ᶇ ᶊ ᶎ⟩; the historical and unofficial letters ⟨ᴅ ȸ ȹ 𝼙 ɉ ƞ ɼ ʆ ᶘ 𝼜 ᵿ ᶚ ʓ⟩; as well as of the tʆ and dʓ ligatures and of barredw andɥ mentioned above.

TheExtensions to the International Phonetic Alphabet were devised at the 1989Kiel Convention and later augmented by theInternational Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association.^[118] It originally included the core of what would later be split off as theVoice Quality Symbols.

The initial extensions to the IPA that emerged from the Kiel Convention were as follows.^[119]The account was presented as a list of symbols with some brief explanations. The following are the letters and the examples given for the diacritics; the diacritics were also shown in isolation as in the charts later. The explanations are not repeated here; details can be found atextIPA or in the relevant phonetic articles.

other segmental features

symbols and diacritics

place of articulation and/or co-occurring articulatory features

• labiodental plosives and nasal –[p̪][b̪][m̪]^[120]
• dentolabial plosives and nasal –[p͆][b͆][m͆]
• labial spreading –[s͍][t͍]
• interdental articulation –[t̪͆][θ̪͆][l̪͆]
• bidental articulation –[h̪͆][u̪͆]
• bidental percussive –[ʭ]

manner of articulation

• denasal –[m͊][n͊]
• nasal escape –[p͋][f͋]
• [h͜m][h͜n]: nareal fricatives
• [ʩ]: velopharyngeal fricative
• velopharyngeal friction accompanying another sound –[p͌][s͌]
• stronger and weaker articulation –[f͈][m͉]
• reiterated articulation –[p\p\p]
• [ʪ][ʫ]: lateralized[s] and[z]
• whistled articulation –[s͎]

airstream

• [↓]: ingressive airflow for a segment which is normally egressive –[p↓];also, inhalation
• [↑]: egressive airflow for a segment which is normally ingressive –[ǃ↑];also, exhalation
• silent articulation or 'mouthing' –(ʃ)

vocal fold activity

• pre- and post-voicing of segments –[ˬb][zˬ]
• partial devoicing of a normally voiced segment –[z̥᪽]
• initial/final partial devoicing –[ḁ᫃][m̥᫄]
• partial voicing of a normally unvoiced segment –[f̬᪽]
• initial/final partial voicing –[h̬᫃][s̬᫄]
• pre-aspiration –[ʰp]

degrees of indeterminacy

'This is intended for those cases where, for reasons of severe distortion (e.g. due to pathological condition), the phonetic specification of an utterance cannot be made with a reasonable degree of accuracy.'

• ( ̲̅ ̲̅): a segment is perceived but no features can be identified

  ○: the circle or balloon is the cursive form

  (on p. 37 this is called a 'balloon' and shown as an oval.)

• (C̲̅) or(V̲̅): segments perceived to be consonantal or vocalic but no additional features can be identified with certainty.

Identified features may be included, and separated by commas for clarity. The examples given are(S̲̅) [stop],(P̲̅a̲̅l̲̅) [palatal],(F̲̅,̲̅ ̲̅B̲̅i̲̅l̲̅) [a bilabial fricative, illustrating two features],(S̬̲̅) [a voiced stop, illustrating the use of a diacritic]. IPA symbols may be used when the transcriber is 'not quite sure', such as(t̲̅) for what is thought to be[t]. This is amanual typewriter hack, intended to 'imitate the use of hand-drawn circles or ovals around the relevant terms in a hand-written transcription.' It was inherited from PRDS ('phonetic representation of disordered speech') symbols developed since 1980.^[121]

• double parentheses around one or more segments indicate that sounds were obscured by extraneous noise – ((2 sylls))

  'An attempt may be made at an orthographic or segmental transcription, or the space may be left blank.'

• *: the asterisk is used to make reference to segments for which no symbol is provided –[hihæ*] 'he has'

  'There should be a note describing the way in which the segment indicated by the asterisk was produced.'

voice quality

Provision is made for indicating that a feature applies to a longer span of transcription than the single letter that a diacritic normally modifies. Such expanded scope is abstracted from standard IPA convention by means of labelled curly braces. 'Voice quality' here describes any such feature that is characteristic of the speaker's voice in that moment, not tovoiced phonation. The examples are,

• [{V̤xxxV̤}] for part of an utterance produced with breathy voice on all susceptible segmentsxxx.

All IPA diacritics may be used in this fashion. Besides IPA-based[{V̤xxxV̤}] for breathy voice and[{V̰xxxV̰}] for creak, extIPA provided at this time[{ṾxxxṾ}] (whisper),[{V‼xxxV‼}] (ventricular/harsh), and[{FxxxF}] (falsetto).

