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Help:IPA key
This page is a key for International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) symbols.
The symbols often used for the phonemes of both General American (GA, the "standard" accent in the US) and Received Pronunciation (RP, here defined as the "standard" accent in southern England) are shown here for reference. On the wiki, General American is typically used.
Note that the IPA symbols used are based on convention and do not necessarily represent exact phonetic quality.
A tilde (~) indicates variance depending on speaker.
Consonants
| Example | IPA |
|---|---|
| but | b |
| cat | k |
| chin | tʃ |
| dog | d |
| fish | f |
| goat | ɡ |
| horse | h |
| just | dʒ |
| like | l |
| make | m |
| night | n |
| thing | ŋ |
| part | p |
| rat | ɹ |
| sing | s |
| ship | ʃ |
| tag | t |
| thin | θ |
| the | ð |
| viking | v |
| wait | w |
| yes | j |
| zebra | z |
There are some differences between GA and RP in the treatment of historical /j/ after certain consonants in some contexts.
| Example | GA | RP |
|---|---|---|
| dew | d | dʒ~dj |
| new | n | nj |
| assume | s | sj~ʃ |
| tune | t | tʃ~tj |
| enthused | θ | θj |
| presume | z | zj~ʒ |
Vowels
All but one of the examples in the first table are taken from John C. Wells's lexical sets (1982). "(ɹ)" is used to simplify these tables; it indicates that the sound is present when before a vowel in RP, but absent otherwise.
| Example | GA | RP |
|---|---|---|
| kit | ɪ | ɪ |
| dress | ɛ | e |
| trap | æ | æ |
| lot | ɑ | ɒ |
| strut | ʌ | ʌ |
| foot | ʊ | ʊ |
| bath | æ | ɑː |
| cloth | ɔ~ɑ | ɒ |
| fleece | i | iː |
| face | eɪ | eɪ |
| palm | ɑ | ɑː(ɹ) |
| start | ɑɹ | |
| thought | ɔ~ɑ | ɔː(ɹ) |
| north | ɔɹ | |
| goat | oʊ | əʊ |
| goose | u | uː |
| price | aɪ | aɪ |
| choice | ɔɪ | ɔɪ |
| mouth | aʊ | aʊ |
| happy | i | i[a] |
| comma | ə | ə(ɹ) |
| letter | ɚ | |
| horses | ɪ~ə | ɪ |
| nurse | ɝ | ɜː(ɹ) |
| near | ɪɹ | ɪə(ɹ) |
| square | ɛɹ | eə(ɹ) |
| cure | ʊɹ | ʊə(ɹ) |
- ↑/i/ is used for the ending vowel of happy in British phonetic transcriptions as a compromise between older and modern pronunciations, and it is not actually a distinct sound; in the 21st century, it is usually the same phoneme as the /iː/ in fleece, but in some older speakers it may be pronounced like the /ɪ/ in kit.
The following table is for vowels that merge before intervocalic R in GA.
| Example | GA | RP |
|---|---|---|
| furry | ɝ | əːɹ |
| hurry | ʌɹ | |
| clearer | ɪɹ | ɪəɹ |
| mirror | ɪɹ | |
| Mary | ɛɹ | eəɹ |
| marry | æɹ | |
| merry | eɹ | |
| starry | ɑɹ | ɑːɹ |
| borrow | ɒɹ | |
| horrid | ɔɹ | |
| boring | ɔːɹ |
Other characters
| Character | Explanation |
|---|---|
| ˈ | Before a syllable, this indicates primary stress. |
| ˌ | Before a syllable, this indicates secondary stress. |
| . | This marks a break between syllables. It is optional. |
| ː | After a vowel sound, this indicates that the sound is pronounced longer. |