• [{VʷxxxVʷ}] for part of an utterance produced with labialized articulatory setting on all susceptible segmentsxxx.

Other IPA letters may be superscripted for this purpose; specifically,[ᵛ] is provided to indicate labiodentalized speech.

other features of connected speech

• [(.)],[(..)],[(...)] for short, medium and long pauses.
• the musical abbreviations[{_fxxx_f}],[{_ffxxx_ff}],[{_pxxx_p}],[{_allegroxxx_allegro}],[{_lentoxxx_lento}].

These are explained in the charts below.

The first publication by the ICPLA was in 1990. It summarized the relationship between the new extIPA and the prior PRDS recommendations. A few points and examples were made beyond what was presented in the Kiel report:^[122]

[{V↓xxxV↓}] and[{(V)xxx(V)}] can be used for a stretch of speech with an ingressive or zero/silent airstream.[{V̪xxxV̪}] is given as an additional example of marking a speaker's voice quality, in this case for an dental articulation of all susceptible segmentsxxx.

Normal partial voicing or devoicing should be transcribed with a simple wedge or ring diacritic; surrounding them with single and double parentheses suggests that the voicing or devoicing is atypical for the language.

There is clarification that the 'parentheses linked by a superscript and a subscript line',( ̲̅ ̲̅), are an optional typescript rendition of the handwritten balloon. This convention (in either format) can be extended to longer sequences, though typically the focus is on a single segment.

[t(.)weɫv̥] for[tʷw̥eɫv̥] is provided as an example of a lack of co-articulation between adjacent segments.

An ICPLA symposium in 1994 approved a few changes, such as withdrawing their suggestion for ⟨m̪⟩ as in conflict with traditional IPA (a proposal to retire ⟨ɱ⟩ at Kiel had failed), and replacing sequences such as ⟨h͜n⟩ with the synonymous diacritic: ⟨n͋⟩. The basic extIPA was now presented on a chart, paralleling the standard IPA chart:^[123]

A 1997 revision was published in the 1999 IPAHandbook.^[124] Though theVoice Quality Symbols are included, in ICPLA material they had been split off as their own project in 1995.

Chart

The only changes to the chart were to the 'other' table, where the letter ⟨¡⟩ was added. This was defined as:

Other changes to the 'other' table were minor: '(m)' was added as an example of silent articulation; the note '(to be described elsewhere)' on the asterisk was dropped and the indeterminate vowel and plosive cells were merged to make room for ⟨¡⟩.

List of symbols

In the accompanying list of symbols, the balloon for 'unidentified segment(s)' is formatted as ❍.

Additional capital letters for VoQS are provided, besides V 'voice' and F 'falsetto': W 'whisper', C 'creak', L 'lanynx', J 'jaw', Œ 'oesophageal speech', Θ 'protruded tongue voice', as well as the digits 1 2 3 for slight, moderate and extreme degree.

Labiodentalized was changed from[◌ᵛ] to its current form[◌ᶹ].

Some of the labels differed between the chart and the list, namely 'bidental articulation' for interdental/bidental, 'stronger' and 'weaker' articulation, 'alveolarized', and 'slurred articulation' for what the chart labeled sliding articulation.

New diacritics from the Voice Quality Symbols are:

[◌ʶ]: uvularized

[◌ꟸ]: faucalized

[◌ꟹ]: labialized: open-rounded (as opposed to close-rounded◌ʷ)

[◌!]: harsh

[◌˭]: unaspirated

[◌͔]: laterally offset to the right

[◌͕]: laterally offset to the left

[◌˷]: creaky

An underdot diacritic for 'whispery' is listed as existing IPA, which it never was; it may have been intended to cover the voice-quality symbol{Ṿ}.

The phonemic and phonetic delimiters /.../ and [...] are specified.

In 2004 the obsolete IPA letter ⟨ʞ⟩ had been adopted for avelodorsal consonant. It was added to the 'other' table of the 2008 chart.

(C̲̅) and (N̲̅) were added for an indeterminate consonant and nasal, and the simple plosive was dropped. The examples for indeterminate sounds were consolidated into two cells to make room for the ⟨ʞ⟩.

In the consonant table, the row of 'central' fricatives was renamed to its current wording of 'median' fricatives.^[2]

The 2015 chart was the greatest expansion of the extIPA since its creation. It was approved by the ICPLA at a conference June 2016. There was no longer an accompanying list of symbols; changes to the chart were as follows:^[2]

Consonant table

The consonant table was expanded to accommodate the lateral fricatives[ꞎ][𝼆][𝼄], which letters had been in unofficial use, plus a letter for voiced[𝼅] as the voicing diacritic didn't fit well onꞎ. Adding these letters required the addition of one row for lateral fricatives and two columns for retroflex and palatal places of articulation.

Also added, per community request, were letters for upper pharyngeal plosives, where the root of the tongue contacts the rear wall pharynx without epiglottal involvement. ⟨ꞯ,𝼂⟩ were chosen.

A velopharyngeal trill[𝼀] was distinguished – a velopharyngeal fricative is often accompanied by uvular trilling, and the trilled and plain fricative variants had not been formally distinguished, with a diacritic such as ⟨ʩ𐞪⟩ being the previous option.

The table was further filled out by adding a voicing distinction with diacritics to existing letters.

The arrangement and labels were also changed: the bidental column was moved to the left of the coronal places, including interdental, between that and dentolabial. Thenareal fricative row was renamednasal fricative per common usage.

Diacritic table

In the diacritic table, the up arrow was removed, as egressive marking was rarely needed, though it might still be useful for marking exhalation in the transcription of conversation.

The four diacritics that were also illustrated in the consonant table were removed from the diacritic table. These were dentolabial, interdental, alveolar and linguolabial. Because this arrangement no longer made it clear that the◌͇ diacritic simply marked a consonant as alveolar and was not specific to labio-alveolars, the nonsibilant alveolar slit fricatives[θ͇],[ð͇] were added to the alveolar column of the consonant table. It may still be used to disambiguate other alveolar consonants such as[t͇].

The diacritics for an articulatory gesture offset to one side were adopted from the VoQS. They had been included in extIPA before VoQS was split off. The accompanying article clarifies that, by convention, the offset is from the perspective of the transcriber.

The combining parentheses for partial-degree were illustrated on the denasal diacritic to illustrate that they were not restricted to degrees of voicing but could in principle be used with any diacritic. (There is a long extra-IPA history of their use – seeTeuthonista.)

Connected-speech and uncertainty table

The table on connected speech absorbed the conventions for marking indeterminacy, silent articulation and extraneous noise and was relabeled 'connected speech, uncertainty etc.'; the cells with notation for pauses and musical terms were consolidated to make room. The illustrations of indeterminate symbols marked by makeshift balloons were cleaned up, with circled Unicode characters replacing the former typewriter hack. These were○,Ⓒ,Ⓥ,Ⓕ for an indeterminate sound, consonant, vowel and fricative, andⓟ for 'probably[p].'

'Other' table

The 'other' table was now restricted to symbols for specific sounds, which increased in number: only 4 of the 12 cells carried over from the 2008 chart.

The first new symbols covered a requested distinction between 'apical' and 'bunched' or 'molar' English/r/ for close articulatory description. These articulations are acoustically indistinguishable, so no IPA provision had been made for them; the ICPLA chose apical ⟨ɹ̺⟩ vs centralized ⟨ɹ̈⟩.

For the common articulation of sibilants in speech pathology, with the tongue-tip tucked down behind the lower teeth or gums, it was decided to use the existing diacritic for laminal articulation without overtly marking the lower-dental or -alveolar location.

Next were several examples of superscript letters used to indicate a lateral or lateral-and-median fricative release of plosives, followed by bidental aspiration and the standard-IPA transcription oflinguolabial affricates, which are unattested in non-disordered speech.

The ICPLA discovered that the velodorsal symbol ⟨ʞ⟩, introduced in 2008 when it was thought to be obsolete in IPA, was in fact still being used informally as aback-released velar click. To avoid the possibility of confusion the extIPA symbol was changed to reversed ⟨𝼃⟩, and the opportunity was taken to add analogous letters for voiced[𝼁] and nasal[𝼇].

The explanation of[¡] was corrected from 'click' to 'percussive' and 'percussive release'.

By popular request, a convention was provided to transcribeblowing a raspberry. This combined the VoQS symbol for abuccal airstream,[ↀ], with an interdental trill[r̪͆]. The accompanying article suggests that this could be abbreviated to just ⟨ↀ⟩ if it is used often.

The 2021 chart was motivated primarily to release copyright, which was changed from© to🅭,🅯,🄎.

Several minor improvements were made:

[u͍] was added as an example of labial spreading.

The list of phonetic wildcards was greatly expanded, with conventional letters given for mostmanners of articulation,^[125]σ for 'syllable', and a wildcard illustrated with a diacritic: Ṽ for an indeterminatenasal vowel. The 'probably X' example was changed from[p] in a circle to[n̥ã] in an open oval.

[◌˷] (post-creak) from the 1997 list was added to the chart as an example of the timing of a feature other thanvoiced andunvoiced.

[◌ʰʰ],[◌ʰ𐞁], the latter recently added to Unicode after a request by the IPA, were illustrated for long aspiration

[(1.3)] was added for a 1.3-second pause.

Abbreviations were suggested for the musical termscresc(endo) andrall(entando).

⟨ɹ̺⟩apical-r and ⟨ɹ̈⟩bunched-r were combined to provide space for[tᶿkˣ] to illustrate[t,k] with median fricated release,[d𐞞] was added as an example of lateral fricated release, and[d̼͡ð̼] was added as the voiced equivalent of[t̼͡θ̼].

The 2024 revision, with a new chart published in 2025, was largely motivated by the replacement and clarification of three potentially ambiguous diacritics:^[126]

• The diacritic for fricative nasal escape was changed from ⟨◌͋⟩ to ⟨◌̾⟩ because the former diacritic could be confused for denasal ⟨◌͊⟩ in poor copy or small type sizes.
• The diacritic for velopharyngeal friction was changed from ⟨◌͌⟩ to ⟨◌𐞐⟩ because a double tilde had been iconically used in standard IPA to indicate intense nasalization without velopharyngeal friction.
• The denasal diacritic was clarified as beingpartially denasal: a fully denasal[m], for example, would simply be written[b].[m͊] is specifically a sound between[m] and[b]. Because of this, the illustration of the combining parentheses was removed as potentially confusing.

A couple of minor reversions were also made: The musical termscrescendo andrallentando were again spelled out in full, and the illustration of ⟨tᶿkˣ⟩ for[t,k] with median fricated release was removed in favor of using that space to restore ⟨ɹ̺⟩ and ⟨ɹ̈⟩ to separate cells.

Typographically, the wildcard for an obstruent was changed from the currency symbol₵ to the proper Latin letterȻ.

The balloon around the example syllable[n̥ã] was closed at top and bottom; this is closer to how the extIPA appears in manuscript but interferes with data storage, as it requires characters for the top and bottom lines to interrupt the transcription. Note that Unicode has refused to provide dedicated support for this uncertainty oval that would not interfere with data storage, as they consider it to be an editorial mark and as such outside the scope of Unicode.^[127]

The history of theVoice Quality Symbols after its split from extIPA is covered in detail in twoJIPA articles, one in 1995^[128] and one in 2018.^[129]

Consonants

Value	1900	1904	1912	1921	1932	1938	1947	1979	1989	1993
Glottal stop	ʔ	ʔ[27]		ʔ
Voiceless bilabial fricative	ꜰ				ɸ
Voiced bilabial fricative	ʋ				β
Voiced velar fricative					ɣ
Voiceless uvular fricative	ᴚ			χ
Voiceless pharyngeal fricative (or Arabicح)	ʜ			ħ
Voiced pharyngeal fricative (or Arabicع)	ꞯ			ʕ
Voiceless labial–velar fricative	ʍ			ƕ	ʍ
Voiced alveolar lateral fricative	—				ɮ	ꜧ			ɮ
Voiced alveolar fricative trill	—		ř				ɼ		—
Retroflex consonants	ṭ,ḍ,etc.			𝼪,𝼥,etc.	ʈ,ɖ,ɳ,ɽ,ʂ,ʐ,ɭ			ʈ,ɖ,ɳ,ɽ,ʂ,ʐ,ɻ,ɭ
Bilabial click	—							⊙		ʘ
Dental click	—			ʇ					ǀ [short]	ǀ [long]
Alveolar click	—			ʗ					ǃ
Alveolar lateral click	—			ʖ					ǁ [short]	ǁ [long]
Palatal click	—			ʞ				—	ǂ [short]	ǂ [long]

Vowels

Value	1900	1904	1912	1921	1932	1947	1979	1989	1993	1996
Close-mid back unrounded vowel	ᴀ
Close central unrounded vowel	ï			ɨ	ï,ɨ		ɨ
Close central rounded vowel	ü			ʉ	ü,ʉ		ʉ
Close-mid central unrounded vowel	ë			ɘ	ë,ə̝[e]		—		ɘ
Close-mid central rounded vowel	ö			ɵ	ö,ɵ		—		ɵ
Open-mid central unrounded vowel	ä		ɛ̈	ɜ	ɛ̈		—		ɜ
Open-mid central rounded vowel	ɔ̈			ʚ	ɔ̈		—		ʚ	ɞ
Near-close (near-)front unrounded vowel	ɪ[c]					ɩ	ɩ,ɪ	ɪ
Near-close (near-)back rounded vowel	ᴜ	ʊ		ᴜ	ʊ	ɷ	ɷ,ʊ	ʊ

• Obsolete and nonstandard symbols in the International Phonetic Alphabet
• Americanist phonetic notation